Very Inspiring Blog Award ~and lessons in Putting It Out There

Happy Monday! It was my fiance’s birthday this weekend, so I took the time off to just enjoy spending time with her 🙂 It was an excellent reminder that you need to stay in the moment with the people you love. I think it can be especially hard for artists to do that. We have so many things pulling on our time, constantly. Have you searched for calls for artists today? Have you painted/printed/drawn today? Have you written a blog post today? Have you looked for new art jobs on craigslist today? Have you updated your artist statement/bio/CV? Have you photographed your work? Have you updated your portfolio?

Ahhh! It’s all enough to drive you mad!

But then, you add rejection into the list. Ugh. I’m not the most out-going person. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. What I really mean is that it scares me silly to put myself and my work out there when I am not 99.9 percent sure that I/my work am/is going to be well received. I think that’s why I didn’t submit to a lot of shows when I was in college. Who wants to deal with not “getting in”? I spent the first 23 years of my life “not caring if I got in” why on earth would I start now? Except, that seems to be what this whole art thing is about, right? Believing in yourself, your skills, your capability to do something that no one else can do. You have to put it out there.

Rough Night 2010
It wasn’t until I completed this painting for my first ever oil painting class that I thought, ok, maybe I really can be an artist. Maybe I really can figure this shit out. Until then, I thought it would be a hobby; something I did on the side. I never thought I was good enough to be the ‘real thing’.

Now I need to start submitting my work to shows and trying to get into galleries… and you know, try to make some money off my art. Oh, and get into graduate school. That’s terribly nerve wracking! What do you do when you don’t get in? I know, I know, don’t let it bother you – hundreds and thousands of artists weren’t well received at first blah blah blah. I know all that. It doesn’t change that it all bloody sucks, does it?

I guess that is just the risk you have to take. If you leap for the next step, you just might fall on your ass. Get up and jump again.

So, with all this in mind, it was really great to receive a sweet note from Claire of Dawndancers tell me she has nominated me for a ‘Very Inspiring Blog Award’.

So, here are the rules:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. State seven things about yourself.

4. Nominate fifteen other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

Seven Things About Me:

1) I have two cats, Sasha and Izzy. Sasha has long, fluffy black hair and she is my feline doppelganger. (We have the same personality, in separate bodies) Izzy is my fiance’s little love bug. I think they look a little alike.

Izzy curled up for a nap

Sasha when she was a wee kitten

2) I used to be a vegetarian. It lasted for… almost a year and a half? I think?

3) I am getting married this July — and I haven’t started planning a single thing! Oops!

4) My favorite color is purple. But I think light tealish turquoise is a close second.

5) I haven’t dyed my hair since May and it’s slowly killing me inside.

6) I started baking all my bread over the summer and since then I have been completely converted. No more store bought bread for me, thank you very much!

7) I am a total sucker for romantic comedies and romantic period films. Downton Abbey took me over. I also watch ‘Something’s Gotta Give‘ whenever I feel blue.

My Nominations, in no particular order:

• Chloe
• Bound and Gagged
• Elencaravela’s Blog
• Life Out of The Box
• Six Glasses of Water
• Raising My Rainbow
• Hovercraft Doggy
• Jaclyn Kate
• A Passionate, Fragmentary Girl
• Maybrick’s Canon Shots
• Lisa Kairos: Open Studio
• garyschollmeier
• Undecided
• Thoughts on Theater
• Mandy Greer