Status Update

Well I’m making definite progress in my goals for 2010!

I got my crap together and successfully entered one of my photos in a juried exhibition, BVAS Art Fête 2010. (BVAS stands for Burnsville Visual Artists Society.)

Last Thursday evening was the opening reception and awards ceremony, and guess what?!
I won the Award Of Excellence in Photography!

That was the top award for a category. The absolute #1 award was Best In Show. I didn’t win that one. I had my picture taken accepting the award from the mayor of Burnsville (MN). Not sure where that is. I’ll have to do some more searching to see if I can find it.

My good friend, Lena, took time out of her schedule to make it to the reception. And that took some effort, so thanks Lena! Seriously, for someone who is currently out of work she sure is busy! Someone better snatch her up soon because she is dedicated! :)

She took this of me by my photo after the ribbons were put up. (Hubby was there but we told him to go home as he wasn’t feeling well. He was there to see me accept my award so he did his duty.)




I’m still a bit shocked about winning in the photo, not to mention exhausted, so it’s not the best pic of me. I don’t think I’m all that photogenic in general either, but whatever…

Now I am working on getting my submission together for an opportunity to have my work displayed in a gallery in Stillwater. I have to have everything together and it HAS to be received by April 20. My goal is to have it all completed and in the mail by the end of this month.

As far as the running goes, I have yet to run a race this Spring. I am still looking for one to enter that is a month or so out. (I was a bit too absorbed in the whole exhibition thing to get my crap together with the race running.)

However, I HAVE been keeping up with running at least twice a week, and sometimes three times – or THRICE. ;) Also, in addition to joining the running meetup group, I’ve found a work friend who is interested in getting back into running and have gone with her a couple times. Anything to keep me moving – I’ve got a 10K to run this fall!

And in the category of spending good quality time with hubby and taking some vacations with him in the new camper, we have reservations at Glacier National Park in July for our extra alone time around the time of my family reunion in MT.

Slowly but surely, I’m getting things accomplished. That’s how I have to do it. Otherwise, I run the very real risk of losing it. I’ve been seriously burned out lately and so need to spend some recouping time in between it all, which will be a challenge when I have a bazillion e-mails coming from my dad about all the exhibitions I need to enter – and get my stuff entered a month before the deadline.

…and get all of the photos and verbiage to him for the website he is making for me so I have an online portfolio that I can put on my resume. Never mind the fact that I already have a portfolio on a local artists’ site.

…and “getting published” because that is apparently “material” for an artist’s resume. My thought is that you only write something and try to get it published if you actually have something OF VALUE to contribute. My head hurts just thinking about this.

…and start looking at schools to register for to get an MFA that he says he will “help” me with (i.e. cover costs for the next couple/few years – though not even sure if that means everything or just tuition) so that I can teach photography as a way to make steady income since apparently I can’t possibly make an income off my art. That would be a good plan – if I was interested in teaching! I am much more interested in earning steady income working on my own or for an independent photographer or a business doing wedding photography, portraits, event photography, etc. And if I couldn’t make a decent living off of that alone, I could work for a store like Nation.al Cam.era, where I would most likely be provided with free training on advances in photo technology in order to serve customers.

All this because I’m apparently “on a roll.” I’m going to have to rein him in and let him know as diplomatically as possible that I need to do this stuff on MY OWN SCHEDULE and in MY WAY in order to preserve my last shred of sanity!

Like they say; baby steps, baby steps…

Or more aptly, “SERENITY NOW!”