All Over Albany

Leelacat Studio: Custom artwork

Who:
Susan Lovelock

Project:
Art studio
Bio:
My name is Susan Lovelock, and I'm an artist and crafter. I've been drawing, painting and making things ever since I can remember (and my parents still have a lot of those doodles, coat hanger sculptures and tissue paper suncatchers from my early years in their "private collections".)

In 2010, after completing the Entrepreneurial Assistance Program at the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce, I began my art business, LeelaCat Studio.   Named after our lovely tabby cat, Leela, who is of the opinion that my studio is actually hers, my business was started so that I could sell my original artwork as well as reproductions in the form of prints and greeting cards.

I got off to a slow start as my father was seriously ill for most of last year, which took up much of my time and energy. Despite this, I did make some steps, having a show of my work at Harmony House in Cohoes, donating pieces to charity auctions, selling cards at a symposium on creativity and placing my artwork and more card designs in the (now sadly defunct) River Street Art Coop in Troy.



A Description of the proposed project:
My goals are to offer custom artwork, to continue to produce more original pieces and have my work reproduced to sell as greeting cards and prints. The main obstacle is that making artwork - and having prints made - takes money, and at this stage in the game, it's in short supply.

The other thing that I'd like to do is to give my studio a makeover. It's nice space, but it's not very professional looking or well-organized, and I don't want to show it to clients.

I have attached photos of artwork as well as a link to a brief video tour of my studio on YouTube







What's Next?
I have a batch of new artwork, most of it scanned and corrected in Photoshop and ready to be sent off to be printed.

I have wall paints, new lighting and better storage picked out for my studio.

What's next is to be able to move forward: to have the capital to make prints and cards to share my artwork with the world by placing it in shops, on etsy and at craft fairs.

What's next is buying the paints and storage to bring my studio to where it should be.

What's next? Maybe a small gift which would make all the difference in the world to grow a small business into something bigger and better, and hopefully to bring smiles to the faces of the people who see and buy artwork from LeelaCat Studio.