Managing what comes my way
The week is flying by with appointments, sick child, business management, late night screen printing, and a birthday.
Had a first treatment for a recently diagnosis of hemochromatosis. While it’s an incredibly manageable condition, I find it fascinating that old fashioned bloodletting is the remedy. Thankfully my blood is good and can be used for donation.
The most noticeable symptom for me was fatigue, which can be caused by many things. Because we typically dismiss psychological symptoms I didn’t give my levels of agitation and trouble focusing much thought, until I read that these, too, are symptoms. Interesting.
After just one treatment, I feel better. Not sure if it’s a coincidence, but I’m counting on the flow of work to be better.
Catapult presentations
Creative Connections Conference
Big drawing in progress
Pulled (not pork)
Feeling pulled in too many distracting directions. Trying to create space and time to work. Business woes, orders to process while postponing making a decision, upcoming conference presentation (with some regret for committing).
Also trying to organize family and daily life, finances, health concerns, and keeping connected.
Checking stuff off the lists only to have accumulated more.
aaaargh
Wrapped up in the business of screen printing (well- managing orders at least). Frustrating for a few reasons.... It certainly doesn't bring the same satisfaction as drawing right now.
The weather has gotten cold and my outdoor workspace has not been ideal the last few days. Spent some time this week cleaning and making room to work inside the house. A finished studio in the out building is the dream, but that's way off in the plan.
restless, Agitated, unfocused
Distracted by life, etc. I don’t seem to have the fluidity for watercolor today. I may be able to save this work later, but need to work on the agitation first.
ArtsLink NB: Going Critical
Hearing about the funding opportunities made the weekend in Sackville worthwhile. Meeting like-minded artists was a delightful surprise. This was a great networking opportunity and I particularly pleased to have met Dawn Steeves and Carol Colicutt from Fredericton. When feeling isolated, it is so nice to come across others who speak the same language. I now I am not alone on that sentiment either.
Hearing about good things happening with Visual Arts in NB was promising.
One of the biggest take-aways for me was the importance of exhibiting one's work. Most funding opportunities require it, and it's imperative for creating creative discourse. In my case, I have a couple of huge steps to take before arriving there.
Since I was asked a few times to see some examples of my work, I've realized that you should have something on you. I had my phone with, but have since created an album on it with just ART, so if you pass it to someone to flip through, they also don't have to flip through photos of your family. That was a 2 minute solution. Having a business card or something with a website would be helpful too. I've got all these resources in place for my business, and will have to produce and curate the same for art.
Arriving home, I made a handful of connections online to people that I met over the weekend. I am pleased to be building community.
Visit to Barbara’s Studio
I had a nice visit with Barbara Safran deNiverville in her very pleasant space in Riverview. She was generous with her time and in sharing her experiences with me. She is currently continuing work that has evolved from a residency in Iceland; a series of large landscapes.
I was impressed by the way the work has evolved since she retired form teaching and am dreaming of having that peace of mind and time/energy to create. Barbara made several good suggestions for me about joining artists groups, about residencies, and about opportunities to exhibit.