it's that dress

This is a new leaf in my growing art career. I've moved up a level. To wit:

~all 12 of my cityscapes sold at Big 100- 1 woman bought 3. Jim was proud to announce that he couldn't find any of my cityscapes 2 hours after event has started. l THAT was AWESOME.
~i got an e-mail recently from a bloke in the UK who'd like a tattoo of my work
~When Jennifer came over this week for seeds for the farm, she left with 2 paintings.
~I got an e-mail from Chuck inviting me to share a show with him at a gallery in Astoria. HE chose ME, sent my link to the curator, she loved it, and now we're doing a show together.
~Part of the reason he asked me is that "I know you have a following. I know you have collectors- I mean, I own some of your stuff."
~The desired price range is $95 -$200
~With the blowout from the Big100, I made $543 from art last year. I may have spent less than that this year- I might actually have in-the-black art income.


OK, then. I'm allowing myself to grow into the next size of clothing- like when you're a kid and you have something you're dying to wear, but it's still just too big because Grandpa always bought 2 sizes too big- you get frustrated and vow to eat your veggies from now on because you have growing to do; and you give up and stop thinking about it for a while- then the day comes when you try it on again, and IT FITS! You've finally grown into it! It's now your favorite article of clothing, and you're thinking about it if you're not wearing it. The above list of occurrences within the last 30 days is that dress.

SO- now that people are seeing me and saying "Hey! Artist Lady! Congrats on all your shows and stuff!" (or something vaguely like it), now that I'll have pieces (a NEW series that I just started this week.) SO- now I have a golden opportunity to expand my viewing audience/potential buyers with the platform of a Second Saturday gallery (who has recently shown the likes of Jesse Reno) with Chuck E. Bloom (whose work I collect). SO- I need to step up my commitment in turn. Accept this gift.

I need to be working First Thursdays now instead of walking them. Not that I consider it work per se; more of a solid commitment.

I need to commit to sending out monthly bulletins to my mailing list.

I need to commit to updating this blog- weekly. It could be about what I'm doing, how I'm feeling, or upcoming shows. It could be more often.

I just read in an art mag this evening- take yourself seriously. When someone asks what you do, tell them you're an artist first, then mention the steady paycheck. Or not.

Those are the big ones I'm going to focus on. I also have a longer to-do list of more specific things.