A Rainy Sunday

June 9,2012

Rain came down in sheets, blowing hard off the Gulf. Thunder, lightening, and flooding throughout town. We hunker down and ride it out. It is nature exerting her power over us.A reminder of how small we really are. Fascinating, exciting and humbling all at the same time. Clouds still dark and heavy though the rain has subsided. The storms will last a week, or so they say. The temptation to escape to the beach is gone.

That’s OK with me. There is the “business of doing business” to get done. The painting is only a part of what I must do. There are prints to mail out, emails and addresses to be filed.

There is the website maintenance, a newsletter to write, paintings to be photographed and the art inventory needs updating.

Notes need to be written, Certificates of Authenticity need to be sent. Mailing Lists to build upon, paintings that need framing, appointments to be made. Phone calls to return, Facebook and Twitter and Linkedin. Follow-ups, finances, openings and gallery talks. The list could go on.

I remember saying to the father of my sons that “A women’s work is never done.” I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home to raise our boys at the time. Jim responded, “Well I guess I am a woman then.”

It is true that a mother’s work is never done … Yet as I continue on this journey of artistic entrepreneurship, I have grown to respect the role as the breadwinner of a family in a much greater way. The work as an entrepreneur is never done. The pressure of anyone who is passionate and committed to a job never ends.

There are skills one must learn that are not altogether easy to define and separate from gaining the stamina working full time requires. Segmenting, focus, persistence, and the ability to become comfortable with the fact that the work is never done. It is forever added to and built upon. With greater success, there is more responsibility and still more to get done. There are more computer skills to must learn, more social events to attend, more paintings to paint……

There is the need to learn to be kind to myself and to be happy with what I did get done. Then there is the faith one must have that it will all get done eventually.

And my faith begins to grow that I am on the right path and I am supported and cared for by an unseen source…just as I always have been.