A Quote to Keep in Mind

I read this over on the Green Paper blog and thought it would speak to a lot of us.

Here’s something to keep in mind on those days when you just think you don’t have it in you anymore to create.

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”-Ira Glass”

I found this to be so true of me and my art.  So on those days when things just don’t work, when it just seems that everything coming from beneath my hands is junk, when it seems that I will never create a half-way decent piece of art again, I’ll remember these words and know there is hope.

I’m Hosting a Tag Book Swap

I’m hosting a Tag Book Swap over on the AlteredPages-Artsociates blog where I am known as the Swap Princess.

The theme is Wild West and you will make a Tag Book using at least 5 tags.  Tags must be no smaller than 2-3/8” x 4-3/4” and can be bound with something as simple as a binder ring.  Decorating the back of the tags is not necessary, though I’ll probably place a theme-related picture on the back of mine just to cover the up the blah color of my tags.

Deadline to sign up is March 31st with the Tag Book mailed out to me no later than April 16th.  I’ll be hosting swaps on on a regular basis on the AlteredPages-Artsociates blog starting April 15th so if anyone has suggestions for themes or mediums to use, let me know.  All help is greatly appreciated!

For more information, click HERE, or you can email me at mcgoo4@gmail.com.

Angel-ing for Swaps

I have started hosting a regular, monthly ATC swap over on Milliande.  Hosting swaps comes with a lot of responsibility and I take that very seriously.  So, when I had several people “flake” on my last two swaps, I knew what I had to do.

I “Angel’d”.  The below cards are two of the ATCs that I made as “replacements” for the cards some of my participants never received.  

Most of the time, in my posts, I try to insert a little silliness; keep the tone light.  However, this time, I’m being serious.

If you make the commitment to participate in a swap, KEEP THAT COMMITMENT.  Yes, “Life” has a way of crashing in on you at the worst times.  I know, it happened to me recently.  However, if you are going to be late sending out a swap, please let your partner or partners know.  Most if not all will understand.  If for some reason you cannot fulfill your swap commitment, please let your hostess and your partner or partners know.  Show a little common courtesy.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.

I now have to ban at least three people from ever participating in my swaps.  They never replied to their partner’s inquiries nor to mine when I wrote to see if there was a problem in their life that was keeping them from completing the swap.  In their defense, maybe something horrible has happened (I truly hope not) & they can’t respond.  Maybe I will finally hear from them and if they have a good enough excuse, they will be readmitted to my swaps. 

People, a commitment is a promise.  Please keep it.

My Latest ATC - Embrace the Day

This card is for the April “Springtime in Paris” ATC swap over on the Blissful ATC Swap Blog. 

The background is fabric (I love to use fabric) and the pastel flowers are from my stash of Prima flowers.  The blue and white ones as well as the trailing white one were in a box of flower pieces gotten at auction.  The centers of the flowers are little self-adhesive half-pearls I found at Michael’s for $1.00 a package. 

Sorry for the shadows.  I am having to take my pictures outside (haven’t had time to set up my desktop picture studio yet) and the sun wasn’t quite overhead anymore.  Sunshine makes wonderful pictures if you can get everything set right, it’s just that I’m definitely no photographer!

This was one of the easier cards I’ve made.  I normally have trouble with any type of Spring theme since me and pastels don’t get along very well, but this just fell together in a short amount of time.  Guess thinking about what I was going to do off and on for a week helped!

Favorite Artist ATCs–Lesson Learned

NEVER NEVER NEVER choose Salvador Dali as you Favorite Artist on which to base ATCs.  I spent nearly three weeks beating my head against a wall (figuratively) trying to finish 6 ATCs using his art as my theme.  LOVE his paintings, HATE turning them into ATCs.

I’ll post the pictures but in this instance, I can honestly say the photos do not do the cards justice.  These are not flat, printed pictures and nothing else.  These have actually been turned into 3D ATCs.  You just can’t see thanks to the camera.  There’s no depth of field. 

I literally could not think of anything else to do.  Flowers, nope; ribbons, nope; metal embellishments, nope.  NOTHING else worked.  I did end up using some vintage pieces of jewelry and a few embellishments that seemed to fit the theme.  Also, on several of the ATCs, you can see I used acrylic blocks in order to include a picture of the artist himself.  In person, they look amazing.  I used a 3-dimensional glue to adhere the picture to the acrylic.  Gave it some depth so it doesn’t look like a picture slapped onto a piece of acrylic. 

Anyway, here they are:

 

The four middle cards all have 3D effects that the camera turned into a flat picture.  The top card is basically as you see it and so is the bottom card.  I promise, they look much better in person than on this post.  If they didn’t, I would not be sending them out to swap (I refuse to mail out crap)…..I would have redone every last one of them.  All of the backgrounds pictures were printed on glossy photo paper, something I don’t recommend doing.  While I sometimes like the effect the real photo look gives the ATC, working with photo paper is hard.  It scratches very easily and doesn’t take well to glue removal – sometimes I’m a little too liberal with my glue application.

BTW……. when I took the pictures, the cards looked like they were laying flat.  However, when I transferred them onto my computer, it became very obvious that they are not; they look bowed.  How can you flatten the cards, especially when they are heavily embellished or 3D’d like mine?  I would LOVE to know.

I do have to say this stretched my limits as an artist (ha ha, yeah, I call myself that sometimes).  I’m pretty much a “vintage” look person.  Working with something so modern was hard, caused me to think, and made me realize I need a bigger stash of embellishments and the like (anyone up for a little internet shopping?).   Oh, and I was so stymied several times that my husband even tried to help me (shocker!).

So, on to the next challenge……Sherlock Holmes Inchies anyone?  Oh yeah, I was the one that came up with that bright idea.  Sigh.  Stay tuned……………….

Bass Fishing

Not the title you would expect here, huh?  Well, let me tell you…….I have learned more about Bass Fishing Tournaments in the last two weeks than I EVER cared to know.

See, Number One Son has decided he wants to be a professional bass fisherman.  Yep, we are talking Bass Master Classic level dreams.  So, his father and I have embarked upon the path by which we help make this dream a reality.  We’ve researched, read web pages until we have turned blue in the face, looked at the cost (YIKES!), and are now to the point of ordering professional fishing jerseys.  He’s got his partner, he’s got his boat (or one of his sponsor’s boats), he’s got his baits, his rods, his reels.  Mom and Dad have got a BIG headache. LOL

Let me say this; it’s CONFUSING!  There’s this club to join and that club to join.  Then there’s sponsors.  Ever tried to get sponsors for teenagers?  I am SO proud of my son and his partner.  They accomplished the near impossible.  Number One Son and his partner have SEVEN, yes SEVEN sponsors!  And we are talking GOOD sponsors.  Some are even PAYING sponsors while others have given free or discounted goods.  And yes, Mommy Dearest and Grandmommy Dearest are also sponsors (through our Etsy stores). 
Their first high school tournament is in June.  In preparation, they have joined a local adult fishing club and are fishing those local tournaments as practice for the big upcoming high school tournaments.  There are three huge ones coming up…..and none are near us. 

What does that mean?  It means Mommy Dearest gets to figure out how to pay for hotel rooms, meals, gas, and other necessities for two-day fishing tourneys.  Luckily, his partner’s parents are on-board with this and will pay half the cost.   It may mean a lot of doubling up in hotel rooms, but we want to give the kids every chance to realize their dream.

Isn’t that what parents are for?

Just a Little Bit of Heartache

I don’t think I blogged about this, but I applied for an artistic grant a couple of months ago and have been waiting patiently every since.

First, I should say that 1) I’ve never completed a grant application before and 2) Louisiana is so FULL of talented artists it blows the mind.  Therefore, while I applied, I wasn’t really wasn’t expecting to be chosen for the grant & while I gave it my all, I wasn’t one of the lucky 36 (out of 268).

So, no grant to help further my art this year.  BUT…..let me say this.  I NEVER would have even had a chance if I had not applied.

Yes, I opened myself up to the possibility of heartache the very moment I decided to apply, but I also opened myself up to the chance of succeeding.  So, would I do this again? YES in a heart-beat.  Why?  Because you can’t win if you don’t try.

When Monday morning rolls around, I will be on the phone to the Louisiana Division of the Arts finding out exactly what the panelists had to say about my application.  And the reason?  Because I WILL TRY AGAIN.  Yep, and again, and again, and again until I succeed.  I want to know what I did that wasn’t up to par so I can correct my errors and increase my future chances of receiving a grant.

Yes, there will be those little bits of heartache when I lose, but the reward when (notice I did not say if?) I win will be worth it.

Until later……………………………