New, New, New
Everyone wants to see what's new! I wasn't expecting that. Just as I'm revving up my Surtex prep, I'm felling grossly unprepared. Here I was thinking I was preparing for May but all of a sudden I'm getting requests for new art, NOW. I thought I would be showing my new art at the show but maybe its just easier to see it a few weeks before for the people I'm already working with? I have a particular way I like to show things. I like everything to have a logo, be numbered, have all the corresponding pieces. I like things to look complete, uniform. Things take me a bit longer than others sometimes but I'm no stranger to that. In the end I'm happy with how I've packaged myself.
I was talking to another artist, as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, telling her all the bits and pieces that I needed to complete before I was "done". She looked at me and asked, "yeah, but do you?" What a great question. It really made me think. Am I constantly just over doing when I should just worry about the doing. We all feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day, but am I just making that fact worse? It's hard for me to know, all those little extras are what make things feel like "me" in the end.
Licensing is a new industry for me so I am constantly learning, reevaluating and adjusting. My process has drastically changed this past year. I've realised I am not able to work on a collection from start to finish the way I did when I was in my "bubble". There are new project requests that pop up or submission deadlines to be aware of. You need to be able to put a collection down and then have the discipline to pick it back up again. Just a little brain retraining required, but I'm determined to do it.