Friday, November 19, 2010

The impossible Garden--Presist and Prevail

Next year I want roses blooming in the bed I just created. Little bit by little bit, I am creating my garden, my art, my life.  Sometimes it all seems like too much. Other people's needs take my time and energy, or I just plain get discouraged. So I've adopted the mantra, "persist and prevail".

Anything one does in this world is fraught with competition. Too many people are already doing the thing I want to do, and getting noticed seems like an impossible task. Have you SEEN how many people are doing hand painted silk scarves? How many are doing fabric design (another big idea I had)? How  many people want to write  children's books and be published (a looong time dream of mine)?

Persist and prevail.

My writing teacher, my mentor, Alice Orr, gave us a lesson on being
published. You make your work the best. You send out submissions.
You get rejected, "blooded", says Alice. You send out more
 submissions. You persist until you prevail. You don't give up.

And I would say, you hold the vision. You prepare the beds and you keep in your mind the vision of the roses you want there. You send the submissions, and you file the rejections and keep sending out the submissions, and you keep the vision of being published. You send out examples of your art in what ever medium you are working, and you keep sending out the art,  and you keep the vision of having your work accepted for licensing, or of developing a loyal base of people who like your work enough to buy it.

Persist and Prevail.

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