This is the downer part of being a creative sprite.

My application for my first Starving Artist Art Fair was turned down. 

The woman I was in contact with was very nice, very supportive. The jury preferred that every piece of my artwork — Angel Tears — should be hand made. 

I get that. I knew that. I know all of the hard work that goes into making something from scratch. That’s where the blood, sweat, and tears come from.

I chose to use a combination of purchased items and assemble them to my own specifications. The entire process is mine, just not the physical pieces.

The woman who sent me my rejection email suggested I try the smaller, local art fair across the street from their bigger one. Same day, almost same place.

Probably the best suggestion I’ve had all year. And I’m going to do it.

I would imagine many of you out there go through the same amount of angst, pride, doubt, and excitement about every piece you create. 

Why am I doing this? Making this? Making this particular style of this? Is it any good? Who would want to buy this? Can the purchasing public see this flaw or this wrong flash of color or this odd texture or this slipped stitch?

Your first rejection. Your first return. Your first complaint. They didn’t like it. They hated it. They hate my work.

I went through this same angst, pride, doubt, and excitement with every piece I wrote, too. My fear of never being published, never being read, never being understood. I write and delete and edit and throw out chapters and stanzas and stare at my computer screen and watch kitty videos.

Why do I put myself through this? This up and down, heart-and-gut-wrenching doubt about my beloved product?

I am happy to say that I ignore most of those wasted emotions lately. I plan on sharing now rather than hope for tomorrow.  I believe my writing is that good. And now my crafts.

Do you believe you are creative?

Do you enjoy what you do?

Do you like your end result?

Are you willing to work at getting your art out there?

I am excited about trying a smaller venue. Face it. I’ve never offered my art before to the public. Ever. Not my writing, not my crafts. 

I’ve never offered my dreams before, either.

I love the feeling creativity gives me. It lifts me. It’s therapy after a crazy day or a depressed night. I enjoy working on something that started as a thought in my mind and evolved into something tangible. 

Don’t let a road block in one direction stop you from turning and going a different way. There are dozens of ways to get your work out there. It doesn’t have to be a sales route. It can be work shared with friends and family, shared online, on a blog, or in your own online publication. You can enter half a dozen art fairs, craft fairs, or start your own art fair or a neighborhood art fair.

If you love what you do, don’t give up.

I’m not!

Creating dark, atmospheric art is not as easy as one would think. It’s more than black backgrounds and scary faces. It takes thought, planning, and the right mixtures of a blend of greys, blues and blacks.

This is something Eva Mout at Ursus Art does well.

Eva does marvelous portraits and photography, but there is something about her shadowed art that calls you in and makes you ask questions of the dark. Here is one of her most recent paintings and blogs, Spirited Off:

There are many more delights on her website, Ursus Art. You really should take some time and wander through her rich variety of creativity.

Tiffany Arp-Daleo has spent over 20 years painting, and has probably spent more time than that in being an art lover. I just love her bright, colorful work. At Tiffany Arp-Daleo Art, she is always experimenting with new colors, new paints — so much fun! 

Her latest blog, Create and Inspire, talks about creating cards using mostly watercolor and alcohol ink, a little acrylic, and paper cut-outs. Here is her current project:

How could not love those colors?

Take some time and wander through Tiffany’s blogsite. Her work is bright, inviting, and full of life.

It’s almost that time again. Ring out the old, ring in the new.

I thought I’d catch you all before the actual EVE and DAY come along, for who knows where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing.

With the pandemic, not much, I’m afraid.

But I was wondering what thoughts and plans you have for the New Year.

I don’t care much about letting go of 2020 — or 2010 or 1999 or any year of the past. Those are done. Gone. Finie. Good or bad, you can’t do anything about them. 

But what about 2021? It’s an open slate. Virginal and ready to be marked up, explored, and turned into something magical.

I myself have slipped out of the writing mode lately, having replaced it with arts and crafts. Making crystal windcatchers. And reading. And audio readings (at the moment I’m into free H.P. Lovecraft readings on HorrorBabble).

So my plans for 2021 is to keep making windcatchers and hope that art fairs make a comeback this summer. I’d like to take a whirl at showing off my wares.

I also think I’m going to change my WordPress plan so that I can offer some of my novels to the public for free. Look. No one is going to publish them, I don’t know if anyone will even like them. So why not offer them to my followers and see what they think?

I don’t make New Years resolutions anymore — haven’t for a while. Too easy to break, too easy to bend them or walk around them.

But I will make a point to spread the magic of creativity out there more. I love the feeling that being creative gives me. It empowers me, it transforms me, it humbles me. 

Everyone should feel so good!

So ……..what are your thoughts and plans for 2021? We’d all like to hear!

Here it is, Saturday night. 

No Black Friday. No nine extra people over for Thanksgiving dinner. No sitting on the sofa after Thanksgiving dinner going through a hundred sales flyers looking for tons of things we don’t need. We did it as a family tradition, and just had fun with it.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was such a miniaturized version I didn’t even recognize it. Football games Thanksgiving Day were postponed because of Covid 19. Stores were closed Thursday, and I read shopping on Friday was down 52%.

My house looks like a bulldozer ran through it, knocking over towers of Hot Wheels and Frozen dolls and Hungry Hungry Hippos with no balls in sight (the grandkids stayed over for two nights).

So here it is, Saturday night. I’m exhausted. Nothing on TV worth a second look. Reading will give me a headache. Just ain’t gettin’ that creative vibe this late at night. Yet I wake up every morning and thank the heavens and the galaxies and the powers that be that I am alive and well and have so many blessings in my life. 

I think this Covid-19 thing has made monsters out of the weak and heroes out of the  reticent. People are not themselves. Or are pretending to be more than themselves. Or are turning into alternative forms of themselves. But they are all affected by the isolation. The loneliness. The fear. And deal with it differently.

It’s one thing to pull away on purpose, cutting the social media ties, and read a book, paint, sit and quilt, or go fishing for as long as you want.

It’s something else when you are forced to do it alone. Day after day. No sharing, no hugs, no conversation, no eye to eye contact.

I have known a few who have been stricken with Covid-19. Two survived, one did not. And I am reminded every day that I awake without a fever or delirium or pain how blessed I am. I can be creative or lazy or loving or depressed and still have a bed to sleep in and food in the frig. 

Not everyone has that luxury.

Or those basics.

I have met a lot of great people through this blog, and I am enjoying all the writing and poetry and quilting and just talking you all are doing. I love how you keep things real. Normal. Funny. Bittersweet. And unpretentious.

Let’s keep it going. 

And, you know — I could still order three, get three free at Bath and Body Works online — Super Sunday and all — that’s kinda Black Friday-ish —