I feel like I’ve been in the wilderness for years. Back in the ye olde days, before websites like Squarespace allowed the digitally semi-illiterate of us the ability to whip up a decent site without needing to hire an expert, there was Wordpress. Oh the Wordpress site, with all its fiddly bits! Updating the gallery was such a struggle, and we couldn’t touch the items in the e-shop without us breaking something and needing to email the designer we had hired.
It didn’t take long for us (that is, myself and Myra, my former business partner) to let it go, since we were shutting down shop on our paper goods as we both had (and still have) full time jobs and couldn’t justify the time required to continue. And anyway, online galleries were providing a service for artists to post their work for free, paying a small commission upon sale. This removed the risk around returns and made it easier to sell original art without needing a dedicated site.
That went fine for a while…until those same galleries hiked up commissions significantly and/or added subscriptions, necessitating a need for a personal site.
The writing was on the wall, but I spent a year worrying about the idea of building my own website (the Wordpress site had left an impression) before diving in. Well, here it is. I could not be more proud of myself!
I also want to thank Myra for modernising the logo. White Bird’s original logo was quite dated, and with me diving full tilt into Japanese-inspired art, I felt that something in the shape of a Kamon would work well. Myra effortlessly made it happen, and I will always be awe-inspired by her skills.
To anyone visiting this site and reading these words: thank you! It, like the art displayed on it, is a work from the heart. I thought long and hard about every inch of it. I hope you like it.