Going big by thinking small

So you may remember I was headed here last weekend...

to sign and sell le book, Mixed Media Dollhouses. (I'm a major contributor, doncha know.) And I have to tell you, I was kind of dragging myself to do it. Not because I didn't want to go, but because I was sure I hadn't done enough to get ready for it. No one's going to come to the show because it'll be too rainy/too sunny...

everyone will be setting up for nothing....

 no one will get what my art and the book is about, except the organizers Karen and Sue...

... everyone I've invited will have better things to do.

But everyone proved my inner critic wrong. Wrong wrong wrong!

My friends Don and Monikka came to see my first demo/mini-lecture -- which is saying something, because they had to find somewhere to stash their three daughters first. (I kid. Sort of. One's a newly-minted teenager, the next "has a hollow leg" as my dad used to say and is constantly starving, and the third is training herself to be a ninja.)

And guess who came all the way from Spokane? My Artfest buddy Nikki! 

And she dug around her purse to show me her portable art kit and journal. A spot of Artfest bonding, right there.

Many of my art friends teach, but I haven't. So it was a nice surprise to have people willingly stand for a half-hour to listen about my ideas on incorporating personal photos and items from your stash in your art. One woman told me my mind goes to weird places, but that she liked how my mind worked. And the woman next to her agreed.

I know I gave at least a couple of people some interesting ideas. The woman who bought the last copy was bubbling over with plans on how she'd use the book. I was told six or seven people specifically asked when I'd be presenting. And Lori Hall, my vendor neighbor at the show, said she thought artists like me are key to bringing in new people to the miniatures circuit. (Lori and her husband have been making miniatures since the 1970s.)

Huh. Someone so immersed in this scene thinks someone new like me is not only interesting, but even vital to their future. That kind of encouragement silences my inner critic quite nicely. It might not look like it from the outside, but having this experience under my belt feels like I'm going big with my goals.

How did that happen?

It's been said about raising children that the days are long, but the years are short.

The Boy may be ready for first grade soon... he can handle the academic part. But our local school district is pretty hard-core about the cut-off dates: The kid must be five by the beginning of the school year for kindergarten, six for first grade, unless your kid can pass all the elements of an early-entrance psychological assessment.

Geez. In my day, you just had to be the right age by like early December.

TwoBoo has had his first haircut last month (the barber missed a spot, though). Once again, he looks like a smaller, chubbier version of The Boy. But he's still young enough -- and flexible enough -- to gnaw on his right foot occasionally. Then he'll look at me and smack his lips like he's eating barbecue. Shoeless Joe much prefers to walk now, if not run. Usually with one shoe and sock missing.

I'm telling you, that child moves faster than a virus through day care.

Next up: the constant ferrying of children between this activity and that. I am not a fan of scheduling a child within an inch of his life (partly because humans need time to just be, and partly because I'm Slacker Mom). But that's kind of what's on the horizon, when and if I can find transportation for The Boy. I work weird hours at my day job, so I can't leave work at 3 to shuttle the kids all over creation and then take them home for dinner. The Husband has a contract gig right now, which would help pay for these "extras that are really necessities" but again, time restrictions. You can't just sashay out for soccer practice when you're not a full-timer.

I think The Boy will need to do the same activity as his friend(s) so I can pay the other kid's parent gas money in exchange for a ride. Or something. How do you guys handle that stuff? Help a sistah out and throw some ideas my way in the comments, no?

It's probably not Art, but...

I wonder if art-making will survive a Bravo reality show.

On June 9th, Bravo premieres a competition called "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist." Here's what I'm expecting: attractive and/or interesting-looking people stabbing each other in the back for a few months, only to be forgotten three weeks after winning the competition. No, wait -- the winner makes the rounds as a D-list celeb for a year too.

No, I'm not cynical. Why do you ask?

Certainly they're not going to find the next Andy Warhol -- wait, this would be perfect for the next Andy Warhol! -- but I bet they get a lot of people who think they're the next Julian Schnabel. Let's meet back here on June 10th and snark, shall we?