The State of the Artist - 2016-02-22

I don't know if this is something that would interest you, but seeing as you all have been so generous to me through your patronage, I feel that I owe some elaboration on my present situation to all of you.

Things are stagnated. Since mid December, my son has been on school vacation, which has allowed me to spend longer nights working on my artistic commitments. Despite all that time spent on doing art, I feel that skill improvement has been slow lately. I've been struggling particularly with improving my speed, and the complexity of some recent assignments combined with my silly "perfectionism" means that the average time to complete each piece has increased quite a bit lately.

Starting January, I started a commission run having as the final goal the replacement of my broken TV. The demand was very good, and I was able to finance this goal. Unfortunately, I still have a considerable queue from that run left to execute, which means that most of my personal and promotional projects are being left on the back burner. I'm expecting the queue to last me well into March, which may come off as slightly disappointing to the patrons who are paying me to work on things that are true to my artistic aspirations. Each of these commissioned works take me 2-4 days to complete, shockingly, and they get priority in my schedule. I apologize if this goes against your expectations of the nature of my art output. I hope to have these commissions wrapped up by the end of March, and I won't take them again for quite a while, I expect.

My son restarts school at the end of February, which means that I won't have as much time in the night to work on art - unless I embrace 3 hours of night sleep followed by dozing the mornings away, as I did most of last year. I worry. I am hardly able to work consistently with my family's solicitations interrupting me regularly, and I can't possibly ask them to let me work in peace for 6-8 hours straight. I guess productivity will take a hit starting March.

On other front, my sedentary life has had me ballooning in weight to unprecedented numbers during the past year. Starting February, I have started an effort to get me back to my "normal" weight by August. This means losing 20+ kg in 6 months through a regimen of diet and home exercise. I can't let myself go; The longer I stay obese, the bigger the chances of having serious health problems that will thwart my efforts to go back to Portugal and to provide for my family through my artwork. I must be able to keep a normal weight, and to stay in at least passable shape. Problem is, many aspects of my present life and family situation bring me anxiety, and I'm one of those people who cope with anxiety by overeating. Thanks, brain!

Thank you to all patrons old and new for your kind and generous support, I hope to be able to report more interesting news next time, particularly in regards to my goal of getting me and my family back home.