The Happiness Thread

Getting paid and paying for bills and things I need feels good.

 

After nearly two years of unsuccessfully trying to find a job that fits, I've come to a decision. I'm gonna seriously try and make a living off my art. This past couple of weeks has been an eye-opener, as I've been asked to do several bespoke portraits in time for Xmas. That's got me thinking. Even if I managed to get two basic commissions a week, my present income would more than triple. And that's without ripping the arse outta my clients. I do it for the love, not the money, but I need to eat too.

As soon as Xmas is done and dusted, I'm going to make a few connections and see if I can make this happen.

 

Wait... didn't you say that you were going to put your art on hold, like a week ago?

Anyway, I wish you luck with the portraits! It seems doing art is one of your favourite occupations, so have fun and follow your dream!

 

That was until I came to the realisation: Why am I living on next to nothing, (not kiddin' I virtually had to starve myself for a week to afford the new lenses for my glasses. It was either me or my critters, and they come first) when people regularly offer to pay me for what I do? (I generally decline.)

Seems a bit silly being precious about it when the last two years have shown that, because it is necessary for me to completely retrain as something else (I was a 35mm projectionist, and digital systems are self-automated) it might simply be easier, not to mention more fulfilling to do something I love.

It's good for me because not every work environment suits me because of the Bi Polar, and it's something I retreat to when it all gets too much. Basically, it makes sense. I always feel a tad guilty that photography and art take up so much of my time, when I have so many other worthwhile interests. This way I would get to do it and keep some sense of autonomy too. If I don't like the project, I simply won't accept the commission, and if I do and my work is acceptable, I get paid. Bonus!

 

I thought it's quite difficult to make a living with art, but that's awesome if it seems like a feasible possibility for you .

I feel quite good right now about the way my short story is coming along. T and I are -- somewhat unusually -- working on two projects at once, two shorts of our own, and our main WIP.

 

@KaTrian

And that's the main reason I've been putting it off. It's a bit scary, but seriously, it's not like financially things can get any worse. I went to visit an acquaintance today to sound out framing and mounting costs and options. It'll take a while until I have enough put by to buy decent tools to tackle it myself—I'm totally crap at cutting mounting board anyway—so it's worth paying out a little extra in costs in the meantime to produce a quality finished product while I'm learning the ropes.

I could avail of a Start-Up scheme but I'd rather go it alone for a bit, just to see what comes of it. It's not like I'd be doing anything I wouldn't be doing anyway.

 

I wrapped presents for my roommates and made apple pie with my grandma, so I feel pretty good.

 

Got my bike back. I'd forgotten how much of an improvement it is over walking.

 

I think your art is good enough to at least attempt to make a living from it. Framing is expensive, and printing might be as well. If you were in the US, you could buy nice frames inexpensively at the thrift stores and yard sales. I have hundreds of small frames I paid only a dollar or two each for. I have big plans to frame silk screen prints from old children's books where the books are too damaged to be worth anything as a book. The project is on hold but I still plan to do it.

And I have way too many larger frames from artwork I bought but now have no room for. Buying crummy art in nice frames around here costs only a few dollars at the thrift stores.

You of course need to either pay for professional framing or do it right yourself if you have the skill. But instead of paying for expensive frames, recycling nice ones from thrift stores is well worth the effort.

I think your prints would sell well here at our annual art fair.

http://www.bellevuefest.org/art/

 

IT IS RAINING!!!

After months and months (years??) of drought, it's RAINING here!

I can't even express how happy I am to see RAIN after all this nothing. It's been like trying to live on the moon here for a year and it's RAINING at last! Woohoo!

 

Maybe you should come over here for a while. I've woken up to heavy rain pretty much every morning for the past two months. It felt so strange to have the sun shining on my face through the window this morning!

 

It rained on Halloween....

 

Three weeks left of the semester!

 

Hooray, my EBay board games are selling like hotcakes! There's hope I might make a dent in the clutter someday soon.

 

I also got a new bike just a couple of days ago. Well, not new, it's actually one of those old ones that are made of some miracle material they should make tanks, bullet-resistant vests, and space ships of.

 

It's real annoying when i look at these things and there is never a section for graphite/pencil. It's like they don't consider it good enough.

I was talking about art to a few people at work a couple months back and when i was asked what media i use i said "graphite, i draw". One guy, with a straight face actually said "Don't you use any other proper media?"

As if pencils are for kids and real artists must use anything but!

Anyway, good things lately. I have my MTB back off my brother (29er, amazing bike, £1500 & such a pleasure to ride) time for some off road trails i think!

 

Reminds me of "Drop an iPhone breaks the phone, drop a Nokia breaks the floor".

 

Ah, the feeling when you settle down for your first lecture since the last exam and the lecturer starts speaking in English.
I love it! And he's so awesome at teaching!

We have way too few English-speaking lecturers...

 

I went to an international high school and some of our teachers were through-and-through Finns. Sometimes I wished they had just spoken Finnish 'cause their English was so terrible. On the other hand, I'm impressed how well they pulled off teaching in a language they had never really studied beyond high school and the non-Finns in our class seemed to stay on board just fine.

 

The lecturer I have right now is originally from Canada so he speaks with a French accent (but still good English). I've had another couple of lecturers before who, I think, were from the UK, though I'm not sure.
But, of course, we've had some "I-want-to-speak-English"-Swedes (even though everyone in my class known Swedish perfectly), and damn it was annoying...

 

@Komposten the Canadian-French accents are so weird-cool. Weird when Georges St Pierre speaks, cool when this Canadian exchange student at uni speaks (Canadian/American English 'r's with French words. I think she called it Franglais or something) .

 

I'm happy right now because I got all my snow shoveling for the day over with.

We received two inches of icy snow this morning here in southern Maine.

 

You can sell any kind of art you want to at the fair. The official tables cost about $1,000 each so they attract some high end stuff. If you had something that didn't fit in a section category you can still sell it.

And outside of the Square there are booths for anything. The only rule is it has to be original art. People sell the weirdest stuff.

 

Two inches? Can you send some of it over here, please?
(Though try to avoid putting it on the roads.)

 

Two weeks left of the semester!