Instagram link as well:

www.instagram.com/goldberrystudio

Goldberry Studio is up and running! /end

Most stuff is up on Etsy at etsy.com/shop/StudioG.... I’d still appreciate referrals. Instagram is @goldberrystudio; I’d still very much appreciate follows.

But it sure is looking like I can do this full-time without anything but the local markets and galleries.

And it’s not coming naturally. I have bled, a lot, for the knife skills. I need so much work on the basic mechanics of controlling brushstrokes. On blending colors. The less said about my photography, the better.

But it’s already enough for the juries, it seems, so here I am? A legit artist?? 7/

Part of my self-definition is still “Anna can’t do art” despite evidence to the contrary—cake decorating in college. Embroidery these past few years. In particular I remain convinced I can’t paint or sculpt.

But here I am, and the thing making me stand out is these sculpted, painted bowls. 6/

So it’s very strange to realize I may be successfully carving out a profitable path as an artist. To get solicited for and then accepted into an art gallery. To get told in no uncertain terms that I don’t belong at the craft fairs—apply to the juried art fairs.

And then get accepted. 5/

When I got the beehive and announced I was going to make it look like Edoras, my father (who CAN paint) very sincerely asked how.

But I had planned for that: child labor, aka a middle/high school art club of nerds and bee enthusiasts. 4/

In high school I took the mandatory Art 1. And, I want to stress again, tried.

I got a B+.

My mother, with the best of intentions, forbade further art electives for the sake of my GPA and college admissions. 3/

In like 3rd grade I got my entire class banned from using clay in Art. Our teacher pulled little items from the baked pile, accused the unknown culprit of not even trying, and removed our clay privileges.

I’d very earnestly tried to make my Beanie Babies a tea set. 2/

And none of this works for ebooks, and it works only okay on books I read non-linearly, like academic monographs

Nono no, it works years later too. I can’t recite word for word, but I know fairly precisely “where” in the book and what part of the page to look on for a passage or whatever.

And it’s not just about skimming fast—I can’t get to the passage a fraction as quickly in a different edition.

You’d think the answer would be dog-ear pages but no, not always. I just remember where things are in a book, spatially?

I’ve had multiple kids(!) ask me if I do bookmarks with magnets.

???

An older gentleman at a craft fair this weekend very kindly and sincerely suggested I offer leather checkbook covers. I didn’t really know what to say.

Oh, I was convinced I would thrive in an abandoned island treehouse setting.

The facts of my urban upbringing strongly suggest otherwise.

I regret to inform you that Gen Z seems generally unacquainted with it. I strong-armed my Gen Z cousin into finally seeing it and he deemed it “campy” and fine, nothing more.

The stuff that varies by day or hour especially, able-bodied folks are generally not well equipped to comprehend. So if 95% of the time I *am* able, then the remaining 5% I look like a faker to the very people who know me.

And using accommodations makes me less likely to hit that 5%.

So while I applaud the sentiment, even friends and family don’t necessarily know—and more often than you might think.

Or don’t understand & are already over policing things. Eg my stepmother being irate I flaked on swimming with her, when I had overextended and v. literally could not dress myself.

One of my accommodations for a TBI for a while was access to the lactation room, because it was a quiet, dark place I could take catnaps. My colleagues knew perfectly well I didn’t have a baby. Your scenario could well have had them taking me to task—at my most vulnerable.