Seriously

A friend posted this on her Facebook page and I laughed out loud.

I can relate to all these scenarios!

 

 I am currently overwhelmed with the never ceasing ritual of submitting work for exhibitions all over the world. I like the process of shifting through what I have made and in many ways it sparks me to make something else, explore other themes and mostly "get a move on"

I am working with a stack that has me busy submitting work through March.

Then there will be another round.

 

I can currently be found with a bottomless cuppa tea, a pair of magnifying glasses

and a very tired highlighter or two.

 

 

 

What's in a name

OK so for the last two days I have had a series of images ready to leave and enter a competition, except I can not fill out the form because they are not named yet.

Naming my work is one of the most stressful time consuming parts of art making for me.

Sometimes, I get lucky and the name comes to me while I am making it,

or at least a working name...

but these two have so far eluded me.

I use to name everything "untitled" because the stress of finding a name

was overwhelming,

As you can imagine that too created a problem:

"which untitled piece were you referring to?"

I have found that over time my work is coming from a deeper and more raw place...

so it seems like I need to label these little bits and parts that bubble to the surface.

Hence today's dilemma

So to try and jostle an idea to come forward, I do other things...often that cost me money!

It seems the act of spending money makes me flee indoors

and into the studio re-pledging myself

to focus on my art and path and dreams.

I am still not sure why this is the case, but I have currently:

re-newed my passport

gotten new business cards

and

 lace for a petticoat I hope to sew, in my "free time"

I am still listening for the names

Big Girl

The piece that made the show card:
"The warm wind filled the air with dry earth"

I dropped off three new pieces of work to a big time gallery. I awoke early, anxious and excited....but mostly anxious.

I had a short but real questioning with myself about the quality and value of my work...it was a short speech.

I drove into Santa Barbara and delivered my work to a white walled gallery, and chatted with the super nice  lady who changed the spelling of my name and took my work into the back, behind the scenes. I could hear her walk away and feel a bubbling sense of pride with every one of her steps.

I had hoped to get some work into this gallery, I had said a little word....and here I am 1 year later.

WOW

I am still in shock, but have many distractions before Thursday so I think that floating feeling will last for a little while longer.

To ground myself even further, I spent the afternoon making terriaums for the two holiday boutiqes I have coming up this week. Living gifts...life in a cubicle.

Submit to the submission

I am submitting an edition to a printmaking show and have been stressing about it for a while...I have been trying to find the right subject, imagine the image and then make it.

It has been rough going.

This morning after much sweat and stomachaching, I actually heard the ticking of the deadline.

I realized then... 

I was over thinking it, I simply needed to pick an image I wanted to make and have fun.

So with Mexico playing France today in World Cup and the conversation I had with my hubby about the amount of DRAMA the two teams are known for it came to me!

Artist proof of image, color to come next

Thank goodness Mexico was the bigger drama queen and won or this would have all been silly.

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.