It is becoming more and more obvious to me that I need to rethink the way I want to proceed as an artist. I didn’t realize how much the show would take out of me. I am still recovering. From the photos I realize I don’t remember a whole lot of what happened. I don’t think I did a particularly good job of schmoozing and stuff as I should have. And that was only a small group show.

Being me, I want instant gratification. I am the sort of person who sets ridiculous goals and burns myself out achieving them. anything less I tend to consider as failure. This is not a good mindset! especially now when I need to take care of myself. my doctors don’t want me stressing my body as it is very prone to collapse. It’s about time I started thinking long-term rather than now now now!

My goals involve exposure, quality representation, a good income from my art and presence in notable collections. I know I have it in me to be a successful artist. I feel certain I have the different individual qualities necessary to really make it.But only if I work sensibly. I think I have been fighting against my injury rather than working with it. My techniques are evolving so I can work in short bursts but my mindset is, as always, too demanding for my body. There is no point having a show if I am too wrecked to make it work. I just jeopardize my sales then. Being incapacitated afterwards means I can’t capitalize on the momentum gained and everything comes to a halt while I recover.

I will still be planning for shows and creating series of works but I am going to slow down, only beginning the show business side when I have completed the works. Right now, my goal is to create exposure get my work out there. In a way I have been doing this already, online and off, but I am going to knock it up a notch (bam!) and really focus on my online presence. It fits in with my current skill set and abilities physically and mentally. I intend to start making a concerted effort to sell online, starting with drawings and works on paper and moving up from there. I have had some success with eBay in the past and will be turning to them again to start this process. The first goal is to start selling enough to cover my costs and materials. when I have achieved this goal I will celebrate it (something I forget to do) and start looking towards profit. I will also be entering Juried shows for physical exposure, especially to galleries.

I have an additional goal of increasing my physical strength and stamina so I will be able to cope better in the future. this is a long term goal but I am very motivated seeing how badly I coped with the show. again I am not going to push it but work slowly and steadily, realizing my body can’t take too much pressure. My new philosophy has to be ‘slow and steady wins the race’ otherwise I won’t even be a contender.