life is damned rollercoaster...

And why did God decide to put me in the front car? He's taking pictures of my wide-eyed, flapping-cheeked face going down the hill--and selling them on Ebay for fun. Ha! Ha! Ha. I feel like I'm riding the White-Knuckle Special these days. Ok, enough whining. Things are good when taken in perspective.

I couldn't get to sleep last night for two hours because I was thinking of all the hundreds of details to be wrapped up before this year's first art/craft show next weekend. It's not a big show for me, but a show is a show. And shows make me shit in my pants. Maybe it's because my craft means so much; maybe it's because having your innards on display can be painful.

Show attendees can either bolster your self-esteem or be absolute jerks. I'll never forget one felter, who is known internationally for her work, was at a show and a customer came up and said she should study with so-and-so to improve her work--that so-and-so was really good and could really help her along. If the dumbass had paid any attention to who she was talking to she would have noticed that she was actually talking to "so-and-so." All in all I guess it wound up being a compliment, but...sheesh.

I get people coming in going both "wow," and the Whisperers who come in and, while sneaking glances at me, talk about how "they could make that" and "we could do better than that!" or "we should be doing this." My advice is, you go right ahead. You go right ahead and get your work photographed, send applications out, pay exorbitant fees to get into shows, buy tents, build displays, get business cards printed, take off time from work to travel to shows, spend eight to twelve hours a day talking to people, hoping to sell, having your work dissected by rude people and hopefully appreciated by others. And don't forget to pay the taxes, fill out the paperwork, rent a Uhaul or borrow a van to haul your crap to and from shows, get rated by fair judges who may or may not know what they are doing, get into juried local guilds to build a reputation...and the list goes on and on... Yeah, please join the crowd. You have to really want to do it. Oops, I forgot you have to make time to MAKE your art. That takes a wee bit of time, too...especially if you are trying to fill a whole booth.

So there, I said it.

What was I going to talk about?

I forgot.

Sorry about the rant. I'll try to post more pictures this weekend.