Thursday, September 27, 2007

I Said No Again

Yesterday a client called looking for photographs of a particular industry. I have a few, and forwarded them on. Not enough, they said, we want more. So they requested that I make elaborate arrangements to get permission to go to a certain place to take the photos that they want. On my own time. For free. With no guarantee that their client would buy them. My response? "No."

Another client called and asked if I could create some pseudo-vintage posters if they provided the photography sources. Can I? Yes. But not this month. I said "no".

Yesterday was a tough day for me. Anxiety levels are running high (Will I complete everything on time? Will the framing get done? Will they LIKE it?). Sleep sometimes eludes me, and I'm up in the middle of the night processing photographs for printing. Yesterday followed a night like that. I only had a few hours of fitful sleeptime, and suffered the physical results. Consequently I took care of myself by having bacon and eggs for dinner (yum!) and watching TV til 9:00 when I went to bed with my book. After a recuperative night's sleep full of interesting dreams, I'm back to normal today.

I have to be very careful about how I allocate my time in the next six weeks. My solo show gets hung next Tuesday. Texas Clinic installs at the end of October. I have a sculpture due on Nov. 1 for a hotel model room. Time is an elusive thing -- can disappear or stretch out to infinity depending on the circumstances. I'm just trying to stay on an even track until the clinic job gets installed. Then I'll need a vacation, for sure!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's about time you started saying NO and took care of yourself- although we all know you can PAINT THE WORLD- a little break is a good thing--

Annette Bush said...

Robin
I suspect that at least one of those rejected proposals will come back to you for completion on your time schedule. The new painting is wonderful.
AAB