Good News/Bad News Makes For Even Steven

Susan Ellis of Artique was kind enough to meet me at the Gallery early yesterday morning so I could deliver my three sculpture pieces for the upcoming show. I was lucky to find a parking meter right in front of the Gallery downtown that still had over an hour on it! In my family, anytime we have a bit of good luck we say “I found a dime!” The other good news is that I was pleasantly surprised to find that Artique is featuring my “Spring Nest Topiary” on the promotional material and the poster looked lovely. A perfect grouping of artist’s works celebrating the coming of Spring and not too soon –this snow is getting old.

The bad news is I received a rejection e-mail from the Artful Home Call for Ornaments.

“Hello Cindy, Our ornament team has been frantically working to put together the 2010 Artful Home Ornament Collection, and it was wonderful to see your ornament. I am sorry to tell you that at this point, your ornament has not been selected. As we expand the non-glass offering for next year, we will have a much better idea of what possibilities are out there. (Huh?...) Thank you for submitting to the Ornament Jury.”

I suspected my copper, Good Fortune Pea Pod would not be included after I saw a Blog post on The Artful Life, the Artful Home Blog that included a photo of a table full of glass ball ornament submissions. I looked at the photo and didn’t see any copper pea pods anywhere in the heap of glass ornaments… oh well. Technically, my "Good Fortune Pea Pod" is not an “ornament” but the merchandising folks at Artful Home thought that’s where the pod would fit best -Not. It does save me from having to make over 100 of those suckers because even after making just two dozen of them my fingertips are raw!

The other bad news is that Gus’ 6^th grade play has been postponed yet again from this Friday to next Friday, April 9^th. Originally, the play was supposed to happen

in March but the class was not even close to being ready. The reason for the postponement this time is that a new rule within the Anchorage School District is that there can be no after school activities during certain religious holidays… As the volunteer parent coordinator and backdrop/set design artist, I really was hoping we could get this production over with but on the positive side, the additional rehearsal time will benefit the kids. The tough part for me was fielding the frustrated (angry) calls from parents who have had to change their already full calendars again –I didn't determine any of the dates for the play and I still don’t understand how parents think I can possibly be responsible for the Easter Holiday OR a new ASD policy. Now, the GOOD NEWS about the play being moved to NEXT Friday is now Daddy-O and I are free to attend all the First Friday art events this Friday night in Anchorage!! YAAAY! Hey, maybe I did subconsciously have something to do with the Easter Bunny not wanting to see “The Princess and the Pea” this Friday…

Will Make Art For Kudos

Yes, it’s all about the process, but I’ll take a side order of Kudos anytime. I’ve read Blogs where artists who sell their work on ETSY have been selected as a Featured Seller or their work was highlighted on the opening ETSY page. What a wonderful feeling to get your work recognized, selected out of hundreds of others. Those little affirmations can be uplifting and be just the thing that keeps us working artists creating and moving forward. I’m not an ETSY artist but I am an Artful Home & Guild Artist and one of my new Leaf sculptures was selected to appear on their opening Blog page, The Artful Life! “Autumn Pond Leaves II” is in the upper right hand corner under the heading “Great New Piece!” At first when I linked to the Artful Home Blog page I thought maybe it was just my browser that popped my work in the upper right hand corner –weird thinking, I know.  But I sincerely wondered if they had really picked one of MY sculptures for the page! It caught me by surprise

that my work would get selected from the hundreds of very talented artists, and I admit being selected MADE MY WEEK –Yippee! That confirmation, affirmation,positive reinforcement, along with those grateful customers, appreciative Galleries, or being selected into a juried show or better yet, selling a big fat piece, I admit can go a long way for me to continue working as a full time artist.  Kudos can offset those times of waiting for a check in the mail, dry spells of inspiration, fussy critical customers, lagging Gallery sales, late night or early morning show set-ups, pricing, tagging, accounting, packaging and shipping, long days in the Studio or just plain lack of artistic confidence. Sales are the ultimate sustainer but recognition also works for me. The timing of the Artful Home recognition was good because I have a full weekend of production scheduled and needed a little morale boost!I’m going to be doing repetitive task production of hand beading and tagging my Good Fortune Pea Pods and Happy Halibut Ornaments for the upcoming Bad Girls Show.  I don’t do very well with repetitive tasks but I have had multiple requests for the Pea Pods and Halibut (Orna‘Butts) to be at Bad Girls so I’m getting after it. 

I love both items when their finished, it’s just making so many multiples of anything is hard for me. I’ve created a cool story tag that goes with the Pea Pods and bought some lovely sheer ribbon to use as ties. I’m looking forward to having a box filled with the ornaments because I’ll feel rich with all of the inventory being ready for the Show. I like it when my coffers are full! The good news is my hands are properly callused to do all the hand work as the last of the huge Birch trees dropped their leaves I finally raked the entire Anchorage yard yesterday. Daddy-O was impressed when he got home, gave me a squeeze and poured me my favorite cold beverage, again just enough recognition to sustain me.