This business of being an artist involves wearing many different hats. Making art, sure, but also marketing, networking, writing, packaging, shipping, inventory, shopping, research and development. I’ve had one of those weeks where I did a little bit of everything.

Monday was house and laundry and blogging and looking at art books day.

 

Tuesday included a trip to the Pacific Fabrics to ogle all the beautiful laces in their “Galleria” and pick out a few inexpensive ones for my continuing experiments with using absorbent materials for printing. At the studio I mixed up some print paste so that it would be ready for printing on Wednesday and placed a big order at Dharma Trading Co. There was also a site visit to Carkeek Park where I’m proposing an installation for this year’s installment of art there curated and sponsored by Center on Contemporary Art.

 

Wednesday morning I packaged up and sent off my entry for the Member’s Show at the SDA Convention in San Antonio. Once I got the studio I found a very special gift from my studio-mates, Anna and Paul: antique baby clothes from Paul’s family! They are so beautiful. I asked A & P one more time if they were really okay with the clothes getting dyed as part of art making and they agreed. After all, like the gorgeous doilies I use, at least this gives these special pieces another chance to be alive in the world.

After admiring the baby clothes I did some monoprinting with the absorbent fabrics I bought. I also spent some time looking at art books and sketching ideas for new work.

Thursday I washed out Wednesday’s printing then went to the studio to set up breakdown screens for printing on Friday. Friday is when my intern, Jesse comes, so I have to have work ready to go so that I take the best advantage of the extra help. Luckily, it’s been warm and sunny here so the breakdown screens would dry overnight. I used the baby clothes and the absorbent laces. In the afternoon I met with my friend Jessica. She recently left her job at the gallery and is going to help me with some research–just because she’s so nice and she wants to keep her mind active while she’s home with her baby. I am so lucky! In the evening I worked on my proposal for Carkeek.

Friday I jammed on getting the Carkeek proposal together and got it submitted by 10 am! Jesse called in sick, which actually was kind of a relief because it freed up my day. I’m excited to print but it will have to wait until next week. At the studio I peeled all the fabrics off the breakdown screens and then packaged up three pieces that I’m delivering to CQA tomorrow for their group show in Tieton. It was a beautiful day and Anna and I snuck out for lunch in the sun and she showed me their architectural drawings for their new studios.

And then there’s this blog post . . .

So, to summarize . . .

Monday: research

Tuesday: research, inventory, acquisitions, prep work, writing

Wednesday: packaging, shipping, research, acquisitions, research, planning, and some making

Thursday: laundry, prep work, networking, career planning, writing

Friday: writing, packaging, networking

It was a busy week!