One Thing a Day

Years ago, Andrew Semel, a photographer and friend I worked with when I was an editor at a German magazine told me something that has stuck with me.

He said, "If you do just one thing for your career every day, you'll have done 365 things in one year."

After my first exhibit in Paris, we (hubby, firstborn and me) moved to Southern France into an appart'hotel where we lived for four months. I got pregnant with our second child, we moved into our new home, and then we lost our baby.

I had wanted to do that one thing a day, but in the turmoil of the move and then the grief with our second child, I never got around to it until now.

I am officially considered an artist in France and am a member of the Maison des Artistes. The paperwork involved has been a bit intimidating but a few days ago I made some well placed calls, got some answers, got the right document (I hope) and submitted my first declaration of income for 2008, a whopping 70 Euros.

Two days ago, I sent my address change for "me as the artist" to the local income tax office.

Yesterday, thanks to a template that my friend, Caroll, who is a graphic artist and also a member of the Maison des Artistes, sent me, I created a template for an invoice in the required format, with the correct wording (for the time being, I am sales tax exempt). I also created a template for a delivery receipt.

Yesterday I rekindled an idea a friend of mine had, which was to do a dance performance connected with some of my Moving Australia photo series. We have to brain storm the practicality of it all, but it's now in my consciousness and I hope inspiration will give us some ideas.

Today, I connected with two friends who are graphic artists (thanks Stephane and Diane). I had questions about JPEGs in general, how to keep them from becoming corrupt, and about photo quality in general. Stef and Diane helped me understand the process a little better and from now on, I plan on taking photos in at least a TIF format (better quality/less compression).

Next on my list, writing the text for my website and selecting the photos, as well as figuring out how to syndicate my photos, both the artwork and the travel photos.

Drew was so right, one thing a day (and I'm finding when I do one thing, I usually do two or more)...imagine, in a year, I will have done 365 things towards putting my artwork out into the world.

Let's see where you will find me on July 3, 2010.

Stay tuned.