We all turned into pumpkins this morning after our Cinderella-holiday-ski-gluttony came to an end –whew. The big kids and friends went back to Fairbanks (where it is a freezing 30 below zero!) and both Gus and Daddy-O are back to school. I even worked Sunday applying for another artist’s opportunity so
Monday wouldn’t hurt so much. I used to make a bunch of New Years resolutions but haven’t the last few years as Fall has always been more a time of renewal for me. There are always life-stuffs I tell myself I could use improvement on, like my overall beauty/fitness, staying positive and motivated, not swearing etc. and the start of a new year is a good time to recommit I suppose. I broke the not swearing resolution idea on the morning of January 1 yelling “grab that damn dog!” as the puppy squirted out the door shooting for the street! Oh well.
The staying positive and motivated got a jump start yesterday when I received a rejection letter for a 1% for Art project I applied for in October. The stressful mental gymnastics I go through when I apply for a juried show or a percent project sometimes outweighs the sheer euphoria you feel when you do win or get accepted. I’ve never done well with rejection and I’ve learned over the years I’m much more competitive than I care to admit –just ask Daddy-O… So after a “thanksbut no thanks” letter I just tell myself “you can’t catch if you don’t fish” and applied for another project.
For the public art project I applied for yesterday I used the new on-line Café system for the first time. The Fairbanks Airport is seeking artwork for their new terminal with several wall spaces and one hanging venue available. The bulk of the 1% work for the project has already been selected and installed. This opportunity is a smaller, total budget of $40,000 for several locations within in the airport. For the hanging area opportunity I proposed my steel Geese that could be installed in as few as a single pair, or several Geese being displayed as a flock forming a “V” migration pattern.
It took me all day to complete the application but mainly because I wasn’t reading the on-screen error messages when I had uploading issues. I had to edit my resume and letter of intent to their generic cut and paste format. Plus, I needed to convert all of my images to Cafés specifications using Photoshop, which I have thank goodness. The specs were 1920 x 1920 pixels with a black background and no files larger than 1.8 mb. Each image had to include the title, medium/process, sizes, detailed description of the work and value or price. The good news is there was an on-line pdf file that led me step by step as to how the images should be converted for the jury process. I admit there were a couple times I was a bit frustrated and almost gave-up BUT remembered one of my pseudo-resolutions to stay positive and motivated. The rejection letter bummed me out but I know as independent working artists we have to stay motivated and positive, keep making art or be banished to a fluorescent cubical somewhere! Or in the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming!”
9 comments:
I was wonderfing why geese should be swimming till I read your whole post. I love the geese, there is something magical to me about suspended art. Sorry about the previous application, keeping my fingers crossed about this one. Regarding the resolutions, fitness and swearing should definitely be on mine.
Your geese are spectacular! Happy New Year!
You described that resolution stuff just right -- no sooner do you re-commit than the universe sends in the challenge -- 'dam' dog anyway! Or you promise to start your diet & then immediately get an invite to a decadent dinner & drinks with friends. You just can't win -
Same for entering these juried shows - sometimes it's just not a good fit no matter how good your art is -- just have to keep applying.
Happy New Year!!
Hey Cindy- I can quit the bad words either!
I have decided to just keep a few, cause at the right time they just seem, well, so right.
My word last year for the year was focus.
This year it is enjoy.
The other night I dreamed Mark and I were swimming through some gross brown water holding onto things we needed as I keep saying, "just keep your head up."
Swim on!
M
Sorry about the rejection -- I know that it never gets easier for me.
But here's an upper for you -- I saw you on TV last night! You looked and sounded fabulous and your mountainscape was gorgeous!
oh well done cindy i love the geese idea, yep best thing move on and apply for the next one, you seem to have ideas 'flying well'...excellent!
and here that's not considered swearing so your'e still on track!!! :p
and you seem to swim very well :)
Don't you hate those damn show applications, they are such a pain in the ass. I didn't resolve to stop using swear words because I like them too much haha!! But seriously, who comes up with those applications anyway? They are hateful!!!!
Damn is a swear word? Huh. That's just a gimmee here, where my 9 year-old thankfully edits what he hears and cleans it up before he repeats it to his grandparents. I am married to a police officer, after all, so I use that as a frequent excuse. :)
I have to agree that some of the on-line show or grant applications have become so high tech that you need a lot of technology experience just to fill them out. The old-fashioned gal in me misses the days of sending in slides with photocopied applications filled out by hand. But I will admit that the digital images we can get of our work and submit for shows these days really puts our work in a much better light than the old slides.
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