I did my first event at Temple Emanuel today and what a wonderful time I had! Every single person I met was friendly – always ready with a smile and encouraging words of support and/or… More
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Have a Happy Holiday
A Wonderful Holiday Season
Thanks to the wonderfully supportive community here in Greensboro, I have had a good sales season this holiday season, my first as an entrepreneur. Although I first started my archival store of stationery, T-shirts, and other collectibles in August 2017, none of my products were handmade by me. I enjoyed that experience but knew I needed to recharge and re-channel my own creative energies
Since moving to GSO, I have had 5 sales events and each one of them has been terrific! The best part of these events has been the people I have gotten to meet. This community, this city that I have now embraced, has some of the nicest, kindest, and friendliest people. They are also incredibly supportive of local artists and encouraging of our efforts. I have gotten compliments galore on my work and I am happy to say, sales to match those compliments too.
In December, I did 2 events, one at our local farmers’ market, and another at NC Soul Space‘s Pop Up event. I truly liked the events, each one for its own sake. Here are some pics from the two events.
Greensboro Curb Farmers’ Market 
Greensboro Curb Farmers’ Market 
Greensboro Curb Farmers’ Market
Rocks on display for sale at Soul Space 
Coasters, Cards, and then some at Soul Space 
Hairclips, Paintings, and more at Soul Space
I hope you all have a happy holiday and enjoy your time with family and friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my work. Every sale, every compliment, every encouraging word, every social media like, love, and wow, every Etsy order, every comment whether on Instagram or Facebook…your support has meant the world to me. Thank you.
I remain open to custom orders and you can always shop right here at the store on this website. Until 2019…
Essaberry at Made4Holidays Market Greensboro
On November 10th, I had the privilege of becoming a part of the Greensboro artists’ community. I applied and was selected (you can’t just pay and participate, it is juried acceptance only) to participate and sell my work at the Greensboro Curb Farmers’ Market Made4Market Holiday event.
The shoppers started lining up even before the doors opened which was such an encouraging sign for me as I am sure it was for other artisans. The Early Bird shoppers could start shopping at 10:00 am. for a small fee of $5. Admission after 11:00 a.m. and until 4:00 p.m. was free for all. I had a great location right across from the door and even though that made it cooler in the morning, as more people came in and the place got busy, it was nice and comfortable. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the crammed spaces between the tables. As in, the people with their backs to me with their display table on the other side and I barely had enough space. This cramming of course means more room for shoppers to move in the aisles which is of course a good thing. I didn’t mind the inconvenience, just wish it was roomier.
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I got a great response from the visitors. I feel so grateful to be accepted into this community and meet the wonderful people here who are so incredibly supportive and encouraging of my work. I had many a wonderful conversations with those who visited my booth, whether they bought something or not. Many people complimented my work, my patience, and the variety of items I had and I felt truly humbled. Thank you to all who attended the event and helped support local artisans and artists
Here are some images from my booth.
Rediscovering Water Colors
Inspired by a friend, I have recently rediscovered my love for water colors. I have to admit, after engaging with acrylics for a little over half a year, it is really exciting to dabble with the fluidity of water colors and watch the magical intermingling of water and paint pigments. The above are a couple of experimental works.
Essaberry at West Elm
I recently had the great pleasure of setting up shop at my local West Elm. I was a featured artist at their Pop-Up Market and I so appreciated the opportunity. I had a bunch of people come over and appreciate my work and I humbly accepted the praise and compliments. I also made a few sales which as always is great validation for the amount of time, effort, love, and passion I devote to my work. I look forward to becoming a more regular artist at West Elm.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity West Elm.
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tPV – First Lesson Learned
Ever had one of those experiences that left you feeling like …what the hell went wrong? I have had my fair share of these but the one I am going to write about was NOT one of those kinds, specifically. It did have elements of that feeling and unfortunately, that still lingers, but by and large, I do know what happened and what I need to learn from it, is quite obvious.
The premise
On August 1, 2017, I will be launching a new multicultural parenting magazine called, ‘the Parent Voice,’. As the founder and editor-in-chief, I consider it one of my primary responsibilities to recruit people I know to be good good writers, who have a strong head of opinions and are not afraid to share them (within reason and as long as they align with the mission and objectives of the Magazine), and who believe in the ethos of a multicultural world.
With these intentions, I asked a good friend of mine who lives in a different country (not in India, nor the US) to write for the Mag. I have enjoyed her personal blog. I find her opinionated in a good way and while I do not always agree with her perspective, it is one I can respect, and also one that I believe my readers would like to read. During our short Facebook Messenger Chat, she seemed fairly enthusiastic and agreed to send me her first piece by the deadline. I appreciated her excitement and willingness to write.
The situation
As promised, she delivered. On the day of the deadline, sure enough, I had an email from her, with her article duly attached.
I read over it once. I read over it twice. I read over it three times. It had some brilliant parts. I smiled and I nodded as I read it because I could visualize her saying those words before me, out loud, with her expressions. I could imagine it all. And, vividly. I loved it. At first.
Then, the more I thought about it and mulled over it and let it marinate in my head, I realized that for several reasons, it did not quite meet the vision I have for tPV,. It was a good piece, but I knew she could give it even more dimensions if only she looked at the issues discussed in the piece from a slightly more advanced lens. Rather than approach the piece like a rant, the very same issues could be given wings with which to delve into deeper topics of direct relevance to tPV,. Unfortunately, as it stood, it needed a lot more work. As a column.
To publish it as one person’s opinion was acceptable but then, the work scholar, the feminist, the researcher, and the editor in me combined to realize that there was a LOT of bias in the article. It was entirely one-sided (again, fine for an opinion piece) but it was bordering on prejudice against certain classes of people as well as certain nationalities, and, THAT, was unacceptable.
The exact same content could have been explained from a more other-person perspective taking angle and that would have given the article much richer dimensions while not compromising the message the writer intended.
I wrote to my friend and made notes on the document explaining how and what could be changed. I gave plenty of open-ended suggestions as well as directions for thought. I was not comfortable writing that email in the first place but then I weighed what was at stake and assumed my friend would take it as well intentioned as it truly was supposed to be,
In my head, I was doing the right thing. This was my friend. Well, of course, she would want my feedback. Besides, not being honest with her about her article and publishing it as is, was being dishonest to the integrity of tPV, and I am never going to do that.
So, I sent the email.
The reaction
It did not go down well on the other side. She wrote me a long email telling me in no uncertain terms that she would not be rewriting that piece, that I had misunderstood her, that she and her family are not multicultural despite some outside-of-their-native-culture sensibilities, that she was not interested in academic writing, that writing with a different lens was telling a different version of her story and not what she intended (I respected that), among other things.
In other words, she was pissed at me, clearly hurt from my suggestions of her piece, and did not see things from how I was envisioning tPV, content to read.
The Aftermath
I responded to her email with a heavy heart. I had a punched-in-the-gut horrible feeling while writing that reply. I apologized for wasting her time, I apologized for assuming she may have been interested in exploring more perspectives with her piece, I apologized for assuming too much and knowing too little, and I apologized for having inadvertently perhaps, even hurt her.
I was stunned at the tone of her email and deeply hurt, myself. That, is something I still cannot get over. This is a person, I considered a really good friend. Clearly, I was delusional. I held her in high esteem and wanted her to write for tPv, but now I realize it is for the best that things ended up the way they did. It wasn’t meant to be.
Lessons Learned
(1) Don’t assume everyone shares your vision or views on multiculturalism or that everyone even wants to live multiculturally. People can be quite ethnocentric or different degrees of it and happy. That is their prerogative. Does not make them bad people. Just different. As someone who believes in diversity of thoughts, I can respect that. I don’t have to agree with it.
(2) Don’t work with “friends”. Not all your friends want to work with you.
(3) Make new relationships and friendships based on common interests. Know that these common interests may change over time too. Build new friendships anyway but be ready for change. People change. Circumstances change. Perspectives change.
(4) Do not ever assume anything about anybody, even a really good friend whom you thought you knew well. You really never EVER know anyone. Whatever part of their personality they show you, is just a preview of their entire self. Take that at face value and maintain those relationships to the extent of integrity apparent in that preview. Be vary of expecting too much or believing that the preview is the entire self.
(5) tPV, is bigger than myself or any one person. What it stands for and will come to mean and represent as it evolves is more important.
(6) I will never compromise on the quality of content we write/create/present on tPV,.
