48 Days To Departure...
Close proximity to greatness has shown me that hard work, blind faith, a contact list, and the courage to use it will get you everywhere.
In 2009, I started a music blog to show off to the world what good taste I have. By the end of 2015, I had worked with a third of the artists I blogged about and found myself in some jaw-droppingly star studded situations on a daily basis. I worked in as many positions in the music industry possible to learn as much as I could about how I could best help the musicians that inspired me. The experience I had acquired working for independent and corporate music venues, hip hop promoters, and record labels taught me that what I really want to build would look more like a media company with lots of merch and an amazing soundtrack. Since the realization that the corporate music industry must be overthrown and I will help make it happen, I vowed to never work for corporations again and to only work on teams whose missions align with my own. For the last year and a half, I’ve been unsuccessfully scraping together a living as part of a catering team and a freelance Merch Manager for touring underground hip hop artists while also declaring myself to be a Traveling Street Art Photographer.
As an unemployed, over-achieving, workaholic, 40 year old single divorcee, my situation could go many ways. Due to my delusional optimism and saturation of entrepreneurial podcasts, I am currently in the eat shit for a few years so I can have caviar for the rest of my life phase(Gary Vaynerchuk metaphor…I prefer sushi/tacos). I couldn’t be more confident that the ROI on investing in myself will be priceless and that all of the knowledge I’ve acquired over the last 40 years will lead me somewhere totally amazing… like Europe for two months starting this September 17. It is this quickly approaching deadline that inspired me to take extra steps to make sure I succeed via the potential of public humiliation for quitting before I’ve even tried. My mission is to figure out how to go from negative $0 to two months in Europe photographing Street Art and filming my fictional character having epic adventures. I’m leaving for London in 48 days.
I have many, many lists of ways to reach my goal but all of them require the courage to reach out I have yet to find within myself. My greatest fears include looking like a moron in front of people who don’t care about me and actually creating the world I’ve envisioned for myself. When all of my To Do’s are checked off, will I even be able to handle the light being shined in my direction? All I know for sure is that if I don’t reach for this seemingly impossible future, I will ALWAYS wonder what could have been.
Fueled by the determination to art my way out of this tiny box I stay in and to create opportunities for the artists that inspire me, I’ve decided to share my progress toward creating the Intergalactic Art Bridge I believe is possible. Instead of over-analyzing how much of my story to tell and procrastinating, I will stop looking backwards (ha) and just get to work. At this time, I feel that going all in with my own art will take me everywhere I want to go so I’ve been making the art I will display when I finally get the courage to ask for an art show and succeed. I’ve yet to sell any of my own art so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Today’s To Do List… (I’ll let you know tomorrow if I did it)
1. More work on the first layer of my 3D aquarium collage.
2. One post on my website… shared on social media accounts
3. 2-3 Instagram posts per account; @TheRingOfDOOM @206liz @MyDefOfCool
4. Drink 64 oz. of water
5. Go For A Walk
6. Stretch 10 Minutes Plus
Today’s Art... 2’ x 3’ paper collage of water