It Seems I Spoke Too Soon

Everything looked so good when I posted last,....

And every single thing fell through.

As we worked on setting up the gallery, I was the practical one, looking up all the information I could gather on how to run a successful gallery, what was important to artists and to customers. I was determined not to do it unless we could do it right. As time went on, one artist found a better cheaper local opportunity. Another decided there was just too much dissention going on. Another decided to get more involved with a local organization's marketing opportunities. And so on. And so on. Then the proposed landlord started making demands we would not meet, and it all went up in smoke. His building is still empty, by the way.

The Fringe barely came off at all. Not that the organizers told us this, but they seem to have pretty much told all of us that we would have to find our own venues for our work, thus scattering them all over the city with extremely poor publicity. The local arts organization that I was doing the "Livin' la Vida LOCAL" project for, decided to commission someone they were acquainted with to find a venue, only they didn't. The nearly empty mall was willing to supply space as long as nothing was sole out of it. Can't have the local makers competing with the franchises or the already established local buy-in, sell-outs, of course. And I was not able to recruit a single other local artist to participate in my Artist's Olympics. They all thought it was a great idea, and that is all. So there was no way to hold it either.

The gold embroidery project did come off, halfway. It came to me late, and I worked it halfway, sending it back in a condition that it could be worn in, and it never came back.

I've had two other commissions, a tatted necklace, and a crocheted snood. Both times, I requested that pictures be sent to me, but they weren't.

The small group of women entrepreneurs I was involved with also disbanded.

Finally, I decided that I must be fighting the wrong fight for my specific locality and state of financial well-being.

I have now taught myself Illustrator, since that is what I lacked for what local jobs doing art that there are. But just so it would be useful to me in any case, I've learned it by using a book in Illustrator for fashion flats, along with doing fashion sketches based on model pictures in the weekend Guardian, and developing motifs for textile designs, with the objective of building an entirely digital porfolio. That way, even without money for travel to London, I can show a new improved portfolio that will even include the prints as they might be used in fashion.

I've also been concentrating on my writing. First, it was by writing an entire novel with the NaNoWriMo, and now I'm trying to figure out how to make money with my blogs.

In the last week, this has been stimulated by the new rules for immigrants to the UK. Under these new rules, since my husband and I are in our 50's, are not presently working in our chosen fields (not by our own choices, but never mind that), and would not be earning the large amounts they deem deserving of a place in their fine country even if we were (aside from my science, but having been out 15 years, I don't think my job prospects would be better in that anyhow), I think our chances for getting to stay when our visas run out in two years might be dwindling. I decided that our best prospects might be to find ways of earning our living that could be done from anywhere. Bless this web.