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09/25/2006: "Picking up the pieces..."
So, on Saturday I went down to Two Crows and picked up my unsold paintings from the summer. It wasn't until I was packing them all up into my car that I realized how many hadn't sold. It was pretty deflating actually. Especially since that magical moment I’ve been waiting for (to get started on my new show) still hasn’t arrived.
It reminded me of the blog Thomas (from London) used to write “Confessions of a Failed Artist” (where are you Thomas?) and I couldn’t help feeling a little like a failure.
Anyway, this morning I got two amazing emails back to back.
First email was from someone I’ve never met…it was incredibly long and detailed where he told the story of how he’s been reading my blog for 2 years now and how what I’ve posted on my site (about living in Alaska, etc.) has impacted his life in a variety of very cool ways. It made me feel even better about my decision to stay here.
Second email was from someone I’ve never met…who told me in *great* detail, all of the incredible thoughts they had about several of my paintings and about all of my work in general. They wrote "if I ever win the lottery, I'll buy every unsold painting you've ever made".
Wow. I guess when you put stuff out into the blogosphere you never know who is going to be influenced by it in some way, large or small…but being reminded that I’ve actually inspired at least a few people, I mean, that’s what artists dream of, to have their work mean something to someone. Sales are great but just because you load a ton of unsold paintings up into your car doesn’t mean you’re a talentless hack.
Anyway, to the writers of my two emails this morning (and you know who you are) thank you! The timing was perfect. And now *you've* had a similar impact on me. I'll press on to paint another day!
:P
(really, I'll get started any minute now)