a little space
(sorry for those who received an incomplete version of this earlier- i thought I’d finish in time but got busy and didn’t before it published)
Wow, I am about 3 weeks behind with blogging with now. Amazing how easily distractions can happen and next thing you know, lots of time has flown by.
Before I get to my regular post, I am very excited to share that my piece “a cold wind is blowing” won and honorable mention in the Providence show!
Beyond that, things have been extremely quiet in the studio…which has been lovely. There seem to be be no shows to apply for that match my work, which means that all I am doing is simply focusing on the work at hand. While applying for shows this fall and winter was fun, it’s really nice to just work on actual pieces again with no agenda around them. Which brings me to my recent thoughts while working…
Generally, my process is work work work, and once I have enough work to put up- then apply for a few shows and go back to work. I like to forget about those shows until I receive a yay/nay email, which keeps me from obsessing about them. Every now and then though, there is a show that I know is coming up and it’s happening at the same time I am almost but not quite finished with a piece or two. At least for me, this has never been a good thing, and I learn the same lesson over and over again. Which is NEVER rush a piece to be finished!
There recently was one show that I just couldn’t ignore. Because I had applied twice a few years ago and not gotten in- I get both emails & postcards telling me to apply for the upcoming show. And of course since I didn’t get in before- well, it’s like responding to a challenge! Anyway I had work that I quickly finished up so I could make the deadline without giving any of the pieces the all-important “waiting period” of one-four weeks of just looking them periodically & reassessing. Once again I didn’t get in- and up the pieces went onto the “waiting wall”. Sure enough, within a week two of the three were undergoing major changes because they weren’t even close to finished at all. This happens about 90% of the time… so this time- lesson learned! I will not rush to finish anything for a show that I don’t even know if I’m in. I need to write that 100 times.
Now that that’s over I am finally getting close to finishing my big piece I’ve been working on since October as well as a newer piece I’ve begun. As I said earlier, the quiet space to just work on them and think is just lovely.
Jayne Peña Art 