In a World of Commodification, Choose Elevation.
At Proud Mary, we believe that true wealth is built when your income no longer depends solely on your time.
Think of any creative entrepreneur who has leveraged their skills and talents to create transformative wealth. Any of those examples - whether it be an author, musician, painter, or illustrator - was financially successful because their works were authentically reproduced in a way that honored the intellectual property of their craft. In other words, they benefited from the royalties model of compensation - a model which allows them to leverage their creativity into a multiplier effect.
Through royalties, creative entrepreneurs generate true wealth because their expressions of creativity generate income that far surpasses their hourly wages. The more those expressions of creativity are appreciated by society at large, the more passive income they earn. And the more their income no longer depends solely on their time.
We couldn't help but ask:
Why haven’t artisans globally been able to leverage their creativity into transformative wealth? Why hasn’t the artisan sector benefitted from the royalties model of compensation? A model that leverages creativity into a multiplier effect?
The answer to that fundamental question lies in the fact that over the past decades we’ve chosen commodification over elevation. We’ve encouraged the mass production of handcrafted items rather than honoring the inherent singularity of artisans’ craft. We’ve chosen to see artisans as mechanized hands in a vast global supply chain - rather than as globally-acclaimed artists.
And in so doing, we’ve told the artisan sector that in order to earn more they have to produce more. That their earning potential is directly proportional to the number of hours they have in a day to weave, embroider, sew or stitch.
When we shift our worldview, and return to honoring craft in its original form as art, we remember that artisans are artists. As artists, their works are just as deserving of the same recognition, appreciation and compensation as their counterparts around the world.
And when we remember that artisans are artists, we recognize that their works are deserving of being authentically reproduced, serving as a source of royalties-based passive income.
A single tapestry created on the backstrap loom can take an artist in Mexico months to create. A large-scale piece of embroidered textile wall art from our partner artists in India can similarly take weeks or months to conceive of and execute. And the creative visions of our collection’s hand-embroidered blankets from Lesotho are such singular expressions that can only be created by Proud Mary artist William Marapamele.
At Proud Mary, our mission is to provide all artisans - regardless of their location, digital connectivity, language or craft medium - with the opportunity for their craft to become art. And for artisans to start earning passive income in the way that our world’s most successful artists have for over a century.
Together, let’s transition from being consumers to becoming collectors. Let’s replace prolific product with works of art. Let’s elevate craft as art. And recognize artisans as artists.
Welcome to Proud Mary.
