another installment from my new weekly features on other cool...

another installment from my new weekly features on other cool webshops : )

holagatosaurio:

Webshopping at Ultraterrestrial with Becca Kacanda

Becca Kacanda’s label, Ultraterrestrial is certainly out of this world. Out of her vibrant artwork she makes stickers, buttons, pocket mirrors and jewlery. What I like about her stuff it’s that it is cute, but also emanates a positive sense of consciousness and power. Her style is fun and bold, and also feminine and mystical. I interviewed her to know more about the workings of her mind…

How and when did you start your webshop? I launched my shop on Etsy in Jan of 2012!

I love your sticker designs, they all share a good mix of fun visuals with positive messages. Can you tell us more about your creative process? Thank You! Sure. A lot of my designs are inspired by really old trademarks for American companies that no longer exist. I have a stack of books with tons of them. They’re wild. I am pretty obsessed with them, and I like that they are a really obscure source. Some of my designs are updated versions of them- decontextualized, it’s impossible to tell what they were originally intended for, but I am happy to give them a new life. I would say a lot of my other original designs are inspired by the spirit of them. I’ve also drawn inspiration from music videos and mystical/gnostic books. I like keeping things fairly edgy but always really positive and usually very colorful.

There is definitely a very spiritual vibe that comes through in your work. What is the appeal you find in these concepts? oh, thanks! Well, I grew up going to church and in my teen years I was exposed to Southern Baptist style Christianity, which I eventually found to be really judgmental, uncreative, and unintellectual, which is ironic because I think the spirit of authentic Christianity or enlightenment is the opposite. It’s super rare to find enlightened Christians, most of them are stupified in their little religious cultural bubble and are working against the current of social progress. I know that sounds harsh but it’s true! I definitely wouldn’t align myself with the religion but there are also some crazy fascinating books theorizing that Christianity started as a mushroom cult which I find much more believable than people worshiping some poor dead guy. Sometimes I feel silly talking about any of this because I design stickers but I am glad some alternative spiritual vibe manages to come through!

What do you like the most about selling online? And what do you like the least? I love connecting with people online- it’s rad to see photos of people wearing your stuff and just get to know other artists and fans. I can’t say there’s really anything I don’t like- I guess sometimes all of the fees and re-listing items can be a bitch. But without my online shop I’d just be an artist with a ton of crap in my living room and no cohesive artistic presence. Without the internet, I’d be nothing. But, ideally I’d just be making stuff and leaving the selling part to someone else.

Do you have any crazy stories about your local post office? Hm, actually not really. The USPS is boringly reliable. Probably the craziest thing that happened was that it took my package like, 4 months to reach you in Mexico.

I know you also table at festivals. How do you like it in contrast to selling online? I don’t table a lot- it’s a lot of work and it’s hard to make money, although I love CAKE. It’s interesting to see what goes over in person as opposed to online- I sell a lot more pins in person then online for some reason. It’s also pretty exciting to be at a festival and see tons of other cool stuff everywhere.

What new things can we expect to see soon on your webshop? Definitely tons more weatherproof stickers, bumper stickers, mugs, phone skins, and hopefully more shirts! Also, check out my new website I just launched www.beccakacanda.com