You’d think that when you make your living at something you learned to do in kindergarten (color, cut and paste), that days are generally happy-go-lucky-skip-down-the-sidewalk days. Yea, there’s skippin’, but unfortunately, in addition to the fun stuff (color, cut and paste — and skipping), there’s a lot that’s not so fun.
not so fun: I spent over 6 hours last weekend stuffing and labeling. You see, my precious little art pieces/greeting cards need to be protected from the elements (your grubby, greasy hands), so each one needs to be inserted into a cellophane sleeve before it can be shipped or displayed in a store. In addition to that, if it is going into a store, I like to sticker it with it’s “inside message” information. It takes time and it’s tedious work. But when you’re the only cook and there’s no one else in the kitchen, you gotta wash the bottles too. So, when many of you were out gallivanting (an adult form of skipping) last weekend, I was “in studio” stuffing and sticking.
fun: One of those “precious little art pieces/greeting cards” was brand new. It’s called “Life is Better with Chocolate” and was inspired by the great support I’ve gotten from the Chocolaterie Stam stores here in Des Moines, Iowa — along with my not so secret love affair with chocolate. Here’s a pic…
not so fun: Sweating it out with a new custom project is not fun. Worked on a project this past week for a quilt shop in Indiana — just a simple black and white illustration, but ya never know in these situations if you’re hitting the mark or not. So, every time I e-mail a rough sketch, I’m insecure and anxious, and if it takes longer than 5 minutes for the client to get back to me (which, of course, it always does), I’m sweating and nervous and convinced they think my work is crap. It happens every time. I have this flash back to me, at 17. I’m a freshman in college and my art professor is looking back and forth between me and this hideous cardboard sculpture I had stayed up all night to produce. He said, “you really missed the boat didn’t you.” I started to cry. So he called me a baby and said I better toughen up if this is what I want to do. It was a rude and insensitive awakening to the “art world”. It marked me for life. Whether it helped me or not, who knows.
fun: Back to the present. The client loved the sketch. I’ve completed the job, and here’s a look…
