Meltdown in something else

So I was looking at the local artist union site last Friday and it lead to my computer having a TOTAL meltdown!

A whole weekend and several hundred dollars later I have a new computer system. Cooked my hard drive took over my system....it was a mess!

Good news: I was able to save all my files including my image files!

For the last couple of weeks I have been up to my ears in side projects,

• I set up a website for a fellow artist, Donna Carver
• I did a ton of inspection reports for my brothers machine shop
• I got my work space together and moved into
• I got another rejection letter

All this and barely any art making time for me, as I have been also setting personal goals.

Good thing: I sold these two pieces this last weekend, and plan a barter for another!

I tend to be motivated by deadlines, I like to plan to meet them. I am a list maker and LOVE to cross things off my lists. I have set some lofty goals for myself this month and only July knows what the rest of the days holds for me or my desires to be a productive artist.

Sometimes though....being an artist is not a switch that can easily turned on for production.

With all these goals I sometimes find myself on the patio eating huge amounts of watermelon wondering why I am not in the workroom making something!

Sometimes the stress of making is, well stressful!

I fight off thoughts of being a freeloader or a fake, just long enough to cross something else off my list.

Today I crossed off a daunting goal, I submitted work to the George Eastman House!

July is the only month that they accept unsolicited work, so even though I do not expect much...I had to check it off my list. Kind of like buying that lottery ticket. It is fun to feed into the fantasy.

By the time the work was all gathered, letter signed, statements and CV in order I was questioning the quality and strength of my work. Was I wasting someones time?

Needless to say, the envelope is in the mail and I have sent my hopes out into the universe.