Happy New Year
What a year 2023 has been.
It makes me think of Charles Dickens and A Tale of Two Cities as this year has been the hardest of my adult life, but has also been the most rewarding. I have written about being rear ended last January. That injury still persists in my right wrist and to this day I am still unable to produce work. I have an amazing PT and hand surgeon and we are seeing if it can be healed without surgery. But the rest of that is a tale for 2024.
Here are my 2023 highlights:
Shoppe Object
Last January I began attending Shoppe Object’s biannual trade show as a vendor. It was a week after being rear ended and I was at a 6 in pain for the duration. My amazing former intern/current studio assistant showed up and was my hands for preparing, loading the truck, and installing. Much of that week is a blur, but some amazing relationships were built out of it. She has continued to be my hands throughout this year.
Home Sweet Home
I moved back in with my parents in Charlottesville, Virginia. I had built a loft for the room I was renting and could not longer climb up it. It’s humbling to move home at 39, but it was the right choice for me as it gave me time to get treatment, rest, heal and take stock of my life and business. It has been a beautiful year and as excited as I am to be getting my life back in 2024 I will miss spending so much time with them.
Painting
I began painting (what I studied before I switched to ceramics) during the pandemic. In March, when it sunk in that I could not work in ceramics due to my wrist I began to paint again. Notably the “Trauma Series” which I painted with the intent to make screen prints or serigraphs out of. A driving force behind MÖBIUS KERAMIKK is the need to make modern conceptual art and design accessible and approachable to more people. Screen prints seemed like the next logical step for our art offerings.
Restructuring
2023 started off fantastically well with me finishing a 10k custom order for Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia. After my injury and my ability to produce work was compromised, there was a big chance my business would fold. What was clear to me is it wasn’t properly structured if an injury could threaten closure. I took a lot of free online classes and accelerator programs through SCORE, SBA, MWBC, and most recently UMD Shady Grove. Earlier this month I got a SCORE mentor who specializes in sales and marketing. I learned the nuts and bolts of each area of business, wrote my mission statement, vision statement, budget, and business plan among others. It turns out, one person cannot do everything! I live with long term TBI and acknowledge that I am best when I can be focused in one area, the creative side. I found these experiences to be the starting point to build my network and find talent in the areas I am looking for.
VIP Boxes for Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia
Asking for help
This year forced my hand in asking for help, something I haven’t always been good at. From my parents letting me live with them, my intern/assistant stepping in, to my friends giving me the grace to hibernate, heal, and air my frustrations. I also applied for grants and was awarded four this past year. I received an artist grant from Maryland State Arts Council's Grants, a CERF+ Emergency Grant, an Artists Foundation Emergency Grant and a Equity Incubator Grant for the class I took at UMD. These funds saved this company by letting us pay our bills, attend trade shows, and develop relationships with the manufacturing partners we are now working with. With all of the work we’ve done and help we have received we are set to have 2024 be a ground breaking year even with my wrist still disabled. I am now able to focus much more on what I am good at, creating.
Hired Ariel
Late last summer I was on linked in and saw a post from a friend I went to grad school with (Cranbrook Academy of Art) asking if anyone needed any part time remote work. She had been the TA who organized everything. I reached out, we talked, and decided to see how it would go. She has become the manager and an invaluable member of the team, while running her own business and art career. She will help this vision grow and I couldn’t be happier.
Möbidas
A woman I work with, who has helped me get business funding, said to me one day “you need to design clothes and use your talents in other venues.” So I thought why not, and designed Möbidas, a high end athliesure brand that takes my color blocking and applies it to the body. We just recently got samples in and can’t wait to further explore in 2024.
Rosemaling
My businesses name MÖBIUS KERAMIKK was created from the poem Möbius Strip by Robert Desnos and Keramikk, the Norwegian word for Ceramics. I am 100% 3rd generation Norwegian and thought this name represented my point of view much better than my personal name would. Living with my parents, discovering new ways to use my creative talent, I thought a lot about Rosemaling, or flower painting. It a form of decorative folk art painting that can be applied to just about anything. I currently have designs in process that I will share with you in the coming months. It’s one of my great pleasures as an artist to think about how I can take something and turn it upside down while both challenging and embracing it. An artist friend will talk about the iterations an idea goes through as it becomes your own. Rosemaling and I are in the process of this adventure. It is so exciting to see the creative doors it’s opening!
NA Cocktail World
Seven years ago I stopped drinking alcohol and do not miss the buzz at all, but have missed the rituals that surround it, like going out for cocktails with friends. It turns out there is a thriving sober cocktail community and a NA bar right here in DC where I’ll be going to celebrate NYE tonight. When I lived in Philadelphia I had so much fun going to speakeasy’s and learning how drinks are crafted. It’s exciting to have that world open up to me again!
Learned to Screen Print
I have also been learning how to screen print from a friend at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. My wrist still limits some of what I can do, but I am hands-on whenever I can be. It was so much fun to burn the first screen for NeuroMaps and print a successful small run of prints. Later this week we will start bringing some of the Trauma Series to life as serigraphs. It will be so much fun!!
NEUROMAPS
I have written about my Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This injury is the root of not just MÖBIUS KERAMIKK but of all of my creative and social beliefs. Tomorrow (!!!) I will begin sharing and posting about NeuroMaps. Neuromaps are drawings that I do while learning new things which have been instrumental in me navigating how to deal with my short term memory deficits caused by partial brain loss in my left frontal hemisphere.
I began my entrepreneurial journey in 2016 when I became clear that traditional means of employment that used my intellect, talents, and creativity and paid a living wage wouldn’t fit the pace I need to work at (slowly, focused, one project at a time….TBI does not make a good multitasker!)
When I moved to Maryland to relaunch this business in 2021 I discovered I was not “normal" as I had been told after my accident, but in fact disabled. I learned of long term TBI which explained all of the problems I had for the past 18 years (and believed to be faults within me and my character), and that my story is not singular. I became involved in the Brain Injury Association of Maryland and attend a weekly check-in-chat with fellow survivors.
The phrase “needs must when the devil drives” became cogent for my business and for making awareness of TBI and the need for resources for survivors like me to start their own businesses and create the way they can work and build communities that is flexible to deal with the ups and downs of long term TBI.
New hairdo for 2024 by my fabulist stylist Jayson @ Inizio Salon
As my business was being asked to grow I looked for seed fund grants, grants in general for everything I could think of. I was not able to find any entrepreneurial grants for TBI survivors like myself. With the billions of dollars in grant money available, that is unacceptable. So I decided to privately start a TBI business grant. I can think of many folks in my check-in-chat group who would find this valuable as the programs designed for disabled employment are often not trained in the complexity of TBI survivors.
NeuroMaps is the charitable arm of of my business. 50% of sales will go directly to brain injury advocacy and funding our entrepreneurial grant. We’re planning an official launch in March so stay tuned!
I’m really excited to see what 2024 has to bring. I am proud of the progress of this past year and know that whatever life throws at me my art and my mission stay true. Wishing you all the happiest of new years and a 2024 that is fabulous for all!
Xo,
Christina