The Surreal Life

I really enjoy reading the blog of New York artist Joanne Mattera--mostly because her life as a professional, big city artist is the polar opposite of mine. If you were to attend a reception for an event where her work was being shown, you would likely enjoy catered delicacies and champagne. In my world, you could replace those with homemade goodies and lemonade. Mattera and I live in totally different worlds. This was really brought home to me a few months ago when she asked a question on her blog that went something like:  How do you cope with it when someone else gets the award/exhibit/job you wanted? A lot of people weighed in on this with various methods of coping with disappointment, but not a single one of them suggested what seems to be the obvious answer to me. All of these people were focused on how they would deal with their own negative reaction to being passed over. That's Mattera's world.

In my world, I get to celebrate the success of others. If the person is not someone I know, I might send an e-mail or a card saying Congratulations! If the person is someone I know, I will call them up and invite them out for lunch or a cup of coffee to celebrate their achievement. There are two darned good reasons to behave like this. One, doing something nice will make you feel good about yourself and help you get over your disappointment. Two, the person who you are nice to is going to remember it and be more likely to give you a leg up in the future if they have a chance. My mom was always fond of saying, "What goes around, comes around." I try to remember those words of wisdom and always look at disappointments and rejections as a chance to build up not only my own character but a stockpile of good karma.

Personally, I'm glad to live in my small time art scene, but I greatly appreciate the glimpse that Mattera' blog gives me into her world. She tackles a lot of tough issues that arise in the art world straight on and often has very insightful and wise words of her own to share--not to mention the fabulous photos of art. If you don't believe me, take a look yourself: http://joannemattera.blogspot.com