This has been quite the week.
It has been on my mind to makes some changes to my business. I’ve had my little one-person art business now for 22yrs. When I started all these years ago, I landed on this name (MoonGipsies), because it reflected on my love of the moon (and being a night'-owl and having worked night shift for almost 20years as a nurse), and my Irisih-Romany heritage (Irish English on my father’s side, probably Romany travelers, and some strong Jewish/ German/ perhaps Middle Eastern travelers on my mother’s side). I used the term as to me, it brought up romanticized visions of vardos, wanderlust, and travel….which I strongly identify with. But it has come to light that the term “Gypsy” is offensive to some. And while I spelled it differently, and that certainly wasn’t my intention; the last thing I want to do is offend anyone.; least of all, the Romany people. For this reason, I am in the process of changing my business name. (which in turn, means I need to change almost everything I have… IG, facebook, Ebay, Etsy, website domain, email address, etc). As a one-person, extremely small business, I realize that my impact on the world is minuscule. But even changes on such a tiny scale as mine will hopefully help to build a world in which we all feel safe and welcome.
So…. then became the task of how to change things…. and what to change things to. I don’t have those answers yet. Many many years ago, I had started the process of changing my birth name. Elaine is my first name, and I’ve always wanted to change the spelling to ‘Elayne’. My middle name, is one I absolutely abhor, as it was used in abusive acts towards me as a child, teen and young adult. When I approached my parents with the notion of changing my name, it was, to say the least, not well received. And so I’ve held off. Perhaps, with all the moves…. all the years…. all the chaos … and now CoVid and such…. perhaps, perhaps it’s a good time for change.
For the next couple of weeks, I hope to get the process going to at least change my birth name. And…. I am trying to think on names for my business, and all that goes with that. I realize that I am ‘older’…. but I don’t think I am done yet >>grin<<.
Photos below are a collage of sorts… or the photos I have shared on Facebook daily as my “snapshot for the day.”
