I am 60 years old. Well technically I've been 60 for almost 4 months now. And for my 60th birthday I gave myself the gift of a year of dramatic rebirth. Wow that sounds scary. I'm giving myself permission to no long stand at the cliff of a decision, instead I'm jumping.
Starting back when I was about to turn 40. A truly scary age at the time. I gifted myself a trip. A trip somewhere without family and escort. At some point in my 40th year I drove by myself to Columbus, Ohio and attended a two day Ceramic Arts event. Back in those days I fancied myself a ceramic artist. Got the $900 electric kiln rotting away in my basement to prove it. But that is another story.
From that point on I decided to give myself decade "gift trips" to celebrate my last 10 year's achievements. When I turned 50 I drove to Traverse City and took a 4 day class from Wendy Froud, a world renown doll artist.
Both of these trips were, as you might have deduced, art oriented. Also they were both within a few hours drive from my home. I recently determined that for the past 30+ years I have only traveled by myself within the confines of about a 500 mile square patch of this earth. For some that might seem adventurous enough. But I wanted to test my leash.
So for my 60th year, I took myself to the NYC Art Expo. Stayed in a tiny Air BnB that was only 3 blocks from the event and even took the subway from the airport. For what you may ask. For research.
Research what? Research on how I take my Art pro. 3 days of classes on publishing, protecting and selling my art in today's market. With over 400+ innovative exhibiting artists, galleries, and publishers from across the globe, showcasing exciting original artwork, prints, paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, giclee, lithographs, glass works and more to inspire my own art for years to come.
So after 20+ years of thinking about it too much and after seeing the enormous amount of potential in trying. I am launching my Art as a business. Hopefully by the end of 2018 I will have addressed a very long Gotta Do list of items that have little to nothing to do with creativity, at least not my kind of creativity. But never the less, are necessary in order to make a go of it.
This is not the announcement of the grand opening of a new Etsy store. This is a "Hold this space" for future announcements.
BTW I am attaching a link to my google folder of pictures from the Art Expo. Interspersed in between my class notes and bad selfies are pictures of just some of the wonderful art that was on display/sale at this event.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/28TEs6pCBnSNJXiG2
