157 Days On the Couch

157 days ago I walked in the house after redoing a photograph to get ready for my 2020 art show season and sat my camera bag down on the couch. 

Over the next few weeks I watched my 2020 art show season disappear and take half of my income with it. I spent hours trying to navigate Kansas Unemployment. After being misled a few times I was finally told I didn’t qualify. I was told my part time job paid too much and that I was one of the people who fell through the cracks.

Last summer I took a cut in my hours at Target so I could keep doing art shows. I went from around 30 hours a week to about 15. It was a struggle after a couple of months but a good fall show helped and I was counting on my spring shows to help.

Over the holidays last year I found the reality my work needs to be seen in person to sell, my holiday online sales were not just dismal they were nonexistent.

It has been a tough 157 days trying to navigate the new world, fill in the gap in my income and deal with an increasingly physical part time job. My fellow artists have been a great support group. We share ideas and cry on each others shoulders.

The two Route 66 photography tours and a few B&W photography classes I had planned on doing all disappeared along with my art shows.

Now I am working on finishing the studio overhaul I started last fall and looking at learning podcasting and creating some videos to talk about my work. I am trying to navigate my way through a packed arena of delivering photography education online.

Last night I had a dream about being a photographer, the first one I have had in many years. This morning the light was right so after 157 days of sitting untouched on the couch I picked up my camera bag and went out to photograph a location I had seen coming home from the part time gig.

I found GOD, or at least where he gets his mail.