April 01, 2012

No Joke: This is my to do list.

  1. Mail key to AD for return of work.
  2. Pack painting for SUG to arrive on Friday
  3. Sched shipping for SUG
  4. Title/sign/inventory all the recent work
  5. Shoot whatever moves/ new work
  6. Upgrade to snow leopard and then lion. 
  7. Light candles, create sanctuary, play anonymous 4 in the background. 
  8. Back up back up back up. 
  9. Cut paper/plastic to wrap paintings for transport (15-20)
  10. Inventory and wrap paintings of works going to CHM
  11. Plan day for delivery. see if anyone wants to drive up for lunch, if there's room in the car. 
  12. See if work fits in car.
  13. Get small paintings back from s.d show this week. 
  14. Pick up work next week from hh. or this week. Schedule van or ask a favor from someone with a truck. Would offer to trade drawings for this stuff. I have lots of drawings. just putting it out there. 
  15. Pay storage rent on time. 
  16. Mail list. right. The bane of myeffingexistence. Now Contact quit exporting to labels and went out of business or something. My database is in some ancient version of excel. The merge code is so old that even a twenty-something didn't understand it. 5 hours wasted. Or as a friend once said, "that's your tuition." Live and learn. 
  17. Cut paper/buy pockets/ inventory and wrap paintings for JDG. 20?
  18. Find local box place and actually drive there to purchase some supplies.
  19. Schedule shipping to NYC.
  20. Confirm travel and shipping details x 2.
  21. Mosquitos. Kill. 
  22. Have paintings ready to go for show in LA. 
  23. Try to attend show.
  24. Schedule weekend to clean out pool. Buy waders from hardware store. Talk to someone about how to keep snapping turtle and bullfrog happy and safe while dredging bottom. Document this event.  
  25. Mailing list. Email for everything. and snailmail for JDG. 
  26. Do not buy anymore Nutella until June. 
  27. Promote Studio Coffee Break THIS WEEK. Consider catchier name. De-consider catchier name. 
  28. Promote a drawing and watercolor session on the grounds this summer. Consider catchy name. Invite people to attend. Clean out pond first. 
  29. Writing. Pick up writing gigs. Pitch essays and reviews. Consider introducing the review in list form. 
  30. Such as. 
  31. Pack an ever-ready suitcase. seriously. kind of like an earthquake kit, but for traveling. 
Theoretically, I'm going to keep adding and crossing off from this. Wish me luck.

And if anyone has tips on maintaining your databases, images and writings etc. I am curious. My system is not as streamlined as it could be. Anything from how you organize your files to what software works for you, I am interested.

All in all I've never been happier. Well okay, a couple of times, sure. I still have fond memories of major life events that went well, but in general if I can pull the major threads out of all of this and develop a solid system, I'm good to go. 

2 comments:

Elaine Mari said...

Just catching up on your entries. Sounds great, all the stuff happening now. Nice to hear the happiness.

I really need to get some database software, I was using Filemaker Pro for images on my old mac. I really liked it but haven't gotten a new one for the new mac, now 1 1/2 years old. Right now I keep all my images in files by year in a file named "art" in a file named "pictures". I keep all my art papers in "my documents" "art" then a file for "portfolio stuff", one for "submissions" one for "exhibitions" etc. then further filed down to names of galleries, or things like "resumes" "bio". Works pretty well, I have no trouble finding anything. All my contacts are in Mail Chimp and my address book filed under "newsletter", "patrons", etc.

I'm sure you have a grip on this stuff already. I also would be interested in a good "database" dedicated to art if anybody has any ideas. Filemaker takes some setting up.

M.A.H. said...

My current laptop is from xmas 2007. (violin playing softly in the background.) I have similar file names. It's detailed a bit more, but I guess it's working. I use Command F to find everything though- much quicker. I had Filemaker at a job a long time ago, and know how to set it up, but it's more $ than I want to spend. I'm thinking Bento. I've asked this query before, but haven't been able to pull the trigger on upgrading. I tried a couple of art specific databases once upon a time, but I prefer something less indy for support reasons. Thanks. I'll check out that link. I loathe excel. loathe.
Did I mention I loathe excel?

It's over.

Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough.