Meet Sarah Forde
^^ Listen to Sarah Forde read her biography
Hi all! This is Sarah Forde from mindbodyartist.com and this is my intro post!
I come to the blog via Sarah D who has been my friend since high school (see her intro post for that bit o’ history). I have my BFA from UMass Dartmouth where I majored in Sculpture/3D Studies and got to do fun things like bronze casting and welding. I only ended up on fire three times.
My relationship with art has changed a lot over the years. When I graduated from college I wanted to be a fine artist and began applying to galleries and shows. I worked some retail jobs at craft stores, worked for the post office, and I was a bank teller for a few years. I also started pose reference modelling around this time under the name SenshiStock on DeviantArt. Mostly making pose references for myself and my Sailor Moon fanartist friends.
Eventually I landed a cushy job working the front desk of a game studio where I spent a few years learning a variety of skills in office admin, IT, finance, HR, and I even got to do a little art for games! During all that time, I was doing colored pencil drawing and plush commissions on and off, building up my client base. In 2010, I started selling at artist alley in a few local anime cons. When that studio closed in 2013, my husband and I were both laid off; I took that chance to go full time freelance.
My first year I focused on getting into as many cons as I could which ended up being 10. It was actually a really incredible year and I felt really excited to be making money with my art! I was getting all revved up for another amazing year of cons when - AH! I got pregnant!
This was super excellent news because I’d been trying for about three years. The timing was a little startling as I’d just sort of committed myself to the freelance art life. Fortunately, my husband found employment quickly after we were both laid off so I was able to do a few shows in early 2014 before my kid was born in July that year.
Being a mom added a whole new level of Things To Deal With While Making Art. For the first few months, nothing much got done. Eventually, I was able to start working art back into my days as things became routine again. I took it easy again in 2015, but by 2016 I was ramping back up to doing events again and by 2017 I was back to about 10 events per year.
In 2018 I made a big shift in my art, moving away from plush and illustrations and into the art I’d become more passionate about: nerdy hair bows.
The con slog was kind of rough. When you do that many shows a year, it feels like you’re always in a grind for the next one (and I have friends who do even more than that!). In 2019 I did 14 events and by the end of the year I was thinking, “I can’t keep doing this.” I felt like I had no time for myself, like I was working ALL the time, no fun on the weekends, and constantly the pressure of the next show looming. I decided to make a shift and try to set up an online group where people who liked my art could access my work more directly, so I made a private Facebook group.
My hope was that the group would function a bit like a direct sales area where fans of my work could get early dibs on my new designs. I planned some free giveaways and set up my first online event in the fall of 2019. The sales from that event were definitely what I called ‘respectable’ at the time and I thought: “Great! Maybe with this group I can start cutting back on shows in 2020 and maybe I can make similar income as previous years but with less of the travel and set up costs.” My goal was to cut my con attendance in half and make up for the rest in online group sales.
ENTER COVIDTIMES.
As we’re all well aware, there weren’t very many conventions in 2020. Around mid-March when I realized where things were headed, I spent a few days lying on the floor in the upstairs hall emitting a high pitched squeaking sound, then I got up, and got to work. I poured everything into my new group and started making art to sell to these willing and waiting fans. Pretty much, I haven’t looked back since. Art wise, it’s been one of the most emotionally and financially rewarding years of my life. Ah, silver linings. So rare, so pretty.
I made some other big changes this year to accommodate my new ‘never leave the house ever’ lifestyle. Since I’m working from home, at home, all the time home, I got a standing desk. Pre-covid times were spent wandering around after the aforementioned small human as we adventured through playgrounds, malls, backyards, and play areas. Since we lost a lot of those options, I committed myself to trying to move my body around three times a week to be sure I’m getting that little heart buddy friend in me working a bit.
I’ve continued with the pose reference modelling for artists. This year I’ve rebranded to AdorkaStock which lines up with my AdorkaBows branding for my art.
Medically, I feel like I’ve been pretty fortunate. There were definitely some pre-kid days when I would make art for 14 hours straight, and that lead to some upper back and shoulder issues that I could mostly address with chiropractic care and stretching. Having a kid was a quick mediator on those long stretches of work, and likely just in time as I would’ve probably developed some not-so-great-for-me work habits otherwise.
Towards the end of my illustration days, I developed an involuntary movement in my right index finger that was diagnosed as dystonia. We never really sorted out exactly why that happened, but since I don’t draw much anymore, it doesn’t happen very often.
In the last few years, I’ve developed some pretty awful vestibular problems that are as of yet unidentified (though not for lack of trying!!). I’ve tried changes in diet as well as stretching and other care to help mitigate my symptoms which can include disequilibrium, brain fog, tinnitus, and in some severe cases, very strong vertigo which lays me flat for hours. I’d say physically, this is the worst thing I deal with at the moment, though I have some shoulder and thumb joint issues that come and go based on how good I am about my posture, stretching, and exercise.
When Sarah D mentioned her idea for this blog, I was really excited to jump in on it! Sarah has been through a lot with her mortal meatsack not always cooperating with her art goals, and she’s been an invaluable resource to me with the minor issues I’ve had over the years. I think what she started here is going to be really helpful for artists and I’m happy to help spread the good info!
