A New Week and a New Attitude

After feeling depressed for the last couple of weeks, things have finally turned the corner and I'm back to perky. Well, maybe not perky, but a whole lot better than I was even a few days ago. Other than just my own disgust at feeling depressed, I can credit 4 things for this turn around:

1. Response to my newsletter. Yesterday, I sent out my monthly newsletter and I received a few wonderful emails in return. I know this sounds corny, but these encouraging emails make me feel loved. Or at least that my artwork is appreciated.
2. Working on a drawing. For the last few days, I've "forced" myself to work on a couple of drawings. I say forced because I really didn't want to do. See, there's a direct relationship between how many days I haven't worked and how hard it is to actually get back to working regularly. I took a few days off and so it was hard to get back to work. I know it sounds strange, as I like to draw, but then depression in general isn't rational.
3. Devising a new marketing plan. I'll explain this in more detail over this coming week, but the general idea is that I wasn't happy with my sales, so I've decided to try something else. Over the next month or so, I'll be working mainly on traditional botanical watercolors and some floral still lifes. This artwork will be sold on eBay, taken to the Montrose Art Walk, or offered to interior decorators. Once I get this going (i.e., I've am producing 2-3 pieces a week), then I'll branch out and start doing some general still lifes and then animal art. I don't know if my plan will work, but it's worth a try. (No, this doesn't mean I will stop doing portraits or alpaca art -- they are in the FULL plan too!)
4. Working on my house. There's a number of things I want or need to do in our house or on our land, such as build in bookcases in the study or clear out some dead shrubs. My problem is that I look at the big picture and it seems daunting. So, I'm going to try to break down the projects to small steps, such as order the paint additive for the study. (The additive supposedly increases the insulation property of paint.) I can find an hour a day and work on something -- over time, the hours add up to a finished project!

I do hope this really keeps my attitude on the right track. I don't like it when I'm depressed -- I find it annoying and time consuming. And quite honestly, there's a part of me that believes it is a choice to be depressed, so I get disgusted at myself.

And now, I need to get working on a watercolor of a rose.