What do I even mean?

Well, it’s personal. In fact, everything in business is personal, unlike what capitalism has taught us. Each of these terms means something different for everyone, so here’s what they mean to ME.

Let’s start with queer.

This one is easy. I am, in fact, queer.
I like the term “queer” because it is general and yet very, very specific to me.
**Queerness exists in nature and I came from nature so my art and everything I make is queer.**

All of my creative visions are seen through queer eyes; all of my ideas are from my queer brain.

Digging deeper, queerness provides a grounding to our earth without the blinders of heteronormativity.
Convention, which is rooted in money and consumption, is not central to queer love and therefore queerness opens pathways to live closer to the earth.

For a lot more on this topic, check out the book Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love by Lida Maxwell. Maxwell is a professor of political science and of women, gender and sexuality studies at Boston University where she studied intimate love letters that Rachel Carson and her paramour, Dorothy Freeman, shared while living and vacationing in Maine.

Maxwell goes into great detail about how queer love is revolutionary,
particularly with respect to nature.

If you’re unfamiliar with Rachel Carson, she wrote a popular environmentalist book called, Silent Spring. Maxwell theorizes that her book was influenced by her queerness and the love she shared with Freeman.

Next, socialist.

There are many socialist ways of living and setting up an economic system.

Specifically to my glass art business,
I focus on collective economic justice as a practice in socialism.

Some examples are:
Paying fair wages for services, apprenticeships and thought partners’ advice
Buying local artists’ work for my business and home
Bartering and trading goods for my art
Donating 10% of ALL of my sales to Maine-based mutual aid causes
Setting up Pay as You Can bins of art at my booths when I go to festivals to help my art get into the hands of more people

AND, NOT USING AI IN MY BUSINESS.
I can’t control what some of the software that I purchase does, but I can control how much I use AI in my day to day. For example, I don’t use AI to write anything - not social media, not my newsletters, not my patterns, not this blog or any of my blogs.

Capitalism is relying on AI to automate jobs that humans need - like art and writing. Capitalism will overuse AI to exploit our earth, wildlife and humans. One prime example of this is how large companies are building new and reinstating very old nuclear power plants as a source of power for AI data centers.
Not using AI is a practice in socialism to me because it means I continue to connect with HUMANS and my own brain/body for my business instead of clicking a button and obtaining an immediate result that is devoid of society, other humans and that takes me away from my humanity.

Next, anticapitalist.

I like this quote from Toi Smith, an amazing advocate:
“**Being anti-capitalist is about being against exploitation.** It’s not about not earning money, or not being comfortable or not being well.
*It’s about caring deeply about how we’re earning money and caring about who gets to be comfortable and who doesn’t.*
It’s about understanding who is left out and working to include more people instead of less. It’s an orientation towards a future that is more humane, collective and balanced.”

As an anticapitalist, I do not compete. Instead, I lead with generosity.

Capitalism says that competition and rugged individualism is the only way to have a strong economy. What capitalism fails to recognize is that everyone collaborates, everyday and on everything. We’re all in this together and no one succeeds on their own.

Therefore, in my business *I collaborate.*

I mentor other artists, especially *glass artists*
I offer myself with transparency by sharing my skillsets, my research and my connections
I offer FREE resources, free blogs, free knowledge
For blogs and resources that I ask funds for, I charge low fees and donate
them to mutual aid organizations
I never expect anyone to give me their emotional labor or knowledge economy for free. In other words, when I ask a question of another artist, I offer to pay them and/or donate to a cause they support in return for their help.

As an anticapitalist, I do not make assembly-line art.
My art is slow. Glass art, in general, is a slow process, but my art and the way I make it is intentionally slow. I tried the whole stay up until midnight and crank out as much “product” as possible. I ended up no further ahead and exhausted, only doing one or two things well and in the end, questioning my purpose.

No more. I take my time.

**When I do this, the muddy waters clear and I can see the glass color combinations and the patterns come to life.**

Doing this means that my art is not tourist shop window suncatchers. On its face, there’s nothing wrong with this type of art except how it is produced: in factories, on assembly lines and in circumstances and under management that likely does not pay their workers what they are worth.

**My art is, well, art.** My pieces belong to the people who connect with them because they have connected to me.

Time and time again, even when those pieces are the most expensive ones in my booth, they sell. Because they turn out exceptional, remarkable and TRUE.

As an anticapitalist, I rest.

Capitalism says I must hustle and grind in order to have a successful business or that I should want to become a multimillionaire. But, I do not want to be a millionaire.

I want comfort, sleep, daydreams and play.
My wellbeing is deeply connected to my balance and
my balance is deeply connected to the earth.

The more I rest, the more daydreams make themselves available to me and the more inspiration I have for my art.
The more inspiration I have for my art, *the better my art is.*
The better my art is, *the more awe it inspires in others and the more people seek my art for their homes.*

There’s a lot more to this rest and anticapitalism connection. If you want more info, check out The Nap Ministry, which has a plethora of information on the disconnect that capitalism does to our bodies and DreamSpaces and how to rest as a form of resistance.
I have The Nap Ministry’s Rest Deck sitting on my nightstand. I choose a card from the deck at least twice a week and place other cards around my house as reminders that I am not a machine; I am a divine being and that rest is my birthright.

As an anticapitalist, I learn from OTHER anticapitalists, like Emily Eley.

Before Emily, I knew that I wanted an anticapitalist business model but I didn’t have much guidance on how to get there.

Emily Eley came highly recommended to me by a friend and I was immediately struck by her ability to connect the dots for me on how I could actually be in a business model that is in line with my social justice values.
I took her Liberatory Finance workshop and her Liberatory Marketing workshop (BOTH are offered for free if you can’t afford it) and to this day, I still look at the worksheets and videos as guidance.

And finally, nature-based artist.

Why did I separate this into its own talking point? Because in this world on the brink of a climate crisis, keeping nature front and center is integral to keeping our connection to environmental justice in sharp focus.
Any time I can inspire someone to purchase art that reminds them of being outdoors or of our planet, I think I’ve won.
When I create my designs, I think of how I am a part of the soil, the minerals, the air. I think of how I came from the earth and will one day return. **There’s no part of me that is separate from the moss, the rocks and the sea.**

In my former nonprofit career, a lot of my focus was at the forefront of the climate crisis.

I helped preserve forests and worked on Land Back movements.
I fought environmental racism, exploitation and human trafficking in fracking fields.
I worked to clean the air in national parks
And I helped to shut down the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (although it may now come back online because of AI…that’s another blog for another day, my friends).

At the center of this work was connecting people
to the issues and from that, my art developed.