I think for all artists, there is a subconscious and even conscious unease about how we as a human population are living on the planet. On a collective level, artists can feel some sort of inner turmoil that doesn’t alway stem from an obvious cause, but I believe it is rooted in a disconnection to our natural environment, a disconnection to our responsibilities towards mother earth, and thus a kind of disconnect from our spiritual selves.

For the last few months, I have been wondering how I can cretae an art business that is purpose driven and connected to changing the drivers that run the current economic system. In 2011, I was living in Tokyo and on March 11 experienced the huge earthquake that caused the tsunami and devastated the Tohoku area and rocked the nuclear power plants in Fukushima. That whole experience and what followed, basically confirmed in me, the feelings of responsibility I had for doing something for the planet. At that time, my partner (now husband) and I both had the same feeling to start something that could create meaningful change, to improve how we treat the planet, and in turn improve how more vulnerable and disadvantaged global communities were experiencing daily life. We co-founded Viri Fide, a fairtrade organic cotton t-shirt brand. Back in 2011, most people only heard of organic as related to food, and not fashion or apparel. It was also not commonly offered by bigger fashion brands. So as a small business, we focused on offering this to consumers at fair events in Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya. We did this over 3 years and found that we were part of a small movement that pushed organic cotton and the benefits of sourcing cotton this way to farmers and their communities, into mainstream awareness and consumer demand. Although we were a small brand, and may have had minimal impact, I think collectively that helped create a need for bigger brands to cater to consumers who were more aware of their purchasing power.

With art, I have a similar need to somehow connect it to a purpose that can create meaningful and measurable change. Through some researching, I came across to BLab and BCorp companies. They collaborate with Fairtrade International, the world’s most recognized label for social justice and sustainability to improve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through responsible business practices, sustainable supply chains, and corporate transparency. I think transparency is so important and appreciate how there is a section about controversial issues, their position on them and ways to implement and move towards positive change. There are also tools to measure positive impact and certification that companies need to achieve to become a BCorp company, it certainly is not easy!

So finding an art platform on the Bcorp search tool, was very exciting. The art platform is called Artrepreneur and it earned an overall score of 114.5. The median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9. To become certified, a company needs to achieve a score of 80 on the Overall B Impact assessment. There is quite a lot of information on the BCorp site that I am slowly wading through. For Artrepreneur, their mission as a purpose-driven business, is to help artists succeed and elevate everyone's life with art. They don’t take commissions on sales of originals and also provide a high quality Giclee shop for prints. I am still exploring it but find it a very useful resource so far. I enjoy the weekly open calls and the helpful information about selling art. I have also submitted some art and found it very exciting to get some of my works approved for their curated Giclee shop as well as being selected by curators to appear on the curated section.

The artwork I have posted in this post links to my recently added profile on the Artpreneur website here. I was very happy to find this platform, although it’s still early days, its been a good source of art information and inspiring to see the works of other global artists. The process of adding artworks and entering Open calls has also been a good experience. I am excited to continue to add some of my more experimental works as well as my explorations on environmental, philosophical and spiritual aspects of modern life.