I finally finished my chairs! Several weeks ago I was sitting with a box full of upholstery samples from my interior designer friend Lynette and these uncomfortable folding chairs my parents had before I was born, and I stumbled across this blog post. So I started working that day, and exactly one month later, I decided to finish them because of a breakthrough that I have to keep having over and over again. I let myself do no actual work today. I did run to the post office and Hobby Lobby, but came home to watch t.v. in bed and hang out with my husband and make these chairs that will sit in my home and contribute nothing to my income. Which is momentous, because I often feel guilty when I could be more productive than I am. I don't always know how to answer the question "what do you do?" because I think it really means "how do you make money?" and I don't actually make money. But I'd like to make money through Feeding The Lake and through my artwork, and to justify that goal I feel like I have to be working nonstop. In the past couple weeks though, I've been remembering that most people only work 8 hours a day, and they have the weekends to themselves, so what makes me think I need to work so much more than that? I've been trying to think of deadlines not as stressful, but as evidence that I have reason to be making the things I want to make. If this is what I want for my life, to be an artist, then I have to embrace constant deadlines. If I don't want to live stressed out, then I can't be stressed by deadlines. I'm sure I'll have to relearn this lesson many more times in the future, but I'm thankful that it sank it today. It's been a great Saturday.
