Today I was listening to my new fav band, Metric. What is it about a song that somehow all the stars seem to alien to make it resonate so perfectly. The words, the mood, the melody, the arrangement, and that voice, Emily Haines, wow, where did she come from?
Well, this blog is about an artists life, and partly about the aligning of a song about a musicians life and a painters life. Or rather, the ups and downs of those lives.
"Breathing Underwater" seems to me to be about going through the trenches of life in a band and having glimpses of "making it big" but not quite there yet. The line in the song "I can see the end but I'm not quite there yet" is what ties me to it, as a painter.
I have been a full time artist for four years now and even though my road has been full of ups and downs I don't really feel that I have "made it" yet. Made it to me means having some long term security both from becoming a known name and having saved and established resources that can sustain me through the ups and downs of life as an artist. I have seen glimpses of it, like the occasional big sale of a painting or paintings, and the proceeds being enough to last a long while. But then bills come, life happens and before you know it you are right back on the tread mill slogging through the proverbial mud, so to say.
Today I finished a two day out door art show in a Northern Ontario town. As out door art shows go it was a good one. For me it is not important having sales at the actual show as it is to meet many new people and establish new relationships with potential clients/patrons. This show, sorry to say, seemed to yield none. Only time will tell but it was a tough slog this week end. Many conversations with passers by who seemed not to having anything to hold on too.
As confident as I can get sometimes there are always the down spells that remind me I'm no super human, no, not at all. They remind me that I can see the end but I'm not quite there yet. I'm breathing under water, as Metric says, surviving in a world that I shouldn't be able to survive in but I am, none the less. Sometimes, like today it is hard, to see the bright future, to feel optimistic.
But I'm waiting, I will wait. This is my life, and I'm breathing, under water.
Stay tuned.
RM
Well, this blog is about an artists life, and partly about the aligning of a song about a musicians life and a painters life. Or rather, the ups and downs of those lives.
"Breathing Underwater" seems to me to be about going through the trenches of life in a band and having glimpses of "making it big" but not quite there yet. The line in the song "I can see the end but I'm not quite there yet" is what ties me to it, as a painter.
I have been a full time artist for four years now and even though my road has been full of ups and downs I don't really feel that I have "made it" yet. Made it to me means having some long term security both from becoming a known name and having saved and established resources that can sustain me through the ups and downs of life as an artist. I have seen glimpses of it, like the occasional big sale of a painting or paintings, and the proceeds being enough to last a long while. But then bills come, life happens and before you know it you are right back on the tread mill slogging through the proverbial mud, so to say.
Today I finished a two day out door art show in a Northern Ontario town. As out door art shows go it was a good one. For me it is not important having sales at the actual show as it is to meet many new people and establish new relationships with potential clients/patrons. This show, sorry to say, seemed to yield none. Only time will tell but it was a tough slog this week end. Many conversations with passers by who seemed not to having anything to hold on too.
As confident as I can get sometimes there are always the down spells that remind me I'm no super human, no, not at all. They remind me that I can see the end but I'm not quite there yet. I'm breathing under water, as Metric says, surviving in a world that I shouldn't be able to survive in but I am, none the less. Sometimes, like today it is hard, to see the bright future, to feel optimistic.
But I'm waiting, I will wait. This is my life, and I'm breathing, under water.
Stay tuned.
RM
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