It’s that time of year . . . .

With almost too many projects to think about (at least for my addled brain) I decided to do total work avoidance and get back to posting here.

Clay work is going well – just took a new set of work to In-Town Gallery for our open house that’s taking place this Friday. Although sales have been dismal for the past couple of months, I’m hoping that people will be blown away by the work of the artists in the gallery and decide there is something there that they just can’t live without!

The terra sigillata work is still interesting to me, although I would LOVE to get that soda kiln built and try more of it in that process. People seem to respond more to color, and while the b&w white terra sig floats my boat, I get the sense that it’s not what most people gravitate toward, at least in this market.

And speaking of markets, how do people find theirs? I have a good response to my work, but it’s generally from people who are from someplace else . . . and this is so frustrating to me. It’s not the price range that seems to put people off – the comments are generally that my prices are very reasonable. I think that this is what is so discouraging to me . . . it triggers a downward spiral of what’s wrong with my work/with me/with everything in general that takes so much energy to counteract that sometimes I’m just paralyzed by it. Selfishly, I make the work for me – it has to make me happy before I’ll put it out into the world, but then I’m never quite sure where in the world it should go!

I did order new business cards – that doesn’t seem like a big deal except that last night I lay awake contemplating the non-artmaking life. It would be so much easier, wouldn’t it? Not having to make things not many people seem to want or need, not having to deal with selling, marketing, putting myself out there, twisting in the wind. I think what frightens me is not having an identity of some sort . . . answering that dreaded question “and what do you do?” and not having a very substantial answer. I don’t feel I have an identity without a job, even if it’s a job where there’s not much income (interesting word, that – right now it’s more like outgo). People really don’t seem to respect someone who isn’t working outside the home and who doesn’t have children . . . dogs don’t really count much in that respect. And I guess that it what bothers me so much – what other people think of what I do (or don’t do).

I wish I could contribute to the world in some constructive way, but tempermentally I don’t seem suited for much. Anyone else out there who has difficulty working an playing with others, sharing space or introverted to the point curmudgeoness and has any expererience of living with all that and somehow making peace with it, I’d love to hear from you!

Advertisement