Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Margot Robbie’s new fave artist, Emma Gibbons, on making money through pop art, learning from Damien Hirst and the breakdown of working with galleries (part 1)

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Margot Robbie’s new fave artist, Emma Gibbons, on making money through pop art, learning from Damien Hirst and the breakdown of working with galleries (part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Emma for Female Startup Club.
• 0:11
  Hey, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today on the show, we're trying something a little bit different and we're digging into an artist entrepreneur's business model. I'm learning from Emma Gibbons, a Devon-based mixed media pop artist who's become known for her colorful, contemporary artworks using resin, glitter, crystals, and precious materials. My kind of woman.
• 0:38
  Emma's experience in the art industry has seen her working on some of the most high-profile exhibitions in the world, including seven years working for Damien Hirst. Before becoming a full-time artist, she actually worked on the installation and exhibition for Damien Hirst's infamous For the Love of God, Diamond Encrusted Skull at its UK unveiling at White Cube Gallery in London. In this episode, we cover the blueprint of how she grew her business through galleries, what she learned working with Damien,
• 1:07
  and how Margot Robbie became one of her A-list celebrity clients. If you learned something in this episode, please do screenshot and share on Instagram stories tagging us at Female Startup Club. Let's get into it. This is Emma for Female Startup Club.
• 1:26
  Emma, hi, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi Jean, thanks for having me. Lovely to be here. I'm so excited to chat to you today. I was saying just before we started recording that this is my first time interviewing an artist and sort of digging into the business model behind making money through art and how you kind of get discovered and how you build a business out of this. So I'm just so excited and really happy to be here. Thank you. Me too, me too. I'm really flattered to be the first. Yeah.
• 1:54
  I look forward to exploring art money with you. Great. Do you want to give us a little bit of an introduction to who you are for people who might not know yet about you? Okay. Yep. Sure. My name is Emma Gibbons. I'm an artist. I live and work in the Southwest in Devon, but I have shows and exhibitions and fairs all over the country, all over the world, technically. I've been doing it for...
• 2:22
  Full time. I've been doing it for five ish years. If you ignore pandemic, it's all confusing with pandemic logistics, isn't it? But yeah, about five years and through the pandemic. So that was interesting in itself. So I make large scale, very, very vibrant, bright, usually glittering artworks. And they're made with pill capsules. So they all start life.
• 2:48
  as many thousands of pharmaceutical grade pills that I then make with resin and glitter and crystals and all sorts of things. And I make them into large scale artworks that hang in galleries and eventually in people's homes.
• 3:03
  That is so cool. My gosh, I have like a million questions, but I want to like really get back to the beginning and start at the beginning and work my way back to where all my current questions are. Where do you like to start your story? How does this begin to becoming an artist entrepreneur?
• 3:21
  There are so many places to start, aren't there? I mean, I think I do think all creative people probably have it right from the get go, right from the beginning. So I think if we're being honest, I was always a creative kid. I was always making things, not necessarily, you know, painting masterpieces. I definitely wasn't doing that.
• 3:40
  But I was definitely building stuff, making stuff, gluing. I did like to get the paints out. But yeah, it was all about just having a mind that wanted to make things. I wasn't too precious about them. It was more of the process for me. I did do art through school and loved it. Always really enjoyed it. Did it.
• 4:02
  all the way to A-level and then decided that I didn't want to be a poor artist. So I didn't even consider doing it at university, didn't even think about it, even though I'd love doing it for A-level. By the time it got around to applying for uni, I applied for psychology and with a view to doing something very non-art-based,
• 4:25
  And although my fatal error, I think there was applying to psychology at Goldsmiths, one of the best art universities in the whole world. So, yeah, so I was I was trying to haul myself through psychology lectures and meeting friends and in an environment.
• 4:46
  where art was this huge, really sort of powerful monster. So I lasted less than six months in psychology at Goldsmiths and dropped out and applied to art school immediately. I didn't even... I didn't apply to Goldsmiths because I wouldn't have got in at that point. But, yeah, so it was definitely...
• 5:04
  A calling. I think even when I tried to veer away from it, it pulled me back in. So I ended up doing an art foundation course at London Guildhall. So not Goldsmiths, but slightly lesser version. But it was great. Absolutely loved it. Felt like I was back home. Met friends that I'm still friends with now. Like that, it was a year art foundation course. And they kind of push you to do lots of crazy stuff that you wouldn't normally do. Make sure you're not getting set anyways. Well, just, I was doing, so obviously like you, um,
• 5:33
  My A-levels have been very much painting, drawing, charcoal, a bit of sticking glitter to things, but not much. They weren't such big fans back then of the glitter. So Art Foundation, I think specifically, they even get you to do sort of a month on each discipline.
• 5:49
  So loads of sculpture, loads of illustration, lots of glitter, crazy things. I was making big glass sculptures. I was doing story narratives and sort of illustrating stories. So writing and illustrating stories. But they ended up being these huge glass sculptures that I used to sort of cut my fingers on. Somebody used to do an ice cream. Can't remember. It was a long time ago. But lots and lots of like pressed flowers, all sorts of crazy stuff that I just never did.
• 6:15
  hadn't done since I was a kid, basically, you know, digging around in the garden, finding things to create with. That all came back when I was 19 then. But it was great. It was a real eye-opener and got me through lots of things. And from that, I was like, yeah, OK, I'm definitely going to do an art degree then. And just because even then, even though I'm doing an art degree, I don't have to be an artist. I can use it and do something else. I could even go a bit full circle and do like art therapy or something. So, yeah, I ended up doing an art degree.
• 6:45
  I'm at the London College of Printing now, so a three-year art degree. And again, just sort of loved it. It did get quite hard towards the end. They do actually, you know, assess you and things. You don't just get to go to school and get out the paints. So, yeah, it got towards the end of that. And then was still enjoying it. And I've actually just found a weird little comfort zone where I was creating...
• 7:10
  books but book arts so again it was playing around with sort of narrative and theme but I was using lots of miniatures which is something that still I use a lot in my work stay and actually all of it is kind of miniature if you think about it but that was when I kind of got into a grieve using dolls houses and miniatures although
• 7:27
  My final project for my degree was a big project called Crack House, which was a doll's house that I sort of bastardised and turned it into a crack den. So it had lots of graffiti on it. It had lots of used drugs, paraphernalia, pornography, all sorts of just really cliched. But it was really interesting, actually, taking something. See, doll's houses are supposed to be sort of very pristine and very prim and proper,
• 7:53
  And a certain set of people like to like to use those houses and invest in them and get excited by them. So I was flipping it and thinking, how can we make it really seedy, really dirty? And that kind of tallied with London and where I was living at the time and what was going on. So, yeah, that was that was a nice I felt good about that. Good enough to apply to do a master's in fine art. That was amazing.
• 8:15
  It was horrendous. It wasn't. It was brilliant, but it was so hard. And I really battled my way through that one. And I did come out the other side. So I did get it and I got it in a year, which is quite good. But during that time, I'd also got really sick of being a student. I got really sick of having no money. So I'd started working in galleries.
• 8:34
  because it was better than bar jobs. And I've been doing bar jobs for quite a long time. So I started working in galleries actually while I was doing my degree because, yeah, again, much more sociable hours, pay was terrible. But I was like, well, this is the environment I want to be in. And maybe I can use all of my degree backgrounds, but not potentially be an artist. I can go and use what I've learned and work for other people, work for galleries and, you know, take home a salary rather than terrifying myself with the prospect of actually being an artist.
• 9:01
  So yeah, that's all the way through to the end of the Masters. And then I went to work. Then I started working for galleries as planned. And I put away, I think after my Masters, I was so...
• 9:15
  enough with creating things personally that I was actually really happy to go to work, take salaries, wear proper clothes, you know, just get into the gallery life of things. I did that for a couple of years. That's probably a bit more than that. So this is still in London. And then eventually I left London, came down to Devon and got my first job managing a gallery. So I actually had the job title Gallery Manager.
• 9:38
  which I think would have taken me probably another, you know, five, maybe 10 years in London. But because of the experience I had already at uni and working in the galleries, a Devon gallery was really happy to give me a manager role. So I was ready to leave. I was done with creating. The last gallery before I left London was White Cube.
• 9:58
  So White Cube is a sort of huge contemporary art gallery that represents, among others, sort of Damien, Hirst, Tracey Emin, you know, really real kind of big guns, which was phenomenal. I just sort of worked my way up to White Cube by doing any job.
• 10:14
  that they let me do um so a lot of reception work a lot of admin just anything invigilating at the beginning which was yeah challenging but I was in the place that I wanted to be um so eventually got the job at White Cube and that was a reception job and we uh I was there the last show that I did was um the Damien Hirst for the Love of God show with uh with the Diamond Skull um wow very cool yeah
• 10:39
  It was amazing and it was crazy. Just the level of sort of celebrity and media hype around it was just bananas. We had George Michael and Kenny Goss came and did a private viewing and it was just crazy. It was just bananas. So that was sort of
• 10:55
  such a massive highlight. And that was literally just I left London just as that show wrapped up. So it went to Devon, complete change of pace, but loved it. But, you know, it was a very different vibe, very different atmosphere, but it was great. And I sort of, I think I was prioritising, I had my daughter during that period and, you know, it was dogs and beach and, you know, that very sort of wholesome. So, yeah, it was just a different, a different vibe.
• 11:21
  And then after working for a couple of galleries in Devon, and I'd had my daughter at this point, she was quite small, I heard through the grapevine that Damien was opening a gallery down in Devon. He already had a really big studio complex down here with lots and lots of painters and wanted to, and there's a big sculpture, a huge, huge original hearse just actually down the road from me, and he wanted to open the gallery. So I was down here...
• 11:49
  getting a bit bored with my previous employer, thinking, oh, it'd be great to marry both of those worlds, the fun and excitement of London with the outdoorsyness and the wholesomeness of down here. And lo and behold, Damien opened a gallery, which I then went and ran.
• 12:07
  for a few years and it was great actually it was nice because very connected with London I was up and down all the time I was traveling doing lots of overseas art fairs and things so it was a really great period of time and a nice comfortable salary and all of that so I did that for a few years and just sort of bided my time really I still wasn't thinking that I wanted to be an artist I thought that I was doing it in my spare time now and occasionally selling them
• 12:32
  So my own work. But I didn't think that that was the direction that I wanted to go in. And eventually the scale sort of began to tip and I was doing more and more and began decreasing my hours at work. And eventually it sort of happened. I thought, yeah, I am actually ready. I think that's the key. I found a style and a technique that I was really happy with. I was happy doing it. I was happy with the results. I was happy with the reception I was getting for it. So, yeah, it was a very, very organic process.
• 13:02
  But there did come a definite tipping point where I thought, actually, this has changed now. This is something that I want to do. And this is something I want to do full time. I want this to be my baby. So side hustle to full time gig. Yeah. Yeah. Completely. Sort of accidentally as well. But you know what it's like. You just get these little seeds and from the seeds they begin to grow. And yeah. And eventually, eventually it felt like the right time for me to actually take it full time.
• 13:27
  And I imagine working under someone like Damien Hirst, who is, you know, so famous and so globally recognized as, you know, a modern pop artist that you would see the blueprint and you would see exactly how you kind of need to what you need to aim towards, I guess. What did you learn from him?
• 13:48
  Oh, just honestly, infinite amounts. I think the biggest take home that I still think about now is look at what you can do. Look at what is possible. And I don't, I wouldn't want to be Damien. I wouldn't, you know, that's a whole different kettle of fish. But look at what can be done with, you know, some paints and some ambition. And working in that environment, I think you...
• 14:15
  you cannot not be inspired by someone going because Damien as well as a human as a person is so sort of down to earth and so normal that actually you think yeah you know it's so inspiring to see just you know with a real hunger and some talent what you can achieve um so if I could just
• 14:36
  anywhere on that pathway, even right at the beginning, you know, with Damien at the other end, I'd be happy with that. And it is refreshing and inspiring to see someone doing so well out of their own creativity. It's brilliant. Really brilliant. Very cool to have that kind of role model directly, you know, that you're working under.
• 14:57
  I've actually, as I mentioned before, I've never interviewed an artist. So it's a little bit out of my kind of toolkit in terms of the blueprint of and the strategy around this. But how do you actually build a successful art business? Like what's the business model for creating these high ticket pieces and selling them, you know, to the point that you are now? And what was that tipping scale like?
• 15:23
  I think that there is no one blueprint. There are lots and lots of different ways to go about it. And lots of artists do it in lots of different ways. You know, there are some, I would say personally, I'm, I'm, I've gone down the galleries route.
• 15:39
  So it's where my background. I mean, I spent my late teens, early 20s wandering around obscure galleries in London, just getting inspired. I really like the geographic space of galleries. I like the collaboration. You work with other people. I worked in galleries a long time, so I know how they work. For me, that's my comfort zone. So, I mean, I knew instinctively, working for Damien, working in the art fairs, and working, to be fair, working for the other galleries I work for,
• 16:07
  how to approach galleries, what their models are, how as an artist I could fit into that and create a relationship that's beneficial to both of us. I think in a way I knew how to sell myself to galleries because I was so used to sitting on the other side.
• 16:23
  And also just having confidence and having faith in the product that you're selling. So getting your artwork to a point where it's got the appeal for gallery owners and for people walking off the street. I think it's got to be unique. Uniqueness is a real, is a no brainer, really. It can't be run of the mill because otherwise you're up against everything.
• 16:46
  you know, 50,000 other artists painting one of the mills stuff. It's got to have a hook to it. And certainly when I've been selling artwork on behalf of artists and galleries, the more kind of unique stories you can have, the more unique the products are in themselves, the easier they are to sell, the easier it is to hook people onto them.
• 17:05
  um so getting that so making sure that your quality control is really high and really simple things like logistics that that the pieces you're work you're making travel well you know you can't have something just extremely fragile that you can't then get to a gallery you have to be able to sort of package it get it there um
• 17:26
  they like a story they like someone with a backstory um and you can spin that in any way you want to you know like some of the people that I've represented in the past um just go hard with um you know not qualifications or connections or anything but their own personal philosophy you know why they're doing what they're doing and why it's so intrinsic and other people galleries and buyers then have something to hook onto um
• 17:50
  There are lots of different, you know, there are people doing, making amazing queers from Instagram, being Instagram artists, you know, it's such a visual mode of communication where you're directly in contact with clients that can physically see you, see the process. That works phenomenally well for some people. It's not my bag. I mean, I like Instagram. I use it as a tool for sure, but it's not, my pieces are very tactile and they're very 3D.
• 18:16
  So personally, I think for mine, you need to be around them to experience that. It's a really integral part. And, you know, that, again, works quite nicely with the fact that I like working with galleries. So when you say, you know, you are approaching these galleries and they have a certain model that they work with, can you like specifically break it down? Like, how did you approach this, you know, XYZ gallery? And what does that working relationship look like?
• 18:42
  As in, are they buying the pieces from you? Do they just take it on commission? Do you work together to plan an exhibition? Like specifically, how does it work?
• 18:51
  Okay, so, I mean, firstly, getting to know galleries. There's no point trying to picture work at a gallery who sells something completely different from what you're producing. So market research is really important. Visiting physical galleries so that you understand the space, you can meet the people in person, go to art fairs. I mean, art fairs are amazing because it's, you know, like a hundred galleries smooshed together.
• 19:14
  And it's very annoying for the gallery owners at art fairs because they pay the fortune to be at the fair. So they don't want amateur artists coming and talking to them. But in terms of voyeurism and just getting the lay of the land, they are absolutely brilliant. You can almost whittle down your choices based on what's there. And then you can go and visit them in person and make communication.
• 19:34
  So just get talking, just get talking to people, phone them, email them, start a dialogue. Don't be annoying is very key at that point. See if they're looking for new artists, see if they're looking for people showing work like yours. And yeah, just get communicating. It varies massively. The vast majority of artwork is taken on Sarah Luritann.
• 19:56
  So you pay for the fabrication costs, obviously your time, you pay for the framing, you pay to get it to the gallery. That bit's sometimes they pay, sometimes you pay. But it's there, it's hanging on a wall. They give you wall space, they give you publicity and they facilitate sales for you. Obviously they've got their mailing lists. So they're hopefully, what they'll do is introduce you to a new audience and get some sales for you that way. And then we'll take a commission for doing that.
• 20:24
  And that's industry standards. It's a 50 percent commission. I've never on either side seen it be anything but that. It's very generalised. But I mean, you know, from and there are people who get really outraged by that, who don't like that as a specific.
• 20:41
  But having worked on the other side and run my own galleries, the overheads, you know, staff, rent, building, all of it is crazy. So to kind of not take 50 percent, I think is is unusual and probably fairly unsustainable, because if they're doing their jobs well, then they need to take a decent chunk of the RRP.
• 21:01
  And everyone should be happy with that. I mean, there are lots. So obviously, if you're selling directs to clients, you get to keep a lot more of it. You know, take out the fabrication costs and any logistics and then it's yours. So lovely. Keep those clients. Wonderful. Treat them nicely. You can even... And that's how Instagram artists definitely have the high ground is that they're taking much more of the proceeds. And there are even... I mean, I work with the publishers as well.
• 21:31
  predominantly with limited edition pieces. So not so much with the originals, but they do shift the originals with them as well. Once the, but they, they, oh, okay. So explain what publishers are. Publishers supply many galleries at once. So usually it's with prints. So they'll take an original, make prints from it, or sometimes it's just a print in its own right, and then distribute it to their kind of bank of galleries, which are usually all over the country, all over the world.
• 21:59
  you know, a lot of galleries. So the gallery will sell the piece of work. They will still take 50%. And then what's left will be split between you and the publisher. But these works generally are a lot easier to produce and a lot easier to... To scale. And to get at that. Exactly. So usually with artists...
• 22:19
  the the revenue is a is a bit of everything so you have some clients that you sell to directly and they're kind of your they're your your golden ones then you'll have galleries that you work with and if you work with them but then then great and you've got a good working relationship and they'll get your career going they'll they'll keep soaking that fire but you will have to give away more of the percentage
• 22:41
  And then if you work with a publisher, and a lot of people do, a lot of artists don't, but you know, then you give away another bit. But again, it's not always about just the money from sales. It's about what they can do for your profile as well. So, yeah, there's lots of different ways to get it done. Generally, it is the vast majority of products in galleries will be on sale or return.
• 23:05
  Got it. And, you know, that kind of works quite well, actually, because it does mean almost you can, if something's not doing so well in the gallery, you can pull it out, maybe try it in another one. They're very situational. You know, geography plays a really big factor
• 23:21
  So actually you can almost refresh your stock by just doing a bit of logistical handiwork. But, you know, it's a lot to keep on top of. And unless you really sort of hit the money shot, you've got to keep all of these avenues open and working at one time in order to make a decent living out of it. Because it is a it's a difficult thing to do. I mean, creative careers are challenging. They've got the reputation that they have for a reason, but they are incredibly rewarding.
• 23:51
  there isn't a lot of um creativity um it's it's business um and you know I spend a lot of my time managing the business rather than creating artwork so it's almost like full two full-time jobs at once yeah you have to do isn't it yeah oh my gosh absolutely yeah
• 24:12
  So at the moment, you have this amazing exhibition that's just come on in central London in Soho. And for something like that, how much do you need to invest in, you know, getting the product ready, getting everything, well, getting the art ready and, you know, shipping and logistics? And then how much are you likely to make from something like that? Like one kind of co, like all like solo exhibition, finding my words here.
• 24:40
  It really depends. I would say, if I'm being honest, the solo show in London is not a huge earner for me. It is expensive. There is a lot of very large scale artworks. So my framing bill is the biggest outlay that I have. Because of the nature of my work, I use really high quality frames that each one is custom made. Because my work is very 3D, they're very, very deep.
• 25:09
  um they've got art glass in which is this crazy really really beautiful transparent glass so for me it elevates the product using really expensive frames but there's no shortcuts to that the frames cost a fortune they just do what's an example of like the bill for ballpark for framing
• 25:28
  So this show is probably maybe three grand just in the frames. And that's none of the materials. That's just the frames. And there's only 10 pieces in this show. So, you know, they are expensive. And obviously you have to pay for all of that long before you ever see any return on the show itself. So you're almost using the successes of the last show to fund the next one. And you hope that that sort of keeps going.
• 25:57
  Art fairs, I've had a few art fairs this year and I've been incredibly lucky. They've all sold out and that was very unexpected. I don't know what happened this year. Something just took off. But so those ones, for me, if I do an art fair myself, so I physically stand there for the four days, five days that it's on selling my work to the public, I have to pay for this stand, but it's not crazy expensive. And I get 85% of the commission for the art fairs.
• 26:26
  um it does allow me to be a little bit more flexible my pricing allows me to offer discounts to people that I like um you know when I'm in the situation where you know if people are buying sort of multiples and things and it means that you can go down a little bit so those the fair that I did back in March which is the other art fair so that's the one that's organized by Saatchi and held in London I sold out that fair it was phenomenal and almost the money that I made from that has been funding the stuff since and we'll fund and we'll fund the sun and has been
• 26:55
  in London. So obviously, as I said, it's a small gallery. There are only, is it 10 pieces? 10 big pieces. The gallery take a 50% commission. So the back comes off. Gallery takes 50% commission. What's my framing costs? And my materials are really expensive as well. I mean, resin's phenomenally expensive. The glitter that I use is ridiculous.
• 27:16
  financially, but it makes a difference. Like it really does. So once you take all of that off, you're not actually left with a vast amount of money. But for me, this has been such a good PR stunt. You know, I've had so much attention from it.
• 27:31
  And so are you able to share, for example, even if it's just ballpark, what kind of revenue that you would make in the course of this year, for example, or what you're kind of projected to make in the course of a year? Not considering like the profit side of things, but more like revenue.
• 27:47
  It is a hard one because this year has been such an anomaly. I did not go into this year expecting the success that we've had. We have, I sat down and tried to work out some of the finances and I am expecting to turn over about 450k in artwork sales. So if you add up the RRP of everything that I have made that will be sold in a 12-month period, we're looking forward.
• 28:15
  about 450k now the way that trickles down obviously some of it's some of it's 85 profit some of it's 20 profit so it is very very varied and I haven't yet sat down and worked out what that actually translates as in real money um but even just that it's 450k in sales of artwork for me is phenomenal like I never would have I never would have even anticipated that
• 28:41
  at the beginning of this year, which is when I decided to really go for it. So, yeah, it's been it's been very unexpected and I'm having to sort of roll with it and see and make things up as I go along a lot of the time and make decisions on the hoof about what's next based on the successes of what's gone before. So, yeah, I mean, it's very, very, it's very, very roller coaster, but it is great and I'm loving it. And it's all very interesting and fun. Yeah.
• 29:09
  And, yeah, it's like any other business. You know, in 10 years' time, imagine where you'll be if you stick with that consistency of creating and learning and iterating, you know, 10 years down the track. Absolutely, and just the knowledge. It could be very lucrative. It would be amazing. I mean, obviously, when you wing things, when you're playing reactionary,
• 29:30
  it's very easy to get things wrong um that I should be looking at a bigger picture and I should be going with a bit more knowledge rather than gut feeling and even things like materials like I should it's very clear now that I should be buying in massive bulk quantities but the way that it's been presented itself is because I've been sort of guided by what's selling what isn't is that I haven't felt able to do that even with a year under my belt I think I'll be able to look back and think right
• 29:58
  what where are my huge expenses and there are some of the materials we just have seen um how can i minimize that and maximize the profits um there's a lot of stuff that i could do a bit further down the line actually i could probably do it now if i just stopped long enough to do it um where i could i could
• 30:15
  get much more profit from what's going on. But it's been such a ride that actually I'm sort of just enjoying it for what it is now. There's plenty of time to get serious down the line. Right now, I'm just enjoying being part of it. That's amazing. And I read that you have, you know, some celebrity buyers of your art.
• 30:36
  most notably Margot Robbie, Australian bombshell. Margot, beautiful Margot. I know, God. What? So that happened. Time to happen. So I was showing at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea with a lovely gallery called the Art Agency, who do most of my affordable art fairs specifically, but lots of other stuff too. And so we had a lovely stand, and on the stand I had this piece that was
• 31:02
  A Barbie profile, so a beautiful Barbie with a big swishing ponytail, side view, and it was incredibly pink. And in amongst the many, many thousands of pills, there were little tiny like jewels, but really glowing jewels. It was just completely over the top, pink Barbie extravaganza.
• 31:21
  um so it began with I had a message on Instagram from a guy who is a personal trainer who works with Margot Robbie Margot Robbie was at Warner Brothers filming the Barbie movie so he's there with her every day making sure she keeps in shape Margot Robbie is if she needs to try and keep in shape but that's what he does um and he messaged me saying I've just seen it it's amazing I'm in Warner Brothers this is what I do so we ended up having a dialogue he was going to buy it and I was sort of
• 31:48
  I was thinking, how can we, like, can you put it on your wall in Warner Brothers and then take some photos, maybe get like Margot in the office walking in front of it. And he was, so I had this dialogue with him going. And then the gallery phoned me and said, oh, it's just sold online by the website. So I went back to this guy's name is David Higgins, lovely guy, amazing personal trainer, and said, oh.
• 32:06
  um I thought we were going to talk about maybe and he was like I didn't I didn't buy it he said I did share it with Margot so I did share the reel a bit with Margot and Margot had swooped in and bought it like just online um so we had it delivered to Warner Brothers and it's going to her office in LA which is a beautiful that's so cool how much was the piece
• 32:28
  uh oh it was a three about three grand oh my gosh this is so cool so you're gonna have photos with her in the office well I hope so the trouble is the thing is with this with David is that I was gonna offer him a discount on the basis of like not not a massive discount but a discount to hang it in Warner Brothers take some photos Margot just paid full price for it so I've got no negotiating whatsoever
• 32:52
  But she is after it happened. I was actually driving back from London from the fair and thinking, I can't think of a single person I would rather buy my work than Margot Robbie. I can't think of one. I still can't. You know, she's just such a goddess and she just epitomizes it so beautifully. Oh, my gosh. But it really was. Cool story. I love that. That's so amazing. Gosh. What does the future hold for you? What's next?
• 33:20
  Well, I think it's essential for me to ride this wave while it lasts. I mean, I would hope that my work has a long lasting appeal to people, but you never know. It's a funny industry. It's a fickle industry a lot of the time. So I'm going to make hay while the sun shines. I'm going to, I've got a bunch of fairs coming up.
• 33:40
  and art fairs have been great for me this year I mean I love an art fair just people en masse buying Frenzy they're brilliant just tap into all of that so I've got another affordable in October I've got another Saatchi the other art fair also in October actually I've got a little cheeky one coming up at the very beginning of July which is just going to be popsicles
• 33:58
  It's going to be a little sort of experience on a tiny scale. That's at King's Cross the very first weekend in July. And otherwise, my Instagram keeps on track of everything that I'm doing. My Instagram is emmagibbonsart. And my website is emma-gibbons.co.uk. Because it is very...
• 34:19
  of the moment. I tend to this show in Soho, I only had two and a bit months to plan that one. And I'm envisaging something else for the end of the year as well, something that I will pick up and just run with. I think there's a little crowbar opening in sort of November, early December. So I'd like to plan something special for. So yeah, best way is to sort of keep track of me on the socials and on the website.
• 34:40
  Oh my gosh, that is so exciting. I'm so excited for you. I'll have to pop in and see the July exhibition for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, do. Come and get your pop skill on with me. Come and get a pop skill. Love that.
• 34:55
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 35:20
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 35:42
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 35:59
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 36:23
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 36:46
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.