[Artists-making-art] A letter to my fellow artists at NFB

[Lynda Lambert]

Friends,  I hope you don't mind that I am sending you another note today. I was speaking with Ann and she thought you would benefit or appreciate something I had sent to her. So here it is:

QUOTE:
Good Morning, Ann,
OH, you are so sharp! You KNOW how hard it is to put together a show and carry it through all the stages from the initial inquiries with galleries to the final show opening. Ann, I sent out 102 packets with our information, outline of the show, CD photos of our work - to get TWO exhibitions. I spent the entire month of October on the phone making contacts and pitching the show - and helping the other artist with her writing skills and other details - I was nearly overwhelmed by the beginning of November with the work I had been putting into this show - I started working on trying to get it seen in galleries and sending out materials in AUGUST. So, it has been 8 months since I began trying to get this show to where it is today in the gallery.  

This is something a rookie cannot even imagine, isn't it! It is the reality of what we have to do as artists.  We have to tread back and forth between two worlds and be able to do it simultaneously and without missing a beat.  The two worlds of the studio and art making; the world of marketing and promotion that puts our studio work before the public. It is a difficult and hard path, this journey that we take when we are dedicated to our art and know it is our purpose in life.

I hope it could be valuable for others who are on this list and are trying to make art and get it OUT like we have to do as creative people. The good news is that we are not alone! 

Ann, the best part of this opening is that I was asked to speak to the gathering there about 2 of my works. (we both were to do this, but the other artist just did not follow the plan and she just rambled on about her trials with sight loss, a real pity-me kind of rambling, even though her own losses are  very minimal).  I chose to follow our plan for the talk, and selected two works and was very clear about how they were conceived and created and spoke of the way we can lead a normal life after sight losses. But, the best part of what I spoke about was a focus on the work of a couple other artists I have met through NFB - I spoke of Jeannie Nylander's sculpture (she has had both eyes removed), and Karen Bailey's ceramic sculptures (blind since birth.)  I spoke of the importance of being connected with other blind people and of the philosophy of NFB that inspired me to be whole again.  The audience loved it, laughed at some stories I told, and they were just absolutely with it as I spoke of the triumphs of blind people. I began my talk by whipping down my mobility cane, stood proud and BOLD  behind it and told them it is "MY badge of honor" and that it leads me on journeys and that an artist is a person who is forever on new journeys. Ann, it was so exciting to be able to put a very positive light on sight loss with absolutely no regrets or self pity or "why me" attitude.
Without NFB and my connections to people like YOU and others I have met through the Writer's Division and the Krafters-korner Division, I would not be the person I am today.

I am taking the week OFF to relax and just BE for awhile - I have worked every day for two years to do the work in this show - and now, I have earned a little vacation from my work before I begin again to work for the next shows that will be coming up somewhere in the future.

Lynda McKinney Lambert, MFA
Artist, Educator, Author
104 River Road, Ellwood City, PA 16117
http://www.lyndalambert.com

"Human beings are creatures who conceal an interior of uncharted chaos which lies beneath the surface reality"James Baldwin, The Creative Life (1962)

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