Art and writing - the tortoise and the hare
No, the print shop still isn't set up...not quite but very close
God, I really want to get this out of the way so I can concentrate on other things. It really has been a monstrous, time sucking, confusing project. Still more effort on it this week.
The policies are more or less done now; just the 'buy' buttons to create and add to the site, and do whatever's left to make sure the actual shop site bit looks and works the way it should. Urghhh. I could’ve maybe done it all this morning but Wix kept crashing and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of it when I had to be leaving for work.
Also, my recently updated, not common browser was being blocked by the firewall, so went to check out the web to see why, and disappeared into a security/dishonest browser privacy issue hole for a while…Well, that was very interesting. Some well-known browsers are not as privacy minded (any more) as they want us to believe...
Moving things around this site is a trial as well. Yes, it’s that time when you remember just how sloooowly Wix moves; that too many changes at once renders the editor unable to save, pressing space bar repeatedly moves your cursor to the end of the line when tagging images, and sometimes, your whole page of text is randomly copied and pasted on top of the original…
Gaaagh! It took aaages just to shift some images to new pages, reformat all the site text to the same font and mess with the mobile view, which always looks a right state and has to be dragged around so text is next to the correct image.
I can commiserate with my artist boss at work who’s spent hours setting up her art on a couple of gallery sites. This online art malarkey is a life sucking thing to just get it started. Of course, no actual art is being done at this time as a result!
Escape is needed
I didn’t go to the Peoples’ Vote march on Saturday. By then I was so fed up with it all I needed to be somewhere else, so I went to town and got some more canvases, ready for my next batch of print works, then bussed it over to Teddington for the Landmark Autumn Art Fair. Best thing I can do is just continue to forge my own life and make the required detours as they come up.
LAF is always a great show – dozens of artists and a few makers, lots of variety, an impressive venue and homemade cakes! Which I didn’t partake of as I’ve been eating Keto-style for a couple of months. I’m getting used to not eating carb-y stuff and the 15lbs I’ve lost so far is keeping me on track, apart from the odd mad meal.
This is the time when I wish I had my own house, and enough money to buy art so I could fill the rooms with wonderful pieces. When I’m rich, I’m going to enjoy being able to support artists in this way!
Had a couple of fun and interesting chats with the always lovely Sue Graham.This is one artist I would be buying from. Her landscapes and even town paintings (a subject I wouldn’t normally look at), are ethereal, atmospheric and kind of dreamlike as trees float out of the mist and mysterious staircases disappear down streets. Gorgeous colours as well of course.
Anyway, that helped my mood a lot. Sometimes you have to disconnect from the world and find a space to get yourself in a more positive frame of mind.
Building a collection of articles
I’ve also been adding to the writing. Now have my alarm set for 6:30am - up before anyone else and before I start doing Bad Things like opening up a browser.
Since I started playing with this about a month ago, I now have sixteen topics in draft form. I keep coming across things that might make an interesting piece, but just a bit worried about what happens if the ideas dry up. But really, how does that even happen?? How can a non-fiction writer run out of things to think about with the way the world is changing every other week?
Anyhow, in between madly typing ideas before I forget what I want to say, I’m reading “How to make a Living with your Writing” by Joanna Penn. I also have her book “How to Write Non Fiction” and Stewart Ferris’ “How to Be a Writer”, which I’ve had for years so it shows how long I’ve been thinking about this. Hmm, I see a theme here.
But, while some things are going slower than I want, this at least, is streaking along with good momentum. And that's fine; it's important to recognise that different projects move at their own pace for all sorts of reasons. What matters, is being able to plough through the hard bits. It'll all settle in to place eventually.
