After a couple of days camped out in bed with movies, magazines and tea, I ventured back out into the world today even though I still barely had a voice.  I felt much better than I sounded, and the errands I had to do today were pretty much non-negotiable.  It was still a fairly mellow day, and I even managed to fall asleep early this evening, but the tickle in my throat started getting the best of me so here I am, awake in the middle of the night once again.  My fiancee is back home from London, and being in such dire need of sleep due to jet lag, I don’t want to keep him awake with my coughing.  At this point I actually think my worry of keeping him awake is probably preventing me from sleeping more than the actual coughing.

One of my errands today was to speak to the owner of a hip little restaurant on Montana Avenue called Blue Plate about showing my collages.  I took a few pieces and a portfolio and I’m now scheduled to go back in less than two weeks to hang my work.  It isn’t a gallery in Bergamot Station, but it’s a start, and my work will be seen by a lot of people, so I’m very excited.

It is such a wonderful thing to learn – as I have so many times before – that when you have a dream, make a choice to follow it, stay focused on it and do the work that needs to be done, things start to fall in place.  I still have a long ways to go before I can say that this new chapter in my career as an artist is a success in terms of being financially feasible, let alone lucrative.  But these early victories are just that:  victories.  Everything I have been doing since the beginning of August enabled me to be ready for a show on such short notice.  Creating like a crazy woman, adding new finishing touches to all of my collages, getting paintings framed, sharing and talking about my work, updating my website every week; all of these things and more have given me this opportunity.  I think very often it looks like things "happen" to others so quickly and easily, that there must be some magic formula that someone else has that we don’t have, and that is why they are successful.  When really that magic formula couldn’t be more simple and straightforward:  have a vision (big picture) + do the work (small steps everyday).  When I look at the websites and books of other artists I admire and begin to wallow in self-doubt, I always try to remind myself that no one starts out on top.

I read an article in Los Angeles magazine this week about a TV show called "Grey’s Anatomy".  They interviewed one of the cast members, Isaiah Washington, who said that one of the reasons he loves this particular experience as an actor so much is that it makes him believe in the system.  He was in the Air Force for four years, then after studying drama in college became one of the founding members of City Kids Repertory, a theater group that visits high schools and community centers throughout New York.  He had a number of roles in films and other TV shows, but apparently "Grey’s Anatomy" has become an overnight hit, and all of the cast members feel like they are living "the dream" with this program.  Washington explained that this is an acting experience that is extremely hard to come by – great show, great writing, successful, etc. – but it made sense to him that he managed to get where he is today because of all the hard work he has done, as an actor and otherwise.  For him, this experience reinforces his belief in this "system" of working hard and being rewarded for that hard work.

I too believe in the system, in that delicate balance the universe creates for us, that with focus and hard work I can get wherever I want to go.  This belief has been called into question more than once throughout my career, but everytime I am faced with that crossroads – to keep believing and get back to work or throw in the towel – I always choose to get back to work, no matter how hard that may seem.  That is why Monday morning I’ll be back in my studio getting my pieces ready for this show, and why I will continue to create every single day.  I am starting to make some progress on this new path, but there is still much to do.  There is still plenty more work to be done.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas Edison