Thanksgiving
I somehow forgot to write a blog post yesterday, which I guess provides some insight into the state of things in the studio. Last week I wrote about feeling ahead of schedule, which quickly went away as the week progressed. I let a few small, final touch things go undone and they quickly piled up. However, I listened to The Lazy Genius Podcast episode on How to Make the Rest of 2022 Easier and went through the exercise of naming what is happening, naming what I wish were happening, making things smaller, writing out what I need, putting things in their place, and categorizing. This really helped me figure out what I still needed to do in terms of Thanksgiving and holiday fair preparation, find a time to do these things, and really prioritize. So now I feel back on track and less overwhelmed as tomorrow is Thanksgiving and then my first holiday fair is this Friday and Saturday!
What I’m working on
I finished the remaining paintings of the mini 4x4” wave studies, photographed them, varnished them, and packed them up for the holiday fairs. I plan on putting up the photographs of these paintings in my website portfolio, but here’s a picture of all of them here for now.
I photographed all my prints and put them up on my website here! I really dread photographing my paintings/prints/products in general, so I’m proud of myself for doing this. I’m working on styling the photographs better and I still hope to learn Adobe Lightroom so I can better edit my photos. That being said, you should check the photos out and leave me any feedback in the comments. I’ll also say that they’re great holiday gifts 😉
I painted one morning sunrise over the weekend. I’m still working on sorting out my sleep schedule and decided that this week was not the week to drastically change up my routines. It was nice waking up early to paint and be outside, so hopefully more morning sunrises will come in the future.
I started painting an 18x24” painting based on a photo I took overlooking the coast of Highway 1 on a foggy morning. It’s in the very beginning stages and I hope to consistently work on this painting over the next few weeks.
With the help from my partner (read: he did most of the work), we drafted a contract form for commissioned paintings since I will be working on one soon! I really dragged my feet on this, but now that we have a form, most of the work should be done for commission contracts!
I’m about 95% packed up for my holiday fairs. I have some lingering items I need to pack like back up chargers and batteries and packing tape, but otherwise, all my paintings, prints, coasters, etc. are all packed up! The biggest concern now is playing car tetris and making sure everything fits in the car!
Inputs
As I mentioned earlier, I started listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast.
I started reading Duped: Truth-Default Theory and the Social Science of Lying and Deception by Timothy R. Levine. It’s been sitting on my shelf for a while so I figured I would try to read it instead of scrolling endlessly on my phone.
Outputs
I started going on walks in the morning! This has been something that I’ve been telling myself to do but had a really hard time starting. I’ve gone on a walk in the morning for the past three days and I think it’s been helping me feel more motivated and organized. I think I just needed more sunlight to feel better. I hope to continue this and it becomes part of my routine.
I think that’s all for now. I’m excited for Thanksgiving and the first holiday fair. I am trying to limit my expectations for the fair and frame it as primarily a learning experience. I’ll try to share what I learn in my next blog post.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
