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A Busy Week

Above, a stack of commissioned portraits ready to ship to Bozzuto Greene Art near Baltimore.

Typically this newsletter is about showcasing my artwork while I talk about the process of creating. That's the best part of my job, getting to make the imagery that resonates with so many of you. But that's not all that I do. There is this romanticized version of how artists live their lives that I sometimes need to dispel. Because as much as I'd like it to be all about long lunches in sidewalk cafes and late nights discussing the merits of what I create with like minds, it's a bit grittier and tedious. Here's what my last week looked like:
  • one exhibition opening, for which I baked lovely tahini caramel brownies 
  • 6 hours of teaching/instruction done in person and via Facetime with students as far flung as Switzerland (yes, I offer long-distance mentoring)
  • varnishing, framing, wrapping and shipping 7 paintings to 2 galleries and 2 paintings to 2 collectors
  • contract review, marketing/PR planning, inventorying, and beginning the varnishing/framing/wrapping process on 18 paintings for my upcoming solo show
  • two lovely critique sessions with two equally lovely groups of women (because work's gotta be eyeballed by fresh peepers before I hang a show or send inventory to a gallery)
  • building content and writing a proposal for a new 1 day workshop near Chicago this fall
  • communicating with three new clients on commissioned portraits, reviewing photographs and building compositions for 6 new paintings
  • coordinating representation details with a new-to-me gallery space, and prepping 4 paintings to ship their way next week (I am very excited to share this new partnership with you!)
  • researched travel options for spring workshop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (there's also one in Saginaw, Michigan this October and rumors of one in Lexington, Kentucky in August)
  • photographed and archived a dozen paintings (I can't believe there are 16 Medicine Hat paintings already done this year!)
  • paid bills, cleaned out my email box, responded to a variety of phone calls, ordered art supplies, mixed up fresh batches of mediums/varnishes, cleared paperwork off my desk
  • spent a whopping 5 hours at the easel
That's right. In a work week that has been well over 60 hours, only 5 of them were spent actively creating. It is always skewed, the business management time vs the painting time, but this week in particular was very unbalanced. And I imagine that may continue next week - although I am itching to paint so so badly. My brain feels fuzzy and clunky and crabby when I don't, and it's all of this right now.
Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey,
Warmly, Kim

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