The artist's life: For the longest time, I've moaned and groaned about being mortififed about sharing my work and comparing my skills, either in my head or in cyberspace, to that of artists who really kick booty. For the last couple of days, I've been looking at my wonderful cyberfriend Debbie's work and, thanks HUGELY to her constant positive feedback and that of my mates on Milliande, I am really, truly enjoying just enjoying. I'm loving her work, and wishing my sister would put more of hers in cyberspace for others to enjoy (hint, hint Lisa!) and feeling inspired by them instead of whooping myself. Of course I'm at the studio desk trying to make a new piece and laughing at the face right now, but it's fun chuckling instead of self-berating chuckling. This is a good feeling.
My wonderful friend Deb has asked me for another couple of pieces for the next annual Boys & Girls Club fundraiser, giving me tons of notice (I have until October). She shared that this was a personal request of a board member that was outbid by my husband last year. He is forbidden to participate this year! He can just write them a check and let me see what happens. I'm happy to have this much time to work and am eager to get hopping.
I also made a personal commitment to participate in every swap in Paper Cloth Scissors as long as I have the basic skills required to do so. The next swap is for a holiday project for which I feel infinitely more qualified to participate given my obsession with holiday decor. This will be fun!
On the Mom front: It's hard to get studio time in when Kevin has huge projects for school. He is so lost when it comes to organized thinking and is mentally overwhelmed by the big picture when it comes to these projects. He had to write an analytical paper, create a PowerPoint presentation on the top that will run simultaneously with a 5 minute oral presentation, followed by a visual presentation (they have a lot of creative options for this), with staggered deadlines. He sits like a deer in headlights and does nothing if I'm not sitting with him, asking questions and teaching him HOW to do the job (I refuse to be one of those mothers that does the job for their kid) so that he can succeed in college when Mom isn't there to help! We don't seem to be making much progress. It's very frustrating and, selfishly, time consuming. But it takes first priority, so I must get face-making while the time is available. I have about an hour and a half before I start hauling kids home. Ugh.
