What a goddamn month this was.
It started out incredibly, coming off my residency in Twillingate, I had a lot of interest in my work, my calendars had arrived, my Etsy site was set up and going.
I had plans to spend a week in St. Brendans, at least 2 nights on the Southern Shore, a couple of night in the Burin area, all collecting, capturing and sharing off the beaten track places of history, steeped in the stories of the past.
I had a show being hung in Eastport and I was on the right track.
My beautiful wife Darlene was on month three of her dream job. A note here, many of you may not know the back story here. Darlene didn’t work for the first 16 years of Gabriels life. First she stayed home to raise him to a school age, then, in kindergarten, Gabe was diagnosed as being on the spectrum and she and I decided she would stay home with him and his younger brother while I worked.
Darlene is a smart, talented graphic designer and while this was the right decision to make and we were both ok with it, I was over the moon happy for her when she actually got hired as a graphic designer 5 minutes away from where we lived.
I had my vehicle, the $1000 bone wagon ( Thanks again Joe and everyone else who helping make that happen and helped again when it went in the shop, you are all angels ). For the first time since my spinal surgeries I could drive for more than 10 minutes pain free and I could get in and out of the rig without crying in pain.
Everything was coming up roses.
Then Darlene had her Grand Mal seizure and life changed completly.
Look, the most important thing is she is on the mend, and today, almost full month later, Darlene worked a full 7 hour work day.
This is a huge deal.
When the event happened though, and for the 3-4 weeks that followed, and for the next 5 months. Life changed.
Darlene can’t drive, at least until she goes a 6 month period event free.
So, I am the only set of wheels in the house. This means I can’t go anywhere, I am bringing her to and from work, the kids to where they need to go, Damian starts school in a week and he will take the bus but will require rides form time to time as well.
I am grateful that my family in intact, we all were scarred to various degrees by the events of a month ago, but we are intact and we have each others back.
Its scary though for me, my career was just teetering on the edge of taking off. The residence was a huge boost, the work I did while there was among the best work I have EVER done. I was excited to continue to develop that style and turn my eye to other places in the Province, share that with the world, bring some attention to these wonderful places.
That’s paused for now… not done… paused…
But, as I spoke about in previous blogs, I spent most of August REALLY stressed about the coming months and how we were going to survive if I couldn’t generate new interest and income from my work. Photography is a funny thing, every one LOVES to see it, few like to buy it, and the conventional thinking is there are only so many walls in a house.
That’s why I invested my time and energy into calendars, art cards, greeting cards etc. These are things that folks need and will buy regularly. But, to make a living I would need to sell 3000 calendars, about 2800 more than I will sell, or 10,000 art cards, about 9900 more than I will sell. Or I would need to sell about 200-300 prints and canvases, again, about 250 more than I will sell.
As you can see, as successful and as popular as some if the things I do are, and they are, I value each and every transaction, there are a long long way from being where I could make a living from them, or, even survive.
It was a stress filled month.
Despite the shows, the markets, the fact I had not one but two interviews with CBC radio in August, and that kind of coverage is stunning to me, it was a dark month full of dark thoughts with no relief from any of it in the form of really immersing myself in a photo project.
BUT..
BUT….
The last week of August was good. I had an excellent Birthday, Dee was easing back to work, and as I mentioned above, actually clocked a full day today.
And, I discovered NFT’s…
Not going to go into any detail on them here, I have spoke on them exhaustively over the past few days.
Suffice to say, it give me some optimism that things are going to be ok. I will take that as an end of August feeling anytime.
So, lets see what September might bring shall we?
One last note on NFT’s though. I am doing a major drop of a collection on Friday. One of the 20 items is already sold, which is AMAZING to me, I am optimistic the rest will do as well.
If you are interested in it, its going to be at this address…
Here’s one of the pieces I edited especially for this drop…
And here is a look at the 19 pieces so far.
The 20th is a surprise for Friday!
Until tomorrow folks, have a great night and a better September!
Old Bones Photo 