How Do You Decide What to Do Next When You Don't Know What to Do Next?

My husband and I have been writing a book for a few years now and it is getting to the point that probably what needs to happen next is a thorough Roto-rooter-like edit/proofread by me and then find a publisher. Or do I find an agent? Or is it neither of those things? Am I deluding myself that I could actually do any of those things? I started down the garden path to find a literary agent, then looked at some stuff people had written about getting a book published, then started looking at the book to see what sample copy I could send out, then started writing a cover letter to no one, then I realized that my head was swimming and I had no idea what I was doing or what I needed to do next and I know what a run-on sentence this is, I'm just using it to give you the idea of what it feels like in my head. My head is one big run-on sentence, and as an editor, I should know better, but it just never stops. In addition to the book, I am an artist. I show my work in a gallery here in town and also in my Etsy Shop on the internet, so I'm also an internet marketer of some ghastly variety. Plus, and more importantly, I'm a housewife and stepmom (and dog-mom).

So what do I do first? Do I work on said book? No, not at all. Instead, I work on something that I know how to do, putting off the probably much more urgent thing (the book) that I have no fucking clue how to do.

One of the first things I have been trying to work on is a book cover illustration!

I rediscovered a former professor from college on Facebook, friended him, and discovered that in addition to being a brilliant physical chemist and concert cellist, he has written several novels! So upon mentioning my delight in this discovery as part of my Facebook friend request, he offered, "buy one of my books and I'll buy some of your artwork." So I bought one of his books (for Kindle, which I'm reading on my computer, since I don't have a Kindle) and waited to see what he would pick from my artwork. Better than picking something, instead he asked me to design the covers for his next three (I think he said three) books! I was flattered and excited and said 'yes' immediately, of course. So the first image in this post was the condition of the first cover, before I took it with me to the doctor with one of my kids and sat in the waiting room for 90 minutes. So that sketch is considerably further along than it appears in the photo.

Next...

As a consequence of being a stepmom and artist, I have volunteered to design my daughter's first tattoo, and her Dad is going to get (part of) the same tattoo with her. Fortunately for the creative process and unfortunately for my kid, said daughter had a terrible stomach ache on Saturday, sending us to Urgent Care, resulting in 4 hours trapped in a small, sterile room with a bitchy teenager. Needless to say, I got almost the entire drawing finished right there. Fairly excellent usage of a day I will never get back.

Next thing on the list, in no particular order, but that needs to be completed immediately along with everything else, is my Sketchbook Project sketchbook. I found one of the many, many links to The Sketchbook Project and thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to both do something creative and almost completely limitless in possibility and get some publicity by being part of this huge project that will be touring the country, then wind up as part of the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. Each artist chose from a wide variety of themes--I chose "Science project gone wrong" because, well, how perfect does that describe my scientific career. I can finally make a formal mockery of my own failings in scientific inquiry. Shown here is the back of the book. Those are the only marks on it thusfar. It must be postmarked by January 15th, 2011. Sigh.

Featured Inspiration--Natalya Sots Amazing Pots!

Okay, she makes more than just pots, but I couldn't resist the rhyme. One thing I'm really loving about the new Etsy feature called "Activity Feed" (it's pretty much like the running status you get on your Facebook homepage) is how it keeps you up to date on everything any of your favorite sellers or people in you 'Circle' are doing--new listings, treasuries they made, items that they have added to their favorites, etc. This morning I had a couple of minutes so I checked it out. One of my long time favorites, Natalya Sots, had a new listing, and I was completely charmed by it! The Sunshine Girl teacup in the top picture is so adorable and has so many charming details, I was inspired to write about it. Click on the link to go to the listing, and be sure to look at all of her detail pictures, like the little braid going down her back and the tiny flowers! So sweet!

This blue cup (called Blue Cup with Pants) was the first item of hers I added to my favorites. It is truly charming and adorable. I wish I had the kind of home where something like this wouldn't get broken. Perhaps oneday.

As fun as her pieces are to look at, some of them are useful too! While I'm not sure if I'd really risk using either of the two cups (they'd probably just sit on a shelf where everyone could see them) this third piece is a butter dish! Can't you picture having Sunday brunch or tea with scones and serve your butter in this? I love her choices of colors and whimsical faces. While I do not create art with any functional purpose, I might just get inspired to create some drawings inspired by her fun faces and flowery patterns!

I have barely scratched the surface of her talents, so go check out her other lovely ceramicware in her Etsy Shop.

Fine Art Friday--A Little Lowbrow from Mary Lundberg

I do not often feature other artists on my blog because A) I do not often exhibit the same behavior twice in any aspect of my life, and 2) no one reads this blog anyway. However, in honor of Fine Art Friday, I decided to share an artist who has inspired me with her talent, humor, and honesty. Plus, no artist has ever inspired me to like Mobile Homes, so she gets kudos for that.

Her profile mentions that she has studied art all the way up to a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Memphis, has exhibited in both solo and group shows, and has been honored with awards for her work. AND YET I LIKE HER ANYWAY.

Her artwork all expresses a dark humor, reminiscent of Yves Tanguy or some of the more modern, hip, lowbrow surrealists that I'm not modern or hip enough to be able to cite. I'm seeing a bigtime Tanguy influence in this piece here:

In the Beginning, 18" x 24"

Aside from the immense talent, what drew me into her shop and made me check out every single category of art was, well, the categories she gave to her art. While other shops have categories like "Original Artwork", "ACEOs", and "Works Under $20", Mary has named her categories in a way that explains just what you're looking at, while the category titles make you laugh all by themselves. Her categories include "i use offshore banking"(works over $500), "lost my 401k but still love art" ($40-$65), and "art for the really poor" (<$12). The piece below ($50, since we're on the subject) is from a series of Trailer art, featuring bizarre and a little disturbing single-wide trailers. This mixed media piece I find awesome not just because it's a trailer and that the trailer appears to be walking, but that it appears to me to be wearing bellbottoms.

Single Wide Trailer #5, 4" x 4"

The artist is even honest enough to offer a category called "not my best work". It's nice to know that while I use my work from that category to give to people I don't like or to entertain my dog by letting her carry it around, Ms. Lundberg is at least trying to make a buck off of it. The work below, while not her best work, still cracked me up. Besides, the rest of that category I, um, didn't like. No offense, Mary, but it's not your best work. You said so yourself.

Poodle on Bob Ross's Hair, 5" x 7"

Last night, after checking out this shop, I thought about what categories I might use for my own shop. Using the same honest criterion, I was thinking, "papa needs a new roof", "mama needs a new dishwasher", "teenage daughter mascara fund" and "please buy this shit before I give it to my dogs to play with". It can't possibly be any less successful than what I've already got.

Cleaning Out the Closets--I Finally Came Up With a Good Christmas Gift Idea

So, in case you haven't noticed from all of the Ebay listings and other rants, I've been trying to clean out all the old stuff in this house that nobody needs. While preparing a very large donation bag of clothes, I noticed we had a ridiculous number of old Little League baseball jerseys of all sizes and teams. My husband (and I, unofficially) have coached Little League since our oldest was about 12 or 13. He's 19 now and his younger brother is 15, also now too old for the regular season play of Little League. So we considered this past Spring season to be our last season as Little Leaguers. It was a pretty good time, lots of great baseball games, lots of great kids and great parents. My husband and I have now both served on the Board of Directors, but I am trying to remove that part of the experience from my mind and just remember all the good parts. In remembering the good parts, I wanted to do something sentimental and cool with all of these old jerseys rather than give them to Goodwill. I'm thinking I will make a little throw quilt out of them, backed in some nice solid fleece. I think it would make a great gift for my husband for Christmas (don't worry, my husband has never read my blog, I don't think, and even if he does, we're not that big on surprises anyway). Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on making a memory quilt? I can tell you that the regular seams between the shirt-fronts will be done with a zig-zag stitch (I don't have a Serger machine, just a Singer). Should I pick a contrast color, like red, and have the stitching show? What should I do about the edges? I made a fleece blanket once by taking two big pieces of fleece fabric and cutting fringe into the edges, then tying the fringe together, so I suppose I could do that. I should probably make a decision on these things so I can get it done before Christmas, along with all the other stuff I'd like to get done in time for Christmas. Not to mention, daughter's birthday is coming up, and she wants me to design her tattoo. More to come on that...

If You Buy All My Stuff on Ebay, I Can Go Back to Making Art

As much as I would love to be able to produce beautiful artwork that you, my readers, will instantly buy, providing you with thoughtful Holiday gifts and me with holiday gift-buying money, that just doesn't appear to be happening quite as rapidly as I would like. I know, picky, picky.

So I'm going through this massive collection of stuff that everyone in this house (especially me) has collected and now does not need. I have clothes that used to belong to my daughter before she decided she was too good for them, clothes I bought for myself, only to realize that either A) cute as they are, I don't look good in them, or B) have been sitting in my closet since the '80s and they are now in style again. There's also some diecast metal car models that no one in the house ever claimed to have wanted to collect. Jaguars? Nascar pickup truck? For real?

There are a million websites and late-night infomercials out there that will tell you how easy it is to list your stuff on Ebay. It is easy--to create a crap listing. To create a listing that people will look at and bid on, you need the same criterion as other online marketplaces. High quality pictures (yes, the skirt I'm wearing in the picture is for sale, and I used that picture because it sucks trying to take a picture of a plain black skirt, and Cassie wanted to be a part of it, so I thought that would be as likely to get someone to click on the listing as anything else), detailed descriptions, accurate measurements, and whatever in each of our brains passes for advertising and marketing. For the possible $50 or so I could get paid, I have spent ridiculous hours with the tripod taking pictures, editing pictures, measuring things, writing decent descriptions, checking on my listings, TWEETING (I couldn't believe it, but that actually got people to click on the listings), posting annoying pleas on Facebook... ugh! I must be doing it wrong. Maybe I need to market my goods the way these ladies have (NSFW). I appear to be stuck in that limbo between pathetic-but-getting-paid and dignified-with-no-Christmas-money.

So go check out my Ebay listings so I can get back to making some art. I've still got a book cover (or three, I think) to create, proofreading I could be doing, and daughter's tattoo to design (okay, that one I don't get paid for, but I told her I'd design it in time for her birthday in a couple weeks). Please someone come yell at me if one of my links doesn't work (but don't yell at me about the Regretsy listing, 'cos that's just funny shit, I don't care who you are).

Two Mo Bros for Movember

Well since October, Breast Cancer Awareness month, has come and gone (and I never got my baseline mammogram performed), we're done saving the ta-tas. Instead, now, for November, we are saving the... um, testes? Sorry, that was bad. Anyway, November is Men's Health Awareness month, and just to jazz it up and give people something to do, in addition to donating money, the month has been renamed Movember. The 'Mo' is short for 'moustache' (one of two proper spellings of the word, I'd have to ask my friends at Scribendi.com if one is British English and one is American. I do know that the fine wordsmiths at Scribendi are participating in Movember!) and to raise people's awareness of men's health issues, men (Mo Bros) are supposed to grow out their moustaches for the whole month of November, and us gals (Mo Sistas) are supposed to cheer them on, assist with grooming, measuring, possibly braiding, and there will no doubt be moustache rides involved in there somewhere, but I'm trying to keep this blog above board, so we're no going to talk about that part. In addition to the growing of hair, there are opportunities to donate and promote donation by others at the Movember website. Since I am thus far unable to grow a moustache myself, I am supporting the cause by creating some Mo Bros of my own.

The first fellow came out decidedly sinister looking, and since he is the first, I have named him"Mo". He has been created in pen and ink, as well as some brushed inks, including the new colors I bought at Langell's the other day. "Mo", the original, is currently for sale in my Etsy Shop, and the full sale amount (not shipping) will be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation via Movember.com. (The other major charity organization featured on movember.com is the Livestrong Foundation, and while I'm sure it has probably done some good in its day, Lance Armstrong is a douchebag and I'm not giving him my money. Hey, it's my blog and my opinion, and for the record, it's not just my opinion.) Moving on... I will probably make some Mo prints (get it, mo' prints, mo' money, mo' Mo?) and sell them for a more reasonable price, that way everyone can share in the love of Mo-ness.

My second Mo Bro is the as-yet-unnamed walrus-y moustachioed dude shown here. He is also done in pen and ink as well as brushed ink and colored pencil. I scanned him yesterday, then added a bit more colored pencil to the face area, but when I went to scan it again, suddenly my awesome-if-geriatric HP scanner has decided to utterly fail. Now I need to start a fundraiser to buy a new scanner/copier/printer. The second Mo Bro is not available for sale yet, but I will probably put him up for sale the same way, with all proceeds going to the PCF. If I do manage to get a decent scan of him, I will probably print some out as prints as well. While offering prints at a lower price than the original is a good idea, I will probably need to subtract out a certain percentage to offset the cost of printing them. Making an original costs very little, and I consider my creative time a donation, but making digital prints is rather expensive. Plus there's the whole scanner issue. Time to go join my compadres at Scribendi and start earning some Christmas money. (Yes, I know, it's hard to believe that the same person who writes this spew of a blog is also a proofreader and editor. Consider this 'getting it out of my system'.) Please enjoy these Mo Bros, be on the lookout for more of them before the month's end, and, should you feel so inclined, go to my Mo Space (yes, they're really calling it that) and donate!

Getting Inspired by Ink

So today I made the excuse of having to pay my shop fees to The Wooden Cow Gallery in order to drive by Langell's Art Supply. I live on the west side of Albuquerque, which has much newer houses and development than the east side, but as such can be severely deficient in certain things. We have no traditional old diners, there are few really nice restaurants, and no real art supply stores. Yes, we have Michael's and Hobby Lobby, but no place where you can go for specialty goods, like high quality liquid inks. Once I got to Langell's today, I walked up and down every aisle to make sure I really didn't need anything else, and wound up with a roll of framing tape (the brown stuff you put on the backs of framed artwork) and several bottles of ink. I also got to get real advice on a product I had never tried from someone who had used it, and could even show me what he'd done with it--you can't get that at Michael's either. I wound up taking his advice and choosing 3 luscious colors of Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink--Teal, Cherry Red, and Terra Cotta. I also got a bottle of Koh-I-Noor black India Ink, as it is recommended for my Rapidograph pens. I am guilty of having used whatever ink I had on hand in the past, and we'll see if this ink is less susceptible to clogging.

My final bottle was Higgins Red Violet, to replace a bottle I'd just used up, part way through the project photographed above. It is a waist cincher that I found on Ebay for a steal because the pretty lace all over the front of it was orange and yellow. I've worn it once or twice as it was, but I seriously almost broke out in a chorus of Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves while wearing it. So the other day, I got out the waterproof red + red violet and brushed it onto the lace. Much to my delight, it came out a juicy deep red, though a bit uneven, as the different shades of yellow and orange soaked up different amounts of ink. After going over most of it with one coat, I decided it really needed another one to even it out a bit more. It may not be painting on a canvas or paper, but it's a start, and was a successful artistic project that was worth sharing.

Now it's time to go take down the Halloween decorations before it gets dark.