#262

Why hello.
Here's the art.

What should you do when opportunity knocks? I guess it depends on what you see through the peephole. Jo was approached recently about licensing her designs for mass production overseas and national distribution of those CartBeforeTheHorse reproductions. We made lists of pros and cons, we wrote to other more experienced artists, and finally Jo and I arm wrestled. The arm wrestling was just for the fun of it though, because we both pretty much reached the same decision to not open the door on this opportunity. In 2003, when we started our little art business, we wrote this simple explanation of who we were. . .

"We are a mom and dad business, a two person
company of artists. We make the kind of art we'd
hang on our walls, then we open our doors to you.
We call ourselves CartBeforeTheHorse
because we're always getting ahead of ourselves.
All of our creations are made one at a time.
We make them with our own hands,
since these are the only hands we have."

This is a sentiment that we couldn't abandon easily. We're not against reproductions, but we'd prefer it if our hands were the ones to make them. So this is the road we're presently headed down. We've gotten some of our art printed on fabric, and we're figuring out cool stuff to make out of those prints, like this Little Red Riding Hood necklace.


Jo is also working on paper dolls that will be available soon for you to put together yourself. We're excited, so hopefully you all will be as well.
So. . . what have we learned today? When opportunity knocks, sometimes the best answer is, "Dave's not here."

-Dylan