ISSUE 5 ◦ by Heidi Horchler

HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS? | 12.13.19

If you follow me online, you’ve probably seen her because I’ve basically been spamming all of my accounts with puppy pics, but say hi to Penny! Penny is a German Shepherd, a new breed for me, but one I’ve always dreamed of having. I’ve known a few great Shepherds throughout my life and I’ve been a fan of the breed for a long time. She’s part of what I’ve been calling my Evil Plan…

This idea has been simmering in my brain since I left my teaching position. My “evil plan” is to train and certify Penny as a therapy dog, and incorporate her into a future art therapy outreach program for seniors. I’m not sure exactly how this will all come together, but for now I’m taking steps to manifest my goals. She has definitely stolen our hearts!

Besides the distraction of a new puppy, lots of other stuff is going on. (You may have noticed the newsletter is a day late but I won’t say anything if you don’t…)

Quite a few people have ordered my Daydream Odyssey coloring book, and I love you for it!! Thank you so much for your encouragement and support. I hope they are well received and enjoyed by all. Since I “published” them in my dining room, they are definitely a Beta version, or version 1.0, if you will. So future editions can be edited so if you have any suggestions for improvement, I’d love to hear your feed back. I have more copies available so if you’re needing an extra stocking stuffer, or wondering what to do for night 3 of Hanukkah, hit me up!

I’ve been doing some reading & studying on how to grow my brand and improve my video content, and 2 main themes keep popping up:

1. Just keep making work - don’t worry if you have it “right” or not

2. Story.

These themes have been surfacing, no matter what the source. Business books, podcasts, tutorials, comments, etc. The thing that really hit home for me is that I ALREADY KNOW THIS! And I haven’t been implementing it properly in my own work.

If you’ve wondered why I call my newsletter Follow the Line, I wrote it all out in my latest blog post. Please read for the full explanation, but the basic premise is that you have to do the work in order to learn; in order to improve and get better. It kind of goes back to this quote from Sean McCabe:

1st Lesson: Just keep making stuff

Basically, no matter how much reading & research you do, or how many videos you watch, the only way to get good at something is to just DO IT. (Turns out Nike was right).

And while I definitely follow this in my art practice — even though it’s a constant struggle — I wasn’t doing this in my efforts at building my art business. We want everything to be perfect. We want to show our best selves to the world. We emulate others who have massive massive success. But what we aren’t seeing is that person once fell flat on their face, a long time ago, before we even knew about them or their 100K followers or their sold out show art Art Basel.

It’s OK to make mistakes. It’s OK to fail. What matters is that you keep moving, keep learning, growing, and making stuff. I have dreams of one day having a gallery showing, and selling my paintings to art lovers who love my style and want to see it in their homes. I dream of doing a mural. A really cool one. I dream of publishing children’s books. Ok so for now, I’m making paintings in my corner of the spare room, and binding xerox copies of coloring pages in my living room. Steve Jobs started out in his parents’ garage.

Second lesson: Story.

So, as a person who has been studying writing for 13 years, going to writer’s conferences for 10, and is a card-carrying member of the SCBWI, I feel like a total flipping idiot for not seeing this one.

TELL A STORY.

Video is something thatI’ve been struggling with, mostly with editing. I take tons and tons of video, realize it’s total crap, re-take it, and then try to mash it together into something watchable. I think that’s why I enjoy doing the time-lapse painting videos so much. I don’t have to talk, I can just sit and paint, clip it all together, add music, and *muah* Golden.

The problem is, I have more to say! I want to share things, teach, show, educate, demonstrate, etc. And after getting pummeled in the face about it from many different sources, I realized the element that I was missing was the obvious one: I wasn’t incorporating the element of story.

In light of these revelations, be prepared to see me:

• Making lots of stuff + making mistakes along the way!

• Using the element of story in my videos (also: mistakes).

Here are a few of the resources that helped me learn these two important factors:

In Memoriam

This month, my stepdad Mike passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes. I was able to be with my mom and him as he drifted peacefully away in their home in Tennessee. Mike was a retired Air Force Sergeant and Veteran of the Vietnam war, and after his service was a professional photographer. He started my son Cole on his journey to be a photographer as well, giving him his first camera before his study abroad in Europe. Mike and my mom were married for 37 years and she will miss him dearly. Thank you for your kind words and prayers. 

UPDATE!

For those of you who’ve asked about email notifications for my blog posts, I’ve set up a new email list for them! This will be separate from the newsletter subscription, so it will require you to enter your email again, this time on my blog subscription form, here (scroll about halfway down). But don’t worry, no one sees your info besides me, and I will never EVER share it.

Also don’t forget to watch my videos on YouTube or Instagram.

DISCLAIMER: I can’t stand ads on websites. I do not put google ads, click bait, affiliate links, pop-ups or anything like that on my website. I also do not have a “donate” button or a Patreon site. If you would like to support me, you can do that by either purchasing prints and originals on Etsy, products on RedBubble or by sharing my work with others. Please forward this email, share my posts on facebook, or even just tell someone about me. I much prefer a grassroots effort of sincere supporters over gimmicky promotion.

Thank you — as always — for your support.

xo,

Heidi

P.S. As always, feel free to ask questions. Reach out through any of the social links on my website (below) or email me at heidhorch@gmail.com.