Jes Lee

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And just like that it was the end of August

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It seems like whenever I see a project deadline on the horizon, it seems so far off. And then suddenly, said deadline will be running me over with a very large, very loud truck.

So far, I have made all of my deadlines! There are about 5 (that I can count without looking at a calendar) that are coming up between now and October. I will make them! I’m well on my way!

In the mean time, a small update:

I have artwork up at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in the Pretend the World show. Six framed prints, and two videos of mine are on display. The opening reception is Saturday, August 20th, 5-8pm. Stop by if you can! It is a great show! I will blog more about it soon. 

I will have artwork up at the Dunn Brothers in Edina off of 66th and York Street for the month of September. I just went there today to see the space, and it is a very cute Dunn Brothers! You should definitely check it out if you are in the neighborhood.

Sunday, September 11th, Jes Lee Photos and Dad and Kiddo Pottery will be sharing a booth at Art @ Rice Creek with my creative friend Yameena! It is a great art festival, and free! You should come visit!

Saturday, September 17th, Jes Lee Photos and Dad and Kiddo Pottery will have a booth at the Bloomington Heritage Days festival! This is our first year at this one, so please stop by and say hi! It is hard being the new kid in the neighborhood!

I mentioned before that I was working on some new artwork. Here is one of the pieces in progress:

Where are you going?

I am also working on a book – I have an image, a poem, and a binding and I am working on putting all of those things together. This is one of my upcoming deadlines. I thought I had made more progress on it today, when I realized that out of 12 page signatures I had glued 10 together either out of order or upside down. That was a sign that I needed to quit for the night. Of course, I didn’t quit there, I took it apart and re-glued it the right way, and it is now setting under a weight drying.

As an artist, there are many times when you work yourself until you melt into a puddle of tiredness. Between working a paying job, and working at making your art almost every waking moment you aren’t working, it isn’t always easy. Having an immune deficiency tends to make those puddle days come faster than you expect, and definitely faster than they seem to come for others. I’m getting close to that point, but I’m not quite there yet. Maybe only waist deep in puddle. Tomorrow will definitely be a two cup of coffee kind of day!

Until next time,
~Peace~

A better week

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It really has been. Not that last week, or the weekend were particularly bad. It has just been better.

Last weekend had been hard. Not bad, not busy, just hard for a bunch of small, stupid, mostly self inflicted reasons that aren’t important. The point is, by the time Monday morning came around I was a tightly wound ball of frustration. In a little Internet hissy fit I posted to Twitter that I had high hopes for my morning coffee, and that I wanted to hide and just make art.

It wasn’t long before my phone jingles that I had a response. A tweet back from a friend saying simply:

@Moonsweetie Allow me to be the angel on your shoulder that says: Do it! #ArtistsGottaArt

I cried. Sobbed really, but with relief, not sadness. After a short bit I pulled myself back together and thought that maybe if I reacted like that to that statement of permission from a friend, then maybe I really did need some time like that. Time to do what I needed to do without so many distractions.

I posted back a thank you, and did something I don’t normally do. I sat down at my laptop to work, in a little nest made on the couch with my thumb drives and wacom tablet near by, and I closed my email, twitter, Facebook, and even my chat program off. I usually chat with friends all day while I am working, and I do admit I missed that time with them. But, in a way it was also so amazing to have this time free of everything else! I still had my phone on, and still checked twitter occasionally while I was thinking (or waiting for photoshop), but for the most part, I was just doing art for that large chunk of time. And you know what? It was amazing! I fixed two images that were just never quite right, I created four new images that I think are off to a good start, I created a page layout and found a font for the book I’m making, and updated images on my website. When I finally resurfaced late afternoon, I couldn’t believe how much I had accomplished.

I think I need to give myself permission to do that a bit more often.

I hope those that I usually chat with during the day understand why I may be absent a bit more. I love being connected to friends all day, but some days, artists just gotta art.

It was a great start to the week, and it made many other days seem pretty great as well.

Until next time,
~Peace~