December was extraordinary. Not necessarily ‘good’ extraordinary, but extraordinary in the sense that it kicked my ass. My Son caught salmonella which, take my word for it, sucks hard. He’s OK now, in fact just a touch of this Satan-spawned bacteria is enough to give Daddy a full head of grey hairs. A representitive from Alameda County (the Feds!) have an eye on our family and have requested we keep him out of school until they have declared him nontoxic. Health officials are coming to our house daily to check up on him - sadly, I’m not joking about this.

Thumbtack Press, on another note, went gangbusters. In fact, sleepless nights with our suffering Son was the reason I was able to work from 7pm to 4am daily to keep up with demand. My wife, I must say, is made of stronger stuff than I and had the more difficult job of just being there for him.

The huge jump in sales in December increased my confidence in Thumbtack Press but - like Biggie always said - with more money comes more problems. Firstly, I had to order general supplies, inks, and paper at twice the normal rate including custom boxes to ship the prints. The new boxes are really cool and I’m kinda feeling Donald Trumpish that I can say we have proprietary packaging. UPS and USPS rates also went up across the board although UPS is giving me some breaks for being a good little money-maker for them (read their bi-atch).

So what happens now? Thud. Stop. Nada. After December 24th the orders just shut off like a faucet. FINE WITH ME!!!! They are beginning to creep back here and there but I’m okay with the sudden lull. A few artists will be seeing some pretty impressive commissions for December sales. Want to hear something funny? I’m a little jealous. I know that my art could never sell that amount of prints in one month and it makes me envious.

Okay, so what’s the point? Here’s the point. I’m ready to let go a little with Thumbtack Press in 2007. I’ve decided to rent a small space and have another passionate soul do the job, even if the salary and the lease cost eats up my profits more than I’m comfortable with. Why? Because it’s time. I don’t know when I’ll do it next year I just know I have to do it. It’ll be hard to let go of the physical aspect of ‘making’ prints because I really love and respect the process. You’d laugh if you ever saw me at work, I baby the product.

One thing that will never change, however, is my association with the Artists. That’s a privilege that is mine and mine alone and I would never delegate that duty to another employee. I was once asked what I would do if I was offered a buy out for Thumbtack Press, the simple answer is that Thumbtack Press could never be bought because the business is made up of an inventory that I do not own - therefore it’s practically worthless on paper. My relationships with the Artists is the only real equity - the only tangible commodity - that this business runs on. Without them - Thumbtack Press is nothing - I’m nothing. To the Thumbtack Press Artists I say Thank You!

God Bless you and your families in 2007 and beyond and may you never, ever, never, never, ever get salmonella poisoning.