Instagram, Completion, and Beginning

I borrowed a book from the library entitled

How to Sell Your Art Online: Live a Successful Creative Life on Your Own Terms

a couple of weeks ago. It was inspiring and encouraging, and I highly recommend it to anyone contemplating art as a career path. One of the author's tips was to find people who would like your art, and one of the ways he recommends doing that is to "hang out" on sites like Instagram, SO... I set up an account late last night. It has been interesting so far to see content like Fraktur, folk art, and scripture art. It will be interesting to see what happens when I go looking for old house portraits!

My second-ever Instagram post was announcing my first Etsy Fraktur listing:

This was nerve-wracking, but exciting to complete. I had painted the tulip in last night and really didn't know what I wanted to do with the birds. Of course, it could always have worked out better, but I can live with it as it is (I had scanned it once and decided one of the birds needed more work on its neck, so made myself touch it up and re-scan.) When I was looking at my Pinterest inspiration pieces, I noticed the originals were a lot more intricate than I remembered, so this is far too spare to be in the authentic style. Maybe I will do a more involved one soon. It was encouraging to have my Fraktur liked by a number of people I don't know at all within an hour of posting. Hopefully I will actually sell something at some point... 

After listing my Psalm 34 Fraktur, I started sketching a new house portrait from my Google photos. It is a much plainer house, so we'll see whether it ends up being easier or harder!

There's no time like midnight to discover impending catastrophe

Part of beginning my art journey was the complete rearrangement of my bedroom furniture. I had not done anything with the arrangement in many years, despite the happy feeling I get from rearranging a room, due to mountains of clutter caused by pretty much every member of the household (including this one) and a general feeling of overwhelmed depression.

When my husband moved out, he took only a bookshelf or two in the way of furniture. As voracious a reader as he is, the house was (and largely still is) "decorated" with overstuffed bookshelves, so naturally removing and/or hiding a couple of the remaining bookshelves from the bedroom was a large part of reclaiming the room. I also enlisted my mighty (and generally wonderful) 13-year-old son to help me move my antique secretary into the room to serve as my workspace. In the process of finding a good place for dressers, bookshelves, and my secretary, I relocated my bed from the narrow end of the room to the longest wall by shoving it, foam mattress and all, across the unfinished (nearly century-old) pine floor.

Last night, after a late phone call, I pulled back the covers, ready to begin settling into bed. As I sat on the bed, I had the feeling I was sinking. After a more-than-cursory inspection, I noticed that the middle support was indeed out of place, with the bracket right next to the piece it was meant to support instead of cradling it and the leg at a 60° angle. After about three-quarters of an hour of mattress-wrestling and pulling on the frame while pushing on the support, I was finally able to put the frame back to rights, replace the mattress (having decided the bedskirt would just be disheveled until I change the sheets Saturday), and settle into bed with a feeling of accomplishment. Not only did I resist summoning my helpful teenager, I also banished the excessive creakiness (which had been evident for years) and the "walking" habit of my bed!

Baby Steps

I made some progress yesterday, after a very unproductive day on Thursday. I'm pretty pleased with the end product of my Isaiah 43 verse. After adding the lion, I filled in some of the blank spots with "illuminations":

This is available for download in my Etsy shop here

Other than that, I set up my Etsy shop and uploaded mostly photos. As I complete artwork, I'll have more of that. Now, to re-do my Psalm 34 Fraktur...

I added some sky and some trees to my first house portrait. I'm not thrilled with today's additions, but I can live with them and may decide to cover some of the wonky bay window with shrubbery (as it is in the original photograph). I started the morning, though, with part of my favorite Bible passage and a first attempt at the Uncial hand. I'm planning to add a lion to the lower right hand corner, possibly with a lamb. Not very creative, but meaningful!!

One idea I am working on is sketching buildings. As much as I love old homes, I have dozens of photos saved here, there, and everywhere. I took a (really poor) photo of my pencil sketch yesterday (below) and worked with watercolor markers tonight to get a bit closer to a finished product. This house is in Lexington, Virginia, one of my favorite places on earth.

What Do You Think You're Doing?

"Ridiculous. How do you think you are going to make money at art? You only have a little bit of talent. Countless people with far more talent have given up."

So I begin, steeped in self-doubt, questioning my own sanity, feeling bashful and foolish whenever I confide in a friend. And yet, this is the path I feel called to, to at least give it a shot, to learn whatever lessons lie ahead down this mystery-shrouded road. Trying to set aside the doubts and the fears, I push myself to step away from my very entrenched passivity and take a risk, forging my own path for the first time in a very, very long time.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. This was supposed to be the year life got easier. Instead, newly-separated from the father of my three children, I find myself in a new, lonelier predicament, trying to figure out (once again) how to make ends meet. The sadness never leaves me, but I can ignore it when I'm with friends, focusing on our conversation, trying not to make it all about me and my latest angst-ridden developments.

I tried applying for a number of jobs I could do from home so as not to further disrupt the lives of my homeschooled children, but did not meet with success. In the past, I have been rewarded with employment after very little effort, and in my worn-down and discouraged state, I find myself less resilient and motivated than before. I started looking at free-lance coding and took an SQL exam, expecting to ace it (though I haven't written many queries in the past five years). I didn't do well (at all). Another blow.

I told myself I was waiting to hear back from the one job opportunity where I had progressed beyond the first step, deciding against applying for seasonal retail, since I'm taking the boys several states away to be with my family over the holidays. Maybe this one dream job was the answer. In the meantime, I picked up the calligraphy sets my generous aunt had gifted me with a couple of Christmases past and tried to get up the confidence to attempt some Fraktur. I finally started with a few short verses, decorated very sparingly with folk art motifs I'd seen. And then I stalled.

I originally had intended to create some Fraktur for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary over the summer, but too intimidated and listless to even attempt it, abandoned the idea as the milestone came and went. It still fascinated me, though, and I started to think the unthinkable. Maybe, just maybe, I could make a little money at art.