Happy New Year!
*not really a recap*
We had a very laid back new years eve with friends in Milterton; braai, drinks, deliciously silly conversation; and walked down to the beach just before the count-down, to watch the Waterfront fireworks show from across the water -
so imagine this view, but with fireworks! It was incredible!
I took a moment to walk into the water and just focus myself for the oncoming year. And I said a little prayer, thanking the Lord for the successes of 2014, and that I came out of it a little stronger. And that I would work harder and produce better work in 2015. What a wonderful moment, with the laughter and celebrating of my companions in the background!
And so, with that as a starting point for 2015, I'm going to keep the looking back to a minimum.
This is my art year. The highlight was being published for the first time in an international magazine, and a close second was being published in a local magazine.
The low was definitely the couple of weeks somewhere in the middle which I had to spend playing with my toes, too broke to buy the next canvas, and just waiting for something to happen.
Basically, if I had to nutshell it, one of the galleries representing me decided it was time to push my prices up rather significantly - HIGH FIVES ALL ROUND! - and then I proceeded to have the lowest amount of sales through my galleries that I've had since I actually started exhibiting. Yeah. Pretty bad.
Thankfully I have loyal customers who come back for more, word of mouth, and social media connections, and the commissions pretty much carried me through the year.
But it wasn't easy. I know it doesn't sound that terrible, but when you're in the 4th/5th/6th week of nothing happening, with no idea of when or even if something's going to change, it really is impossible to 'mind-over-matter' it, and a little self-doubt goes a long way.
I come out the other side a little disillusioned, and a little scarred, but still thankful, grateful, and always with renewed hope.
That desperate lull in sales was the reason for my excitement over the December Drawings receiving so much interest. It was awesome to be reminded that to the public my work is good, its just the money that's an issue.
I'm so proud of the work I did last year, and so excited about all the things I have planned for 2015. I bumped my head a couple of times, but I've come far, and I can't wait to find out what the next weeks, months and years have in store for me and my art!
*News:
- My husband became an uncle! Welcome to the world little Anje!
- And we finally painted the interior of the house! Its not margarine yellow anymore, but instead a greeny gray. And it makes such a MASSIVE difference!
- And we finally cleaned our teeny tiny little back'yard' (like 1 x 3 meters of walled in clothes drying space)
- Which lead to me getting bitten by a spider. Panic all round, since we have A LOT of black widows around the house, and so we googled it and found that my 'bite wound' looked exactly like a black widow's - even more panic - and so we waited for the excruciating muscle spasms to start (to verify that it was worthy of panic, and then rush to the doctor) but it never came. But on day two the toe was swollen double, a couple of hours later I had two little bloaty sausages for toes, and even later three, itching like mad, and not really fitting into any decent looking shoe. But today (day five? I think?) it finally started looking better. So I think I shall not only survive, but keep all my toes! Which is great, cause my balance is pretty bad as is.
That's all for now, I need to make coffee and couchpotato for a couple of hours!
