The joy of being busy, betweens jobs and a paris collaboration life got busy. I Honestly enjoy being busy. Having a focus, deadlines and things outside of my regular day to day makes me stop and appreciate time so much more. At least, That's what I tell myself when I am exhausted. I am lucky to have the opportunity to do things I enjoy. I figured it was time I got on here and give a little update.
I just got home from my day job.I am currently on nights. I have been since mid august and the end is almost in sight, thankfully. I get overwhelmed at times when i work as much as i have been. On a normal day, since I work 12 hrs shifts, I generally only do an hr of work a day on my other ventures. A few months ago I decided I was going to start saying yes to more things and it has lead to some new opportunities.
I am now in full swing of classes. I find the courses make little sense at this point. I know me though and nothing ever makes sense in my mind until it all does. I know i just have to do the work and reading and eventually it will all come together. After I finish this post I have to do some reading that I need to get done today. I had tried to use the audiobook version of my textbooks and the way it reads every single word on the page even the stuff one would normally not read got very repetitive. The only thing that stuck in my brain was the manufacturer and copyright info at the bottom of every single page. So back to old school reading it to myself. I generally am a fast reader but with something I am not familiar with I have to slow down and let it sink in a bit. I got my first English assignment back and did better than I thought I would. So yay me.
I have done a job with some licensing of my watercolors. What a learning curve to get them in digital form and the files right for the client but a process I really enjoyed. I really appreciated how helpful and patient everybody has been with me. To put a topper on the cake I got a nice thank you note in the mail from them. I know in reality not every client is going to be this easy but I really enjoyed working with people again on a project.
I might have a meeting this week to talk about workshops. The place is new in town and I must say i am intrigued by what it is. On the surface it seems like just a plant shop but there are all kinds of events and services based around health and healing. I can't wait to find out more about what they have in mind. I'm not sure I will get time this week but if not I can try for after holidays.
On the show front, I am doing a collaboration with two musicians in Paris next week. I did a digital collect for this one simply because I didn't want the hassle of shipping or taking large paintings with me. The process of ordering the canvas prints from a local printer in Paris was something else. Again he was very understanding of my atrocious French skills. The first set have been printed and Just have to send off the odds and ends like labels and such. My brain has been working non stop making sure I don't forget anything. I know there will be things I forget to do or just don't know to do but such is life.
The one musician is also an artist so he has been facilitating with the venue. Normally I like to be in control and over plan everything, It was the only way I ever got anything done with my football events, so having someone else handling the details has been wonderful but also hard to let go of that control. This feels like a short time to create a series, even though it is only 6 large pieces and a handful of smaller pieces. The way my schedule worked out for the rest of the year it had to be in that chunk of time. So a little under a month to finish everything has been crazy. It has been a long time since my output has been this high and focused. That being said I still have some of the smaller pieces to finish this week.
Also I'm just realizing that i'm not sure what is expected of me at this event. I've been so consumed with getting the pieces done in time that I never asked anyone. Guess I should probably add that to the list of to dos when i get up today.
I was asked to do an event this week but the organizer never got back to me until the day before it was supposed to happen. I was a little shocked they had left it until then and had assumed they had decided to go in another direction with it when so long had passed with no response. I had let them know I would need the details in advance before I could confirm because my schedule was pretty busy this month but that I could possibly juggle the schedule around if I had enough notice of the details. So needless to say by that point it was too late for me to be able to free up that time and had to decline. It was an event with others artist there also so I didn't leave them in a position of not having anyone.
I am still picking away at the alphabet superset book project I am doing. I have been keeping up not to bad on the writing part. The art fonts, for the most part, I have been keeping on task (I am a few days late this week) and the video part I am way behind in. I give myself grace in the video department though because I take so long to get one together and it was just a bonus I was adding on. I will release those as I get them done without concern about timelines. This project has been another one I have been enjoying. I haven't put pressure in myself to make sure everything is perfect. It's been great practice with the digital and my drawing. Even my writing I haven't let myself edit it yet. It's all about just getting it out first, edits and revisions later.
I think that is everything that has been happening in life this last little bit. I am on vacation next week and after the Paris show I have no idea where I will end up. I might stop by Budapest for a few days to help a friend test out this gallery app him and an artist friend are developing called artscape by Greeneyes. It's actually very useful if you're into art and a handy travel tool. I've been enjoying being a beta tester for it. There are places on there in Budapest I've walked by hundreds of time not realizing it was a gallery i could go in. Definitely a serious game changer to how I find smaller galleries. I am hoping it takes off because I selfishly I want them to move on to the next phase and do the Vienna galleries.
Beyond that I have no idea where to go. Maybe Berlin for a few day? Who knows. If you made it this far let me know where you would go if you found yourself in Europe with a free week or If you were in berlin what would you like to see?
Jackie ❤️
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