but now I'm walking dogs?
That's always my quick explanation of what I'm doing since I graduated. But the truth is, this book helped me realize that it wasn't just art that I wanted to pursue and working with animals was going to be a wonderful thing to calm my mind when all I had on my plate was getting ready for an art show.
It is true that I am working on getting an art show together. I have a "dead-line" for October 20th but I've lost inspiration and it sucks. The other day I spat into the sink while brushing my teeth and the coolest shape was formed...however, my sketch was 10x more exciting than the drawing I made because of the sketch. It's like the inspiration died when I tried to make it over and over again. It needed to be original. AND THAT'S WHY I NEED ANOTHER MINI SKETCHBOOK!
About this book...my friend Jill lent it too me at my graduation party. I didn't really read it because she said that it has some neat exercises in it that I might enjoy. I did! I enjoyed flip-flip-flipping through the pages until I came across another exploratory exercise where I wrote all over a piece of blank paper which then turned into a collage of everything I have ever thought about doing. It was crazy to figure out that, ya know, I'm doing exactly what I want.
Well, not exactly. At the time I wasn't employed by Crackerdog, the canine boarding and daycare facility I work at now, but I was certainly prepared to after working with the dogs at the Guadalupe County Humane Society while I was still at school in Seguin. I may have adopted a cat after I had left, but that goes to show that I wasn't going to be able to give a dog the attention it needed. I love April...don't get me wrong...but she makes me sneeze!
The book got me really pumped about getting my art studio up and running and also having that "third thing" to keep me sane. You see, one of my favorite art professors ( I basically loved them all, but for different reasons) was teaching our Senior Seminar class preparing us for graduation and helping us get our first art show up and was giving us the low-down on how to survive: Don't use glitter and have a third thing. He always hatted it when one of the art majors used glitter in everything...she'd use it in one room and it'd end up in another! His third thing, to help you understand, is biking. He has a family, an art studio, he is a professor, and he loves biking! Now what am I? I have a love of my life, an art studio, and a job working with dogs! I'd say I'm on the right track.
Another one of the exercises in the book was to make goals and then prioritize them by recognizing which ones are the most possible and ones that you really want to invest time into. So, of course I put down having an art show to part-way benefit a good cause but then I also put down owning our own (Heather and me) humane society/daycare/boarding facility. Half of it seems non-profit while the other half brings in profit. Confusing? Yup, but that is a long-long-long term goal.
After revising and revising I finished up my list and made it all pretty using colorful paper and I took it to my studio...and that's why I can't tell you exactly what's on there because I don't remember. Lame, but overall I'm happy where I am, even if I'm stumped in the art world. It's okay, remember? because I have that third thing to take up my time that isn't spent staring at the ceiling of the teal carpeted studio trying to push something into my brain that's not going to come yet.
Now, I encourage everyone out there who just graduated or who is still stuck in a rut to either pick up this book to dig down deep and find your dreams/goals and organize them! Or just think of ways to organize them yourself. No need to buy/borrow a book when it's already turning the gears in your head. The book started to get redundant when I had already gotten everything organized so I just closed it, took a deep breath, and got serious.
Be serious, don't settle for less, do what you can handle, eat Pringles AND FEEL GOOD!
That is all!
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