Lessons Learned

As it often is in life the best lessons are often the ones that are the hardest and sometimes most painful to learn. This weekend for the first time I did an outdoor demo to promote my work and the gallery I am in Annapolis, Art Fx. I learned several important things, some of the lessons I got this weekend were a little harder to swallow than others.

I learned first off that I actually really like doing demos. People seemed very interested in what I was doing, how it worked and what the sculpture I was making would end up as. Too my surprise because normally I feel awkward around kids, they were the most fun asking the best questions and being the most interested. I also got to try to convince them that my lovely assistant and husband made the giant footprints on the side walk. One little boy wouldn't leave until I put the heads on the dogs I was making! It was a lot of fun to sit outside doing what I love and sharing with anyone who wanted to see, I hope to do more demos soon! It also made me realize that maybe teaching a class somewhere a long the line, might be more fun than I thought.

I also however learned a harsher lesson this weekend, one I should have learned long, long ago. Don't wait until the last minute to do things and to listen to my inner "Joyce". Joyce was my teacher and mentor and Hood and sometimes I pretend there is a little Joyce on my shoulder telling me something isn't working. Unfortunately I have been insanely busy, not an excuse though I used it as one. So I left finishing the bookends to the last minute and ended up with a product I was less than thrilled about and that honestly is below my standards. It ended up being a hard lesson for me to take, I never like to show work that's less than my best and knowing I only had myself to blame made it that much worse.  However the hardest lessons are the best and I think given some time I can salvage the bookends and I promise the mistakes I made here I wont make again. I also learned I really need to find out more about woodworking if I am going to continue these kind of projects. Sigh, one more thing to add to the list!

All and all I was glad I signed up to do the demos and I hope I have the opportunity to share my sculpting with the public again soon, however right now I am going to pay attention to another hard learned lesson, when the dog is whining take her for a walk or you may come home to this.