20something Hour Thoughts

by cooper on 6/2/2009 11:01:05 PMComment on this

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio where the sun has set on a beautiful day. I got a grandly early start with the paint brush this morning. Fortunately. Because at 11:45 another real estate agent called, "could we possibly do a showing at 5?" But of course. That's what the sign in our front yard is there for.

So to the battle stations we went. Man the vacuums. Shake the rugs. Scrub the sinks. Turn on all the lamps. Put Olliver in the car. (yes, that would be the dog) I'm not going to give you my whole check list, I'm sure you already get the picture. Oh, and we have added 'hose down the patio' to the check list because somebody on HGTV said fresh, clean patios are desirable. The showing went well. We'd been back in the house for about ten minutes when another agent called for 10am Friday.

So now let's talk about the 20 hour painting challenge.

When our eldest was born, my husband and I made the decision to raise our kids ourselves, no day care. Back in the good old days, especially in Nebraska (!) that was called "being a homemaker". I don't believe the term "stay at home Mom" had been invented yet :) But Nebraska was starting to come of age. "Rural" Nebraska women were being convinced that they could do the career, and ironically most of them still claimed to be homemakers. I scoffed loudly at the claim whenever asked, because I knew there was no way any woman, no matter how superpowered, could do the eight hour a day career and still be "a homemaker". I always wanted to ask of one of these superwomen, "who's covering for you?" "Who is doing your "homemaking" while you are at the job, and who is doing your job while you are "homemaking?"

The 20 hour painting challenge is causing similiar thought patterns. I know many artists who say 20 hours is nothing--they brag of 60plus hours of studio time each week. So who's covering for you? Who is packing your van for the weekend art festival? Who put the stretchers together and stretched the canvas, and primed it? And if you don't believe in that, then who did the shopping for the ones that somebody else made for you? Who photographs your art and puts it on your website? Better yet, who organizes your website? I love that there are a few artists who have spouses that write their blog posts for them. Talk about covering---that's dedication!

I suppose I'm trying to point out that being unique individuals, we each have unique schedules to manage, with varying amounts of stuff on those schedules. Lori WoodwardSimons is the force behind the 20 hour challenge, and I appreciate that she is viewing it as a means of encouraging each other to do the best we can with those unique schedules. Ha! In between loading the van for the Iowa City Arts Festival, and prepping for a Friday AM house showing, I might be able to use a few schedule bolstering words.

I have a new little painting on a 12 inch canvas that I'd love to show you, but it's not photographed yet. Maybe I can squeeze that in before loading the van. Dios mio. Have a lovely evening.

Later, Cooper

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20something Hour Thoughts