Forging Ahead, Even in Doubt

As I have mentioned before, juried shows are a crap shoot. And I’ve also already mentioned why I don’t take it personally if I don’t get in the show. There are too many great things going on in my world to worry about rejection.

But on top of actually making the art work and then deciding to submit work we artists are faced with the fairly new digital application process. Can any of you out there say “technically challenged”? I can.

I’m still learning my way around Photoshop, though I have learned much by just practicing and using it. The problem is I am usually “practicing” when I am actually submitting the work. Makes the submission process all the more stressful.

This past summer I made some smaller works to submit to the Artisan Search 2011 in the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Challenged, I was. With the application, not so much the work. It was so FRUSTRATING. So I almost didn’t complete the process.

Thanks to the kind people at the magazine I learned what I was doing wrong, corrected my mistakes and submitted my application, just in the nick of time.

On my birthday, September 27th, I learned I was one of five finalists in my category of mixed-media stitch. Such a nice birthday gift!  One month later I learned I was the winner in my category. And I almost didn’t enter the show!

I’m glad I forged ahead, even when I doubted myself.

May your day be stress free and creative!

The current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors