No Big Deal

"Queen Nefer-Cindy" Self portrait sculpture
made from life-size plaster casting, found object
paint brushes, paint tubes, gold leaf.

Normally I don’t make any New Year’s resolutions because I can’t keep them for longer than about 10 days. I’m usually rejuvenated in the Fall and somehow have always considered my “New Year” to be in September. Weird huh? Maybe not so weird when I think about it, because my birthday is in September. Hmm, birth, rebirth, New Year? In thinking about how I see the coming New Year, three words did pop into my head this morning that I’m going to try and live by in 2012, No-Big-Deal. I’m going to try and not make such a big deal about things.  Try and not turn into (more of) a curmudgeon or not let my spirit get older. OK, I admit this was after I had a total moment of “road anger” on New Year’s Day after some guy driving behind us LAID HIS HORN ON me as the light turned green because I was WAITING FOR A PEDISTRIAN TO SLOWLY CROSS THE ICY STREET in the cross walk! This really set me off and as I calmed down I thought to myself I am NOT going to throw my car in reverse at a HIGH RATE OF SPEED or to have negative energy set the direction of my New Year! Truth be it known, Daddy-O (who was riding with me) and I both were ready to kick this young punk's ass in the grocery store (liquor store) parking lot where both cars were heading. Then we saw that he was about 90 years old and felt sorry for the old, cranky, fat fart. He was in more of a hurry than we were to get our New Year’s beverages! 

I’ve had a couple of e-mails from artist friends who want to make more art in the coming New Year. They asked me how to get back into the swing of more art making, or what do I do to re-inspire myself. I wish it were a bit more magical for me but before I start any creative project, my house needs to be in order. My studio needs to be de-cluttered, or “first things first” as I like to say. It’s different for everybody but I would also recommend, surrounding yourself with all things artful, be kind to your process, let yourself up, kick the critic out of the room and be physically and mentally fit. Three books in my library that I also like to refer to are Creative Time and Space, Creative Awakenings, and Drawing Lab. Here is also a link for ten ways to stimulate your creative juices and generate fresh inspiration - Ten Tips to Inspire Creativity. I have a handful of REALLY COOL projects I'm working on that I'll be able to share in the coming weeks. We are taking today to "get our house in order" before the post Holiday, work week of real life turns us into our mere mortal selves at the stroke of midnight tonight! Happy New Year dear Blog friends, I appreciate your faithful reading.

My Mom sent this photo of me when I was about two. This is how I want to picture myself in 2012 -HOLD ON!

Be Positive & Just Keep Swimming

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!”