My So-Called Art Life

The whole purpose of this blog was to sort of talk about my art and update all the things that happen. Well obviously at this point (the beginning stages) it's a whole lot of nothing! I'm not even sure what the hell I'm doing. I've been reading this book How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself without Selling your Soul by Caroll Michels.....and so far it's great. There are lots of good pointers and has lots of good references to other books that could potentially be helpful.It seems like a great book to own, I think I'll buy it soon!
I just feel like I don't have the time or energy to do all of this stuff, like work full time, make art, do chores and relax. It seems impossible. I work all day and when I come home my brain feels like mush. And the thing is I work my ass off and make next to nothing, so I've got nothing to show for all this hard work but back and leg problems.
What I really want to do is quit my job and make art for a living. It's just the process looks long and daunting and I know that I won't even be able to quit my job because who knows how long it could take to get anywhere in the art field. I don't know how to go about it. I get 2 days off a week and in those 2 days I need to do all kinds of chores obviously, I need to catch up on sleep, I like to hang out with my boyfriend, I need to work on my art. But you and me and everyone knows that's not enough time to do all those things. There aren't enough hours to get it all done.
It makes it really hard for me to go to sleep cause I'm always thinking that the time would be better spent working on my paintings or drawings. I sometimes feel guilty for sleeping and wasting my time. Relaxing makes me feel like I'm wasting my time too, and then on the same hand I start writing a blog when I could be doing something worthwhile.
I know I could start drawing right now but #1 my back hurts if I sit for too long and #2 I'm not in the right frame of mind after being at work all day and #3 if I do start I might not stop and I have to work tomorrow.
ZOINKS!!!!! how do other people handle this?? Tell me all you other artists out there! What is your secret? Any and all advice is very welcome.

I did side track off into doing some painting recently which I thought might be my new series for a show (might still be if I have time) but I think it's safe to continue on my pencil crayon path at the moment because I have a larger body of work in that medium. Here's my most recent finished self portrait!




and here's just a little taste of the new still life I'm working on!



There's still alot more to go but I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out!

Man it's only 9:56pm and I feel exhausted already and I'm pretty tempted to have a coffee. I know that's a bad call though, I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is! Maybe I will just go lay in bed and read my book and take some notes......I gotta start somewhere I guess.

Bye for now friends!