Do-overs

I think everyone is in agreement that 2011 was a great, big flop. It had me thinking, "What is I could do the whole year over? Take the good throw-out the bad?" Obviously, I can not turn-back time, but I can. . . have some mad fun with my journal/sketchbook from last-year!

I'm pretty neurotic about my sketchbooks. I've gotten it in my head that they have to remain in some sort of sequential order, one day's work building upon the next and, when they are complete, they shall remain in whatever condition for all of eternity.

Screw that! Last-year sucked and why can I not reconstruct the stupid sketchbook??? Tear-out the pages, re-order them or throw them out! Who cares???

So that is what I am doing. I've taken the "best of" 2011, pasted them in random spots in a brand-new sketchbook and I'm doing them over.

I've been on this gigantic kick of "process" lately. Building-up my thoughts and my work, rather than jumping straight to the canvas. This new sketchbook has become a huge part of that. My thinking was, "The work I'm doing now, with little forethought or effort has gotten me into a gallery. . . What if I put a wee bit more effort into my work???"

I suspect we all already know the answer to that. ;-)

Anyway! This is my first "redo" of the year. . .

Yep, I'm Still Around

I've been quite neglectful with updates here lately and I'd love to say it's because I've been horribly busy, but the truth is that I have been incredibly sick and having all sorts of. . . "whining artist moments."

In May, it will have been a year since I committed to really working at my art on a full-time basis. I got this big, fancy studio, updated my Facebook page and started blogging more regularly. I have shared most of that here. What I haven't shared was a lot of submitting my artwork to various galleries, looking for new freelance jobs and all the other boring stuff that goes along with art as a career. What I haven't shared is. . . a lot of rejection.

Rejection wears on a person. No matter how much they say, "Oh, I'm tough! This is part of the territory and I can do this!" Rejection will get anyone down and I've been quite down. I had given myself one-year to make something happen. If not by then, for the sake of my sanity and that of my family, I would call it a day and look for a "real job."

One year from May 2011. . .

I am more than half-way there. I have a horrible cold, the rent on my studio has wreaked havoc on my finances, my frustrated artist attitude is wearing on my family. . . It's not been fun. But I have until May. . . Move forward. Head up. Keep going!


Within the last week:

Two clients I have not heard from in a year have contacted me for freelance work.

I booked another show. (this is a total of three this Spring/Summer)

I am now a gallery represented artist!

I'm still sick, but I am at-least laughing a bit now. This last week is such a perfect example of my life and my relationship with the universe. It has a history of testing me; Pushing me to the absolute brink and then. . .

This time. . . I passed!

Anyway! Much updates to come. I must have 6 to 8 mixed-media pieces completed for my gallery opening in April, along with enough work for the other shows I had previously committed to. It's absolute craziness, but I am loving it!

Illustration Friday - Grounded

from my sketchbook

“Winter came in days that were gray and still. They were the kind of days in which people locked in their animals and themselves and nothing seemed to stir but the smoke curling upwards from clay chimneys and an occasional red-winged blackbird which refused to be grounded. And it was cold. Not the windy cold like Uncle Hammer said swept the northern winter, but a frosty, idle cold that seeped across a hot land ever lookung toward the days of green and ripening fields, a cold thay lay uneasy during during its short stay as it crept through the cracks of poorly constucted houses and forced the people inside huddled around ever-burning fires to wish it gone.” 
― Mildred D. Taylor, Let the Circle Be Unbroken