I have been meaning to start a blog on my website for some time now. I think I even made an attempt at it on my last website, only to make one post and that was it! This time around I’m determined to develop this into a space on my site where I can post about upcoming work, what I’m currently working on, and other interesting things that might happen.
Back in the autumn of 2019 I spent quite a bit of time thinking about my art career, and what would be required to turn it into an actual career – by that I mean something that pays me a living income – rather than just a serious hobby. I had all kinds of plans and ideas, from workshops to galleries, and 2020 was going to be the year that things changed for me.
Well, I suppose I was right in a way!
2020 was not the year I was expecting. All those plans went out the window when Covid-19 arrived in March. Early on I cringed when I read posts saying that this was the time of the artist, that we needed to ‘save humanity’. Good grief… no pressure then! I was too busy trying to save myself, and, mentally, not doing a great job of it. While some artists found the lockdown times great for focusing on work and really getting into painting, the stress and uncertainty paralysed me. It didn’t help that our main income comes from my husband’s fitness business, which was closed with each lockdown. Yes, we had support payments from both the Federal and Provincial governments, for which I am unbelieveably grateful, but that didn’t mean it was relaxing.
Now, coming to the end of 2021, it’s still stressful, but I find myself with very similar thoughts coming into my mind, as they did at the end of 2019. Only this time, I’m really hoping a global disaster doesn’t get in the way! I’m not going to go rushing in with multiple projects and ideas (which I think I would have done in 2020), instead I’m going to focus my efforts on a few specific things and see how they go. The first of these is this blog 🙂
The second thing is my mailing list. If you’d like to be notified when there are new blog posts, and get advance notice of upcoming shows (and advance access to online shows – there’s a teaser!) please sign up. Social media is becoming a hard place for businesses to get seen; with a mailing list I’m not dependent on Mr Zuckerberg passing on my message to you, I can do it directly!
