Mom Day, and getting all networked and stuff

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Moms out there who let the kids eat goldfish crackers in bed while you read to them ~

My Mom has requested breaded veal cutlets for dinner, so I, with mixed feelings, bought the makings for that (I mean - veal. Who eats VEAL?) and will grudgingly / joyfully make her a special dinner (and will choke down my portion as best I can). Because I am truly grateful for her, veal requests and all.

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Other stuff - I spent most of the day doing all kinds of internet networky stuff. The kind of stuff we're all supposed to be doing these days to stay connected and get work and all of that. I always feel like I'm soooo behind on all of this (because I am), but am slowly trudging along, trying to stay in the game. (I feel like when you're running a race on a track, and you think you're in step with all the runners, until you realize that even though they're running alongside of you, they're actually a whole lap ahead.)

I followed some new people on Twitter and Facebook.
I fiddled with some stuff on LinkedIn.
I listed something for sale on a daily painters' site.
I tinkered with my CafePress shop.
THEN. I found this new (to me) place called Behance (which is sort of linked to LinkedIn?)
And I made a new profile, filled in all the info about work history, etc., and uploaded some portfolios.

This view here is the frame view. So if you set up your own profile, you too can have a link to a page like this. Its a clean way to direct potential clients to your portfolios, without all the extra 'stuff' (but of course they can still get to that easily if they want to).

I've just scratched the surface here. You can upload videos, work in progress, projects, etc., and control who can see them. You can make them totally private, or have limited access, or have them be public. You can also have links to things you have for sale (like an etsy shop), which I'm going to work on next. There are also job postings which you can hunt through, and groups, and over all, it just seems like a good actual 'work' kind of place, rather than just a chit-chat kind of place. Its worth a try, anyway.

The thing about all this networking stuff is that it takes soooo much time away from actually doing new art. Doesn't it? I'm not the only one who has noticed this, am I? Do I sound old? Hope not. I just mean, (insert creaky voice here) I remember when someone would call you on an actual phone (that had a cord and was attached to a wall) about a job, then would fax you a sketch and a contract, then you had to search through your reference file (aka morgue or scrap file) for pictures to look at to draw from (or maybe the client would have to FedEx them to you, which could take days), then you had to actually draw and paint the illustration with real paint on real paper (which some people still do, me included, but back then you didn't have a choice). And oh - no one had a computer. There was no email.  !!!!! I know. You had to call people and leave messages. At their phone at the office. Attached to the wall. If they were out to lunch or somewhere you couldn't reach them. You could not text them. Seriously. And you had to send actual samples of your work. There were no websites. NO. WEBSITES. I know, I can't believe it either. If you had told me then, that I would doing all of this, now, it would have sounded like science fiction. I would have laughed! And yet, here I am. With tired eyes from staring at a computer screen all day, uploading art and linking to who knows who all over the world. Crazy.

Anyway - what was I talking about? Oh yeah. There's no time to do the actual work anymore. Well, there is, but we have to be really good at time management. Or something has to give, somewhere. I'm just saying.

So here's to all the mothers who are masters at that (time management). The original multi-taskers, who can make dinner, clean the house, pay the bills, balance the checkbook, read a story, make a costume, clean up umpteen messes, "watch you" do that special thing 1,000 times and act impressed every time, wipe a tear, fix a boo-boo, help with homework, and about a million other things, all at once. You're awesome.

Thanks, Moms.