Ridesfire

Like most artists, criticism used to be very hard for me.  I had some bad experiences with unhappy art customers.  Over the years, my attitude has change and I have been blessed with the maturity to face art critics.  My sales slogan is "If you like it, you can buy it."  Recently I had my first potential major loss in art supplies when I had to paint a whole new tie to meet the customer's criteria and ended up with the rejected temple tie painting needing a new customer.  Reluctantly, I posted the Oakland temple tie on several websites and sold it to the first interested party, my brother.  So a rejected painting turned into an additional sale.  My brother said, "I had been looking for a new tie and wanting a painted temple from your collection."  So my brother received something he wanted and I made an extra sale and the exacting customer got what she wanted.  I felt like this was a tiny miracle to help me pay for grad school!  Only 37 more ties to go until I have this term paid for!

Chalk it up to experience.  Criticism and rejection can lead to more profit!  Also, when customers request lots of changes, it is like they are paying you and giving you art lessons on what the customer wants.

Enjoy criticism and all the profits it brings.  It also pays to be grateful to God to all the tender mercies in our lives that help us reach our goals and become the people we want to be.

So I just started my first semester of grad school and I have been flooded with orders for ties!  Before Christmas I painted 7 ties and I just finished 7 more.  One more tie to go and then I can start on a large almost 5 foot by 4 foot painting of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  I look at art as my therapy between graduate school papers.  So far I have received one B and 3 As!

So my three-year-old daughter gave me a pep talk today to help my finish the painting I was working on.  She did a great job and I finished the painting and enjoyed the process (which always helps the painting look better).  I was nervous about finishing the painting because I have a huge art commission coming up.  5' x 4' of the Second Coming of Christ.

I'm also starting grad school on Monday and teaching official art classes for the first time on Thursday.  Pray for me, it is going to be awesome!

So I finished sketching the Melbourne Australia LDS temple some time ago and I finished the sunset a few days ago and I want to finish the painting today, but I am feeling art-shy.  I have painted over a hundred and twenty temple paintings and I have probably completed at least over 500 works of art in my life time and I still get this way.  Sometimes it strikes suddenly while painting or drawing.  Sometimes it is a lag of procrastination and a general reluctance to gather all the materials needed to begin work.  Sometimes if I push through the shyness and work anyway, the painting turns out amazing, but sometimes it fails miserably.  What keeps me going or gets me going is the idea that I can always paint over the canvas if the painting doesn't work out.

Hopefully that will help me today.  How do you beat your art-shy moments?

Reflecting on this it has been an emotional journey for me.  We lost my brother-in-law suddenly at Christmastime and then my husband's nephew died from cancer.  Painting portraits and making locket gifts from them helped me heal but the wounds in the family are still raw in some places.  My niece lost her brother and grandmother within a month.

We also traveled to Florida for my first time.  The sand was like magic powder and I worked on refining my sandcastle sculptures technique.

Upcoming changes: studying for my Masters in Library and Information Science and starting to volunteer teach at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in Marietta, GA.  Going forth with faith!