Time Off

I had some days off this past weekend, Friday and Saturday, which were my first days off in five weeks. My first instinct was to stay home in my pajamas and lie around on the couch the whole time, but I ventured out instead.

I headed out to 78th Street Studios to check out some local art on Friday night. There were lots of great pieces there and I bumped into some friends and got to catch up with them. After that I went to the movies to see Monuments Men. The movie was entertaining, if a little cheesy at some points. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself and stuffed my face with massive amounts of popcorn.

Mansfield Art Center

I slept in on Saturday morning and then grabbed some lunch at the West Side Market before heading out to Mansfield to see Rebecca Cross' show at the Mansfield Art Center. The show, called 'Liaisons' is a two-woman show, with Rebecca's pieces hanging alongside of painter Annette Poitau's canvases. Rebecca's pieces were amazing, as usual, and they looked good with Annette's paintings. It was nice to see them in such a great, open space.

Sunday it was back to business as usual and I don't anticipate any more time off until the end of March, when I'll have a brief respite for Spring break. While I'm grateful for the time off, sometimes I think I'm better off without a break. The more time off I have, the more I want. I guess I'll just have to keep going...

A Rebecca Cross piece from the Mansfield show 'Liaisons'

Holy Toledo!

I was lucky enough to have a three day weekend during this unseasonably warm March weather and I took full advantage. My windows are open and the front porch has been heavily in use over the past few days.

While Friday was dedicated to running errands and cleaning the house, and Sunday was spent relaxing, reading, and dinner with friends, Saturday the husband and I took a road trip to Toledo to visit the art museum. It was a perfect day for a drive and our route took us through some areas that were great for viewing wildlife and beautiful scenery.

I'd been to Toledo once, back in 1999 for a special exhibit of the artist Sandy Skoglund. My high school art teacher told my class about the show and I was so taken with the artist's colorful installation pieces, that I pestered my dad to drive myself and a friend to the museum until he relented. That show was spectacular and my visit to the museum this past weekend was just as good. Not only does the Toledo Museum of Art have an impressive permanent collection, their current display was one of the best exhibits I've seen in a long time. The exhibit, called Small Worlds, showcases five contemporary artists working in small scale. The featured artists are: Gregory Euclide, Joe Fig, Charles Kanwischer, Lori Nix, and Tabaimo.

The two bodies of work that stood out the most for me are Lori Nix's post-apocalyptic scenes of abandoned buildings, which aren't real structures at all but sets that she fabricated herself and photographed, and Joe Fig's dollhouse-like models of famous artist's studios, rendered down to the tiniest detail. My litmus test for whether or not I think a work of art is good, is if I'm jealous of the piece, and I was definitely jealous that I hadn't created such brilliant things as, not only Lori Nix and Joe Fig, but all of the artists in the exhibit. 
 
The exhibition runs through March 25th, so if you're in the Toledo area before then, I highly recommend checking it out.  

It was great to have a few days off and to get out of the house. It's always really inspiring to see some art. It makes me start thinking about what I might want to make next. I have too little time for creativity these days, so it's nice to do something that reminds me about that part of myself and prompts me to get working.

Opportunity in Disguise

For many years now, every time I felt overwhelmed, bored, or frustrated with work, I'd wish that I could just make a living from my various artistic talents. I'd moan about how unfair it was that someone with so many creative talents should be forced to have a "real job" and relegate those talents to the level of a mere hobby, only making time to work on art projects after working 40+ hours a week. Usually, that meant not working on them at all.

I decided at some point that if I was going to have to work for a living (and let's face it, who doesn't) that I needed to choose a real career. My fine arts degree wasn't getting me far and I realized I would have to go back to school. I settled on becoming a librarian, something which I seemed well-suited for, and spent two years earning my Master's Degree in Library Science (and racked up an obscene amount of student loan debt to boot). The debt would not have been a big deal if I had found a job as planned but, as you may know, libraries are not exactly thriving in this economic climate, what with the massive budget cuts and hiring freezes nationwide. I graduated this past Spring and have been unable to secure a full-time job. I worked part-time at a local public library all through grad school and that's where I remain, working a scarce fifteen hours per week. Of course, this felt wholly demoralizing at first. There I was, recently graduated, holding that advanced degree in my hot little hand, my head and heart full of hopes. A couple of months of job searching quickly deflated my hopes and I was angry at having spent so much money and time on a seemingly worthless education. I felt like a failure.

But I came around. Eventually my thinking shifted. Sure, I may not command a huge salary or hold some esteemed position. Let's be honest...I don't even have any real job prospects at the moment. But I don't care anymore. I do enjoy my part-time job at the public library. I like working with people (something it took me years to realize and admit to) and I absolutely love the people I work with. And while I was initially bitter about not getting any more hours there, I now realize I have exactly the thing I was wishing for all along...time to work on my art and my writing. I see this as an opportunity to do what it is that I said I always wanted to do-make a living off of my creative endeavors, and I feel lucky for being given this opportunity. I may be a starving artist now but this is my chance to change that. It's going to be a challenge, yes, but one thing you should know about me is that once I put my mind to something, I never give up.

This blog will chronicle the pursuit of my creativity and will document my progress as a fledgling entrepreneur.