Down to the Wire

It’s down to the wire here. I’m about to install next week. Am I ready? Well, yes and no.

Pretty much yes though. Everything is ready to go except the movie is totally last minute. I think I’ve mentioned this before.

But enough about that. I haven’t really stopped to think about how I am doing.

I don’t know.

Yesterday I had lunch with my good friend Ellie Blankfort and she passed on a really wise piece of advice, which was, Don’t plan for disaster. I think that’s what it was. Something like that.

This was in reference to how I will be feeling after the show, or at least once the reception is here and gone. For every artist, there is inevitably a let down, whether it is a successful show or not. It just is. But it’s a natural feeling.

You work and work and work for this GOAL: the show. Then you feel the satisfaction of it once you see it realized. For me, this happens on the last day of installation – not the reception. The reception scares me to death. I feel my peak excitement and accomplishment when I see it all put together in the gallery. I actually kind of dread the reception, but I know I have to go through with it and I also wouldn’t feel whole without it either.

But then there’s the reality of the next day. And then the days after. Then what? There’s no Huge goal in sight. Not yet anyway. Not at that moment. It’s a let down. It’s all your energy deflating and you feel a bit depressed.

In my case, I can get a lot depressed, but I shouldn’t plan for disaster.

I already have plans to take my last landscape paintings to a brand new place. Sorry everybody that might like them the way they are, but I want to obstruct them more …a lot even. I think if I loosen them up they could be really interesting. I’m starting to get excited about trying it.

Also, I will need to get out of the house. Try not to isolate to purposely make myself not fall into a pit of despair.

I am waiting on results from a couple of residencies too. You never know. The way my luck has been going lately, it could be more good news.

And for my blog, I wanted to start giving out some basic advice for beginner artists. I just don’t want to come across like some kind of know-it-all snob or something. I actually want to help, so I am working on putting together a little series on helping artists out. I’d love to mentor someone too if you know anyone that could use someone like me. I wouldn’t charge much, or I would just use them for studio work exchange.

And these are my thoughts for now.

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