Inspiration and Determination

For the next few weeks I am only working 3 days a week. This gives me a lot of time to work on other things. Since I keep running up against brick walls as far as gallery jobs go, I've decided to focus my time pursuing arts management projects on the side.

Last week was a throw away week. I ended up doing little to nothing of value on my days off. This week however I'm on the ball. Yesterday was spent helping Lloyd put together a grant. Unfortunately, the PDF file was uncooperative and we weren't able to turn in the application. However there are lots of other grants and show entries that he needs help putting together and we are determined to keep at it. Not to mention his upcoming solo show next month here in the city. I hope I can do a little PR and installation work for it.

I am also planning a traveling exhibition involving artists we met in Texas and that have scattered throughout the country and the world. I am excited to make some progress on it this week. My only concern is nailing down dates for the exhibition. We will both need to travel down to Texas for the show and I'm not sure what our financial situation will be like later this year. I guess I will just have to put myself out there and see what happens. Things do tend to work themselves out when you are on the right path. I have learned that the hard way.

Green is good for the soul.

Our apartment here in Chicago is on the small side. But it's got a lot of charm and it's cheap (which is really the main thing for us right now). This is also the first place we have been able to paint. That is a huge deal for us and we have had a blast trying to find good oops paints from the hardware store. This past weekend we painted our kitchen/living room a bright, cheery green. It has literally changed the mood of the whole apartment. I looked up what the color green means in Feng Shui and it is for renewal, fresh energy, and new beginnings. Lloyd is exactly right when he says we were due for some of that.

It was also great to finally get a new charger for my laptop on Sunday. I had the Apple MagSafe charger that was anything but safe when the cord frayed. Apple was aware of the problem and was giving a new charger in exchange for an old one. My problem was that I threw the old one away before I knew about the exchange program. It took a lot of patience and several trips to the Mac Store but I finally got my replacement charger. It had been over six months since I was last able to use my computer. I wanted to hug the woman at the Genius Bar when she walked up and handed it to me.

The rest of the week is devoted to job applications. Looking forward to more new beginnings and fresh energy.

Ummm, am I the only one that learned the concept of walking on the right? Major sidewalk pet peeve that I encounter everyday in Chicago.

A gallery hopping we will go.

Being intimitely involved with the visual arts and being poor does have some perks. Depending on the city you live in, there are bound to be gallery openings spread throughout the month. Here in Chicago there are several different neighborhoods that have claimed certain days as their gallery opening nights. Tonight is River North and the West Loop's time to shine. Or be lackluster, which is more often the case. We tend to be pretty harsh critics and practice "Turbo Aesthetics". I will leave that discussion for another post.

What is exciting about gallery openings (besides hopefully the art of course) are the free appetizers and beverages. This is usually some sort of cheese and fruit platter and wine or beer. The fanciness factor depends on the gallery and the artists whose work is being displayed.

For instance, a higher-end commercial gallery will probably serve a wheel of brie and other gourmet cheeses with specialty crackers. You would also be treated to your choice of white or red wine. The other end of the spectrum is the student show where you may find some cheddar slices with Ritz crackers that is if there is any food at all. Most likely you will simply find a table (or bucket or trash can filled with ice if you're lucky) piled high with PBR or Old Style. Cans, not bottles.

The trick is to get there early to partake of the freebies because you are competing with hundreds of other starving artists. Present company included. So if you venture out in the cold tonight here in Chicago, get away from my brie! And save me an Old Style.

Right on.

Well, I've successfully set this up so that I can blog from my phone using email or text messages. That's good considering we do not currently have Internet access at home. I think this arrangement will help me keep up with posting as I'm kind of obsessed with my phone.

This week I am on a forced vacation as the company I am temping for is retail-based and has run into the slow season. Fortunately, they decided to keep me on and I am thankful for that. They have cut my hours significantly but that just gives me more time to job hunt. Because, honestly, I'm not a fan of being a data entry drone any longer than is neccessary.

I read an article this morning about making the most of a job you hate and I have to say it was incredibly unhelpful. Basically it said to hang in there and you'll probably find a new job in 6-12 months. Gee, thanks for the uplifting message. 6-12 more months of wanting to jump out of the 16th floor window of the building I work in. Fantastic.

The beginning.

This is my third or fourth attempt at starting a blog. I am a faithful reader of many blogs and have always thought that I had something worthwhile to add to someone’s blogroll. My previous attempts failed because I was being disingenuous. My voice was lost trying to be funny or interesting instead of being honest.

As you can probably tell from the title of this endeavor, I am ready to be honest, with both my future readers and myself. This is the story of two people who decided to follow their dreams no matter what, even if that meant not having the things society tells us we should. We made a choice that we believe in and although it is difficult at times (sometimes excruciating) we will not give up. In the end we will be successful and it will have all been worth it. Until then, it’s just the roaches and us trying to make a life.