Sharing Your Vision

I don't know about you, but it takes me quite a bit of time to craft an artist statement specific to a particular piece of artwork. If you've followed me for long, you know I can get quite wordy about my process and my inspirations - I just have so much I want to share and explain, although much of it might not be of vital interest to most viewers. Sometimes it is a good thing to be forced to edit down to a specific size placard or finite number of words. With editing comes clarity - not just in verbal expression but in visual expression as well. For my Sacred Threads entries, I was lucky I could cut and paste previously composed statements from this blog and make them fit with just a bit of additional editing, but even that took more time than one might think. We won't talk about time spent getting good photos ready for submission.

Now the shipping deadline is coming up at the end of the month which will be its own time consumer, as I cross my fingers I will not have to replace too narrow sleeves (I can't remember if these got the full 4" ones since I can get away with narrow sleeves at my local venues) nor search too long for a properly sized and sturdy box, ticking off the other requirements I haven't had to deal with for so long. I'm taking the "Gone With The Wind" attitude at the moment, Scarlett's famous line of "I'll worry about that tomorrow."*

So with this on my mind, imagine my heavy sigh when an e-mail arrived from Sacred Threads saying they'd like me to record a 90 second statement giving additional information about my quilts. Granted, I was glad for the opportunity to share some things I'd had to leave out of my written statements (although I wasn't sure I wanted to revisit the emotions this would stir up). But I also knew it would mean carving out quiet time to decide what I wanted to say, compose that statement, time it, and then edit it down. 90 seconds goes fast! And so does the time between getting the e-mail and the last day I can record my message! I've been mulling this all week, going back over blog posts for gems I could pull out, referencing what I already submitted, building up courage to dial that phone number and say my piece, out loud sans quavering voice.

So today has been the day to set all else aside and get this done. I've composed both statements and think I am happy with the editing. I've practiced out loud several times while I checked the timing (thank goodness for the stopwatch feature on my simple cell phone). I'm nearly done writing out the final drafts in easy to read form so I don't stumble over my words. This is taking an inordinate amount of time, but I'm almost ready to dial that number...

The things we do for our art!

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* I couldn't help looking it up to see if I was getting the quotation right. From the movie, the lines around that one describe my feelings about the shipping even better:

 "Oh, I can't think about this now! I'll go crazy if I do! I'll think about it tomorrow."

But the line as written by Margaret Mitchell in the book from which the movie is adapted is a bit simpler but equally apt: 

"I won't think about it now, I'll think about it tomorrow, when I can stand it."

Of course, when tomorrow comes, repeat statement!