I’ve been working hard for a great art show this past weekend, it was the first event to showcase two of my new series, Starting from Anywhere and Timeless Moments. It was exciting to plan the layout, make the show cards and get some great words together to talk about my work.
Then it happened, you know, the thing we’ve been living with for the last 2 1/2 years... not me, but in my household. Oh my, gosh darn, and several other expletives! There were a few tears shed, but I was offered Plan B. I was able to go early and hang my pieces, others volunteered to look after them...thank you dear friends! But it wasn’t the same....
So I’ve done a few other things this weekend, I worked in the garden, read a book and I started using a CMS or Content Management System to organize my ideas, plans and goals. It’s called Notion and the basic one (which I’m sure is enough) is free. And I’ve done a bit of research about dealing with disappointment... one source talked about 5 steps to work through it:
- Let It Out - don’t let it fester, feel it - ok I shed some tears
- Get Perspective - talk with your support network - ok, I dumped on my family
- Know Your Own Heart - My art and I were not being rejected
- Practise Self Acceptance - Like breath, disappointment comes and goes. So breathe into it and let it pass
- Don’t Let it Fester - Winston Churchill said it best: “success is the ability to go from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm”
I appreciated these stages, disappointment will come and go, and there is always another opportunity and I will regain my enthusiasm. But I also remember to acknowledge all this and make it part of me.
So I spent time looking at different e-commerce sites to put up my work and I have some plans for videos. I was also totally thrilled with a piece I made for the Silent Auction at the show - I’ve been mulling over some small works for my Industrial Shoreline series and it I think I totally nailed what I had in mind.
Sailing into Hope
The piece is about 6" x 18" and is my response to the theme "Resilience in the Time of Climate Change". The board behind is a piece from my husbands family farm in Manitoba, I used a hand dyed vintage linen napkin, some indigo dyed fabric and paper collage. In the artist statement I wrote that "strength and focus will be two of the important components to making change for the future"
Here are a couple of closeup views:
This morning I pulled more barn board out from our shed to work on more pieces...any suggestions for a title for this sub-series?
3 comments:
Sorry to hear things were derailed by you know what and I hope everyone is recovering. Question for you - you mentioned using an app/website called Notion. Would you be willing to elaborate? What are you trying to do with it and why this product?
Sharon (waving weakly from beneath the pile of things to do, thing I want to do..... all of it!)
Notion is an app/website that a lot of workplaces use, somewhat like Slack (my daughters use that one). I can plan all my online content, plus have calendars, lists, do a brain dump, journal, keep a reading list, recipes, family and personal stuff and much, much more. Im usually a paper based person and trying to go digital as Im always losing my papers, notes, planner etc.
I watched a bunch of YouTube videos about it and decided to give it a whirl. It takes a bit of time to set up but I cna use it across all my devices as well...
I really like the 5 steps to dealing with disappointment. I don't care what anyone says, rejection for any reason is hard to deal with. It is such a blow to the ego! But it does go away.
I love your piece for the silent auction. However, at this time, I do not have a suggestion for the name of the series. I look forward to seeing your new pieces.
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