October in Overdrive
If you’ve noticed I’ve been a little quiet lately, October is the reason why. It was one of those months that felt like it was made up of nothing but long drives and late nights. Every month I usually make the trip from the middle of Kansas down to the middle of Oklahoma, about a nine hour drive round trip, but in October, four times but I had to do it ten times through October. Add a six hour round trip to Kansas City on top of that, and by the end of the month I was absolutely worn out.
The Kansas City trip was to pick up my original paintings from the printer after they’d been professionally photographed for prints. The ladies now running my old print shop are wonderful, though things work a little differently there these days. The color matching process isn’t quite as hands on as it used to be, so from now on I’ll be doing a little extra proofing myself to make sure everything looks right before ordering more prints. It’s a learning curve, but part of running your own art business is adapting when things change.
On top of all that driving, I also participated in a local art show with our community art group. The weather didn’t exactly cooperate, so the crowd was smaller than we hoped early on, but it picked up nicely toward the end of the night. I was really happy to see how many people stopped by to take part in the creative activities we had set up including the step-by-step watercolor pumpkin tutorial I put together and the coloring sheets we made for kids. One of our goals as a group is to make art more approachable for everyone, and it’s great to see people of all ages jump in and create something of their own.
Now that the temperatures are dropping, we’re settling in for winter and getting ready for what’s next. I’m starting a few new paintings this week and working on a special project for our town that I’m really excited about.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, I also had a birthday last Saturday. We didn’t do much to celebrate this year, but honestly, after the month I had, a quiet day was exactly what I needed.
-MERC