Part 1: Techno Hell
It’s all about taking care of business.
I basked in the afterglow of Open Studios for less than a day before the biz side of art whacked me upside the head—or maybe that was the Muse. She’s prone to doing that.
The thunderbolt from on high that got my attention was big trouble with my website. The one you’re reading right now.
Oh noooo! Say it ain’t sooooo!
It’s not that I couldn’t see it coming. WordPress had been sending me notices about trouble brewing between a couple of plugins for a while.
Plugins, for those of you unfamiliar with WordPress, are little bits of this and that running the show behind the scenes. They occasionally get pissy with one another, and their spats—well, they can get ugly.
In this case, they locked me out.
Not that I wasn’t forewarned. WordPress had been sending me notices about the end of the world for a while now, calling it a “fatal flaw” that could result in a Death Star-level nuking of my site.
But fatal flaw sounded overly dramatic.
AND I HAD BETTER THINGS TO DO!
I had a show to get ready for. And dogs to walk. Fingers to stick in my ears and hands to cover my eyes.
I would deal with this when I absolutely had to.
So I ignored the warning.
And the cyber gremlins locked me out of my website.
I was screwed.
Taking Care of Business: In Which Their AI and My AI Had a Convo
Just what it says up there.
AI to the rescue.
It took a bit of time, but I got back into my site. And then my AI friend gently—as friends are wont to do—told me to clean up the back end of my website because it was a mess.
So I did.
And there went another whole day.
Part 2: The Fun Part of Promoting My Biz
I joined an art organization.
They had chocolate cake and cookies.
And a group show coming up. Which I entered.
I went to the venue where the group show is going to be and managed to book a solo show for the spring.
More about that later.
And then, because the venue is just a block or two from the Strait, my friend and I wandered over and got some serious salt water exposure.
Which, as it turns out, is also taking care of business.
Because this is the part I sometimes forget: the business of being an artist isn’t all websites and plugins and paperwork and things flashing FATAL FLAW at you while you stick your fingers in your ears.
Sometimes it’s joining the thing. Entering the show. Going to see the place. Talking to people. Saying yes when something interesting presents itself.
And sometimes it’s walking along the beach to the water with a friend because you’re already there.
I’m getting better at this business thing.
Although I still prefer the parts with cake.
This Week’s Creative Prompt
What have you been avoiding because it feels like the boring, annoying, decidedly uncreative part of your creative life?
Go take care of one piece of business you’ve been putting off.
Then go do something that reminds you why you’re doing all this in the first place.
Cake is optional.
Back next week–
Susan, when I have TIME, THAT gremlin, I love reading your post. I love the AI convo part especially. I had to laugh bc how often i have convos with AI and how I usually feel guilty about it bc I don’t want them building anymore centers which are sucking the water from every major waterway in the world! And I can totally see myself doing the same ignoring thing. Fatal flaw? It’s probably another scam. Anyway, thanks for your very lovely blog. I wish I had it in me to write one as well. (Hey! Check out my “new” writing website. My book comes out in 10 days! First launch this Sunday woohoo! A long time acomin’!)
Well, Liz–you may not have TIME to write a blog but you’ve been writing NOVELS and making ART so I’d say you’ve got a pretty good excuse.That’s so exciting about your book, BTW! You MUST come up here for a signing. And while you’re here we can go whale watching.
If AI hasn’t sucked the strait dry by then.
Okay, okay already! I’ll deal with what I’ve been putting off and then I’ll get my art life (mostly) back!
Hahahahaha–DO IT!