Art to Art with KittyCassandra

Welcome to Art to Art, a blog that allows me (Cassie Graus/KittyCassandra), to spread the word about my favorite artists.

My first interview is with Shana Victor, owner and operator of ShanaLogic, an online clothing, accessories, and housewares site whose inventory is handmade and designed by artists and small indie businesses. She founded the business in 2003 and continues to play a hands-on role in customer service, product design, and everything else that goes along with curating an e-commerce site.

CG: What is your age? (Optional question.) ;)
SV: 38!!

CG: What was your first exposure to art, and when did you start creating?

SV: I've always like to do artistic things. When I was a kid, I was always enrolled in little art classes and loved crafts in school (that was pretty much all I liked about school actually. ;-)

CG: What inspired you to start ShanaLogic, and when did you start it?

SV: Well, Shana Logic is over 12 years old so we are about to go WAY back. When I was a web designer, I was into all sorts of techy/nerdy things and one of those was creating icons and wallpapers for mac computers. I started a site called PixelgirPresents.com which became super popular and therefore really expensive to run. It was a free site so I was trying to figure out how I could make enough money to pay for the hosting fees. That's when I started contacting the designers on the site and asking them if they created any sellable artwork. Originally ShanaLogic.com was just a small gallery on PixelgirlPresents!

CG: What about your style or subject matter has evolved as you developed as an artist?

SV: Hmmm...This is a tough question for me because I don't sell my fine art on Shana Logic. Most people have never seen it :) But, I started off as a ceramics artist when I was a teen, and switched my college fine art major to Photography and Mixed Media. So I've definitely tried many different mediums. I'm at a point right now where I've got "artist's block" so I'm not sure WHAT I want to create right now!

CG: What media do you work in?

SV: For Shana Logic, I make jewelry and illustrate little characters for pin sets and magnets. I take all of the product photography myself, write all of the content (hence all of the typos ;-), and design all of the graphics and maintain the website, which I consider an art. So you could say I primarily work in graphic design and photography with a little dash of crafting?

CG: What/who are your biggest inspirations and influences?

SV: For Shana Logic, I love anything animal-related, Japanese inspired and dark and creepy artwork. Right now (I say this because I'm constantly changing!) I love people like: Mark Ryden, Beth Cavener Stichter, Yoshitomo Nara, Camilla D'errico, Bjork (she counts!), and Takeshi Murakami.

CG: How many hours a week do you spend on art? What other hobbies or jobs have you had, and have they taught you anything that helps with your art?

SV: I am ALWAYS working on my site. I basically don't take any days off and just keep revisiting all of the projects I have doing on throughout the day and sometimes at night too! I used to be a freelance web designer and that taught me that you get out of your work exactly what you put in. Be confident in your work, be yourself and while you can be inspired by other artists, make sure it's YOUR voice that you're working with.

CG: What are your proudest accomplishments, professional or otherwise?

SV: Hmmm... It's not related but I'm very proud of the wildlife fundraiser Shana Logic did last month. :) It was awesome to give money to help save animals. I have also done wildlife rehabbing and I'm proud of each squirrel and raccoon I worked super hard to save.

I have two lovely dogs (Peeps and Cadbury), a cat named Suki and a Conure named Cake. They're my favorite things in life!

Artistically, I'm super proud that Shana Logic is 12 years old!! There are really no other indie/100% artist made sites left from my original launch date. They all unfortunately went out of business (it's super tough to be an independent store online) and I've worked super hard to keep my site around!

CG: What does your dream job entail, if you're not doing it now?

SV: My dream job would be hanging out with a small group of dogs all day but I wouldn't want to be paid so maybe that wouldn't work? My second choice would be to have Shana Logic exist and be profitable until it's time for me to retire!

CG: What have been your biggest struggles in your professional life?

SV: My biggest success has been Shana Logic's success. My biggest struggle is right now! Keeping ShanaLogic as a viable, profitable, indie shop with all of it's much larger, much more funded competition in a retail recession is brutal. I'm just taking each day at a time and hope that the fact that my site is so awesome (seriously, can I brag?) ;-) will carry me and my talented artists through this!

CG: Is there anything new and exciting you're working on now and can share a bit about?

SV: Last month I hosted a wildlife fundraiser and we raised $1300 dollars that we donated. That was very fulfilling. I'm hoping that Shana Logic can host a fundraiser or two every year!

CG: Why do you create art?

SV: I have a very creative brain. Without art or design or photography or SOMETHING that's creative in my life, I feel pretty empty.