Insecurity

The past year and 4 months have been really fun and exciting as far as creativity goes. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have so many people looking at my drawings (and when I say "so many" I really mean "more than five members of my immediate family"). I've gotten such positive feedback which has given me confidence to do more things. I've also seen beautiful art by many people and been able to chat with artists who inspire me. In addition, I've had opportunities to participate in craft fairs, be interviewed for the local paper, sell on consignment in another state. These are things I never imagined I'd be able to do. So, it's really amazing and I'm so happy!

But I've noticed lately how emotionally needy I am becoming when I put some piece of artwork "out there". I find that when I put something in my blog, or on face book or twitter or some other place, whether it's something I've written or an illustration, I just sit and wait for feedback.

And sometimes I don't get any.

Then I become a little obsessed with not getting feedback. Does this mean no one likes it? Does this mean no one is visiting my blog/etsy shop/facebook page/twitter posts? Are my 15 minutes of "fame" over? Am I ready to have all my creative juices dry up again and all I'll be able to do is draw the letters of my own name?

I feel like I'm in junior high or something, it's so SILLY! If no one in the world ever commented on my art again, or gave me any feedback about it, wouldn't that be ok? It would still be a wonderful outlet for me. It would still be fun and exciting. I could still get inspiration from and communicate with others.

I don't "do art" so that people will stroke my pitiful little ego. I do it because it's helping me have something that is my own when my full time job is to do other things that make me feel inadequate (taking care of little kids who are all too eager to let me know how I've failed them, keeping the house clean, cooking, paying bills, etc. All things that aren't my strength, but I'm responsible for anyway). I do it because it's theraputic and because I really need to use all these craft supplies I've been hoarding over the years!

If you are reading this post, please don't feel obligated to leave a comment. This is not a thinly designed ploy for feedback. In fact, it might be better if you don't leave any feedback, so I can just "get over myself"! :)

Let Beauty Rain Down Upon...

I completed my submission for this week's Thursday Sweet Treat. The topic is: Let Beauty Rain Down Upon... I never feel completely confident in what I've come up with for the challenge. I love doing it though. It gives me an assignment and a deadline which is good for my creative "muscles".

This painting was done in watercolors with black ink on watercolor paper. The text reads: Beauty rains down on me, healing my wounded soul. I think creativity is one of the most healing things in this life. A gift and desire given to us by God. I'm so thankful for the desire to create and the healing it brings me!

Something I Love

I don't sketch very much but feel like I need to start doing it more. I think if I'm ever going to get better at drawing, I need to practice more than I do.

In the summer of 2006, I took a watercolor class from a woman at church (who, by the way, is very talented). One of the things we did for class was buy a sketch book to draw in. I didn't do much sketching (until recently), but here is the drawing on the first page:
It is of my daughter sleeping. She wasn't quite a year old at the time, so she was still taking naps. I love to watch my kids sleeping, they are so beautiful and sweet and content. As far as drawing skills go, this isn't really that great, but I love it anyway and wanted to share it here.

Thanks for looking.

Pic for Blog Entry

This will be a short post. I finished a piece I'm submitting to a blog called Thursday Sweet Treat. I'm really excited about entering this week's challenge "Where the Wild Things Bloom". Tomorrow all entries will be up, check it out!

Not Sure How to Put it All Together

The end of December I decided to start being more consistent with writing in my blog, spending time in Etsy forums and in general, trying to promote my creations as much as possible (without being obnoxious). I've had some really cool opportunities come along in the past few months.

The latest thing is that one of the listings in my shop was picked for Timothy Adam's Top 10 Monday. This may not mean much to some people, but to me it was an honor to be chosen. Timothy works really hard to promote other Etsy shops and to help people learn how to use Etsy and other websites. He also provides tutorials for how to market our shops. If nothing else, I'm just in awe of how much time this guy spends helping others. I can't imagine that he has time to do his own art!

Because of being on this popular website, I could potentially get a lot of views to my shop and possible traffic to this blog. Pretty cool. I just need to figure out how to keep the momentum going and how to turn views into sales. Right now, I feel like my shop doesn't really have a lot of stuff in it. Maybe it's because I look at it all the time and I'm starting to get bored with it. I hope nobody else is! I think I need to relist some things that I haven't had in the shop for awhile.

So this week, why don't I set a goal to get um....ok 5 more things in my shop. That's FIVE. :)

If you haven't visited Timothy Adam's blog, it will be well worth your time. He has fun contests and tons of valuable information. Plus if you go there this week, you can click on #6 of his top 10 for February 2 and you'll see my Tulip Sun ACEO.

What I Did at the Super Bowl Party

I ate lots of dip, cake and drank lots of Pepsi. All things I will regret in the morning. That much sugar tends to make me feel like I have a hang over the next day. Not good, I know...

I did socialize a little too and I got to spend time drawing. It was pretty much as perfect as a football party can be (for a girl who's not that into football).

This is the unfinished product:

I will work on it a little more. I like the colors, but I'm not sure I'll turn it into a card or anything. It was just fun to do.

Tomorrow another week starts. Hopefully, it will be very productive and creative! I have lots of things I need to be working on.