Not an Easy Week (Patreon)

Let's start off on a positive note, before I start talking about disability and being an artist. Let's talk about what I accomplished in the past couple weeks.

I finished up my fieldtest for the Vibrinum watercolor palette, painting a bouquet of Louisiana-native mallows.

I purchased the With watercolor leads+lead pencil at Beacon Art Supply in Jackson, and I put it to the test with a couple bookmarks.

I finally painted my Moonpie illustration. While technically not a Louisiana food, these are a popular throw at parades, so I felt like they deserved an honorary mention with Dr Pepper.

I painted a loose floral bouquet with the A Gallo palette I'm in the process of reviewing.This week, between Bowie and myself, we've been too disabled to really get much done.

For me, mostly, my issues have mainly been fatigue, brain fog, and hand dexterity limitations. Just a trip to my rheumatologist today required an hour nap after to recover. We're trying out a new medication in a few weeks, but unfortunately, there really isn't anything that's good for fatigue other than resting when necessary.

To be fair, Bowie doesn't really have much on his agenda anyway, so I guess he doesn't mind not getting anything accomplished.

You might hear me mention in videos that Bowie has claimed my chair and wonder why, if I need that chair because I myself am disabled, do I just whine about it and let him continue to lie there. Bowie is 17 years old and fairly arthritic, and there's a good chance he has stomach cancer, so when he's finally able to make himself comfortable and sleep, I feel bad moving him, even if that means I'm standing over my drafting table hunched over for four-hour shifts, or kneeling on the floor in front of my table to type.

"But Becca!" you might wisely say, "they sell sidecars for office chairs! Why not put up a cat tree, or a second chair"

And the answer to that, dear reader, is because I will be the one in the sidecar. Bowie has a cat tree, multiple beds, blankets, and hides in my dining room turned studio. He has an entire house of sofas, comfy chairs, and human beds he could snooze on. No, my friend, Bowie has decided that in his old age, he shall velcro to me.

Currently, I am trying to wrap my very ADHD brain around my application for the Louisiana Craft Guild. I'm on the second stage, where I prepare physical pieces for consideration. You might think this sounds simple but it involves

Selecting just three pieces I think would sell in a gallery environment

Pricing those pieces to take into consideration the frames, matting, time i spent painting them, AND the guild's cut of the consignment

Writing an artist's statement

Naming the pieces

Matting or framing

Mailing or hauling them downtown

I'm grateful to be AT this stage- I have been ignored from guild applications on numerous occasions (not this one in particular, several in TN), but it's definitely not just one simple step. I am trying to eat this elephant one little bite at a time- selecting the pieces, selecting the mattes, ect.