All art majors (whether they cop to it or not) pray for The Golden Opportunity. The Big Break that will launch their artistic career so that they can quit their stinking little day job (that they don’t really want to be doing anyway) and allow them to paint all day. Sometimes these opportunities can be made with a lot of effort, foot work, energy, and just plain ol’ hard work, but often it is a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time.
I had pretty much decided that if I were ever going to make it as an artist, it was going to be with a lot of effort, etc. and so forth (basically, the Hard Way). I have been slowly building up to it, while doing day jobs (i.e. getting a DBA, a business account, a website that is now under construction again, etc. and so forth), but, to be honest, after coming home from work, I found myself too exhausted to really be up to painting. And the weekends became so jamb packed with visiting family, and hanging out with friends, and more job hunting that it became a conscious effort to squeeze in 20 or 30 minutes of drawing time when I could. That was one of the reasons for wanting to get my teaching cert and teach art (the other being that I really like kids and teaching art), so that I could have summers off to pursue my art career without giving up that crack-like addiction to food and shelter.
Enter my neighbor down the street. He and his family own two restaurants, and have always been very nice (I have always liked them, ever since I was little and his wife let me play with her flat faced cat and climb in her tree). He came over to talk to my dad and my brother today and was asking them if I still did art. When they answered yes, he asked if I was any good (to which my brother said, “Well, yeah, she’s been good since middle school”). He then told my dad to pass along the message that he had two restaurants that are in need of art to hang on the walls.
My dad called me and I immediately went home (mom and dad’s home, not my home now. Why is it that “home” always includes mom and dad’s house?). When I got there, I ended up chasing a two year old around and getting bamboo for Pajamafin to show me how to make flutes with (another project, and yes, I know, I keep jumping off topic. I am super excited and have had about three hours of sleep) because my parents neighbor wasn’t home.
We ate dinner and finally I decided that I was just going to have to call in the morning and went out to get in my car. And there he and his wife were, trying to lift dirt and drag it back to the back of their house for planting later. So, I went over to see if they needed help (he has just recently had surgery) and to find out about hanging the art.
I am to meet him at his first restaurant (that is located near the Stockyards in Fort Worth) THIS Thursday at 11 am. I should have Western art that has Cowboys, Indians, cows, etc and so forth (basic cowboy art) that is framed, with my name and contact information on it, and the price of each piece on the art. He is going to let me hang the art in his restaurants and people will buy it off the walls. He has another artist who sells there, too, and, if I understand correctly, either the other artist doesn’t do enough pieces or they are selling so fast that the other artist can’t keep up (I am unclear as to why they need a second artist, and, to be honest, it doesn’t matter. I am over the moon to have been asked).
Which means that ALL OTHER projects will be put on hold until Saturday (as I have a teaching job on Friday). B, this means your mermaid won’t be done until some time next week, sorry, but this is a super short deadline and I have NOTHING done as I don’t usually do Western art. I also have another commission for a teacher the Marmot knows that will be done on Friday.
This is the type of opening that artists dream of and I can’t even begin to articulate how excited I am. It also means that, for the rest of the week, there will be little sleep and not a lot of outside communication from me. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like you guys, it means that I have two days to do as many paintings as I can AND frame them (thank God I know how to do that) AND price them AND make up business cards. No stress there at all.
Okay, gotta get busy. I will post when it is all done with photos and the name of the restaurant (for any locals) and even directions to said restaurant. Everyone cross fingers and toes and eyes and anything else handy that this works out.
::happysnoopydance and THEN painting::
