Part 1
I’ve been procrastinating with this blog. I’ve felt a bit unsure of how to proceed because it seemed like I was doing a lot of ‘advertising’, to borrow David Riley’s word. The reality is curating This ‘Me’ of Mine has become my full time occupation and I have had scant time for producing work, though I do have some new ideas I’ve been working on. That is not a complaint, just a reality; I love the things that I’m engaged with in This ‘Me’ of Mine. But because of this I’ve felt my posts were becoming a bit lopsided. Then I stood back from myself and looked at the things that have happened recently and I felt I could finally write a post.
I failed to get into the Marmite Prize. I was really disappointed by that because I was very hopeful, but lesson learned: don’t get hopeful when dealing with open competitions, it’s a crap shoot and there is no way around it. If you’re lucky, you’re lucky; if you’re not, you’re not.
I was accepted to Axis. This is more rewarding than being selected to any open competition. The Axis application is demanding and it requires careful thought and good writing to convey what is happening with your practice. It’s not enough to send in a statement and a bio, you pretty well have to defend what you’re doing. Lesson learned: know what you’re on about and say it plainly. Rigour shows itself in clarity of speech.
I failed to get press coverage for ‘What’s time got to do with it?’ even though I had set up two reviews. They simply didn’t happen in the end because of unlucky timing. Lesson learned: it’s better to make a connection with writers who are interested in what you do than to make no effort to get press coverage.
I have been invited to become a contributor to Art Pie by one of those writer connections above, based on the writing I have been doing for This ‘Me’ of Mine. Totally unrelated to ‘What’s time got to do with it?’ Pierrick saw the This ‘Me’ of Mine blogsite, liked the content and made the invitation. What’s more he’s asked me to write about This ‘Me’ of Mine for Art Pie which gives me a wonderful opportunity to stand outside of the interviews and other blogsite content and comment from different angles and perspectives, not to mention giving me an opportunity to engage with a larger audience. It is challenging and very rewarding. Lesson learned: Always do your best, put yourself out there, make connections, you never know when things will swing back around to you. By the way the other writer I connected with for ‘What’s time got to do with it?’ is following the This ‘Me’ of Mine blog.
Scroll down for Part 2…
