For more than the past month, I have been working an insane amount of time. I’ve had a lot of “work” work, and several shows and blog hops that I had to do work for. But also since I’m a one-woman show, I’ve been dealing with behind the scenes things, like trying to optimize my web site, and “oh, that little change I made wrecked my website and now it doesn’t work and it just took 4 hours to fix” kind of thing.
Anyway, that’s just background information leading to my point. And that is . . . get your art ducks in row now (and keep them in a row) so that they will be ready when you need them! And by art ducks, I mean your art resume and supporting materials like photos of your work. What you need, or think you might need, might be different depending on what your medium is.
I applied for a program called ArtistINC Live, that helps artists with their skills for business and to boost their art career. For the application, you had to answer several questions, supply a resume, and photos of your work. No problem! I had a resume. And I had lots of photos of my work, so it shouldn’t take me long. But, I spent a long time answering the questions because I wanted my answers to be just right, and time was ticking away to the deadline. After I finished the questions, all I had to do was upload my photos and my resume. I figured I’d get finished with some time to spare. Not.
I looked at my resume, and saw that not only had I not updated it in several years, but it was geared towards getting technical editing jobs for knitting and crochet publications. Nothing really about what I was doing in the visual arts world. I frantically deleted the info that wasn’t pertinent to an art career, and added what I could think of that was. Other than the 3 books that I’ve written, it left me sounding like I haven’t really been doing anything towards my career as an artist, even though I have.
But I didn’t have time to add things that made me sound more “attractive,” whether with accomplishments, skills, or other things–such as some upcoming exhibits of my new artwork; various places where I’ve been interviewed and featured on the radio or websites; that I run my own website, online shop and blog that not only promote my artwork and what I have available for sale, but also has tutorials and information; that I shoot the photography and do the filming and editing for the tutorials and videos myself; that my studio was featured in the summer 2009 issue of Studios magazine; and other things that would have made me sound like the more rounded, active person that I am. But with time ticking away, it was better to at least get the application in with it boring than to add things and miss the deadline.
I already knew which images I wanted to use, and had done my homework on the size and file format that they required for the application. But then I couldn’t find some of the images on my computer. I tried searching for them in different ways, getting more and more flustered because I didn’t want to miss the deadline. I thought I had all of them organized on my computer in my “artwork” folder. Some of them were. But some of them obviously were some where else and I couldn’t find them. So I couldn’t use all of the images that I wanted to use. The ones I used instead were okay, but I felt the others would have been better. But again, it was either go with what I had or miss the deadline.
I clicked the “submit” right in the nick of time, only to realize that somehow I didn’t get my images attached to my application. The application process was done through CaFÉ – CallForEntry.org, which is a pretty cool site that hosts various art call for entires. Once you register, you can upload images to your portfolio. Then when you apply for a show or event through it, you attach your images to your application. I somehow missed the last step. I’m sure it was because I was frantic at that point to not miss the deadline.
This was a very important reminder for me that I wanted to share with everyone. Get your resume in order, (even if it’s not for art). And keep it current by adding to it as things happen. That way you aren’t trying to remember all of the great things you did or awards you won to update it at the last second! And, have different resumes for different purposes. I now have my art reume on my to-do list for when things slow down a little.
I also need to go through and better organize my images so they really are where I think they are. And I need to be consistent with always putting them in the same place. ALWAYS.
I had already learned these lessons from reading [amazon_link id=”0983146209″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]I’d Rather Be in the Studio[/amazon_link] by Alyson Stanfield, and from taking some of her workshops. But I obviously needed a stressful reminder.
Luckily the person in charge of the application process at ArtistINC was kind enough to attach the images for me. I’ll find out in January if I’m accepted.
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