I remember telling a colleague of mine, about a year ago, just what my life’s snapshot looks like, in terms of work, family and studies. At the time, I was working on restoring our house and also teaching part-time, as well, so the duties were even a bit more expanded than today.
Regardless, I feel, sometimes, like an insane person.
This tends to be the busiest time of my entire year. I’m currently working on art directing and designing the graphics for two large tradeshows – SAP and HP. SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP’s biggest yearly event, is a monster of a show, with something like 13K attendees. Discover, HP’s show, is even bigger. Top it off with being the first year that myself and our collective vendor team are working on the show, and you’ve got a headache-mare of biblical proportions.
In addition, I’m winding down another semester of my Masters degree at AAU. Taking two studio classes at once while working is always a hassle, but I’ve been able to stay a bit ahead of the schedule. Fortunately, the last week of the class will coincide with SAPPHIRE NOW, so that’s nice.
It’s easy to forget, as a freelance artist, that you do, indeed, have a job. It’s easy for everyone around you to forget that, actually. It’s a choice we make to work this way, and there are consequences. I remember being asked once, when a friend was thinking of quitting his job and going freelance, what advice I could give. I told him that sitting down for a regular work day, regardless of the fact that you don’t have to punch in and out somewhere, was the biggest key.
I wondered aloud (it’s not called “talking to yourself” when you work alone) if someone standing behind me could follow just what I was working on recently. I was jumping around so much, answering emails and bouncing from phone call to phone call, that I was having a hard time tracking it all myself. I still write things down and I still print things out, but in the digital age things fly so fast and furious that it sometimes doesn’t seem to matter.
So, when the push is on, it’s even rougher. I get by listening to M*A*S*H episodes in the background and chugging caffeine. Every once in a while I call a colleague and make a fart joke. Then I dream of when I can next ingest beer again.
I’m not sure which part is helping more.