Downs and UPs!!

Artists have such a topsy turvy life. Some days you are on top of your game, you know it, your ego is grand and your work is grander. Other days you suck, everything sucks, and you just want to go to sleep.
I had entered this piece recently in the Regional Juried Show for the Cooperstown Art Association, which I just joined.

I was so hoping to get in, but I got the rejection notice while I was in Long Island. Doggedly, I picked up my piece from the upstairs above the gallery where it had been stored, and I really let my ego take the plunge. I hate that feeling, that rejection thing. I forced myself to look at the pieces that made it in and drove back home to escape to the studio and my own little bubble.
A week passes.
Last night I came home and was opening up the bills. Groan, the insurance company is fooling around on my hailstorm claim, and I am gnarly. I open then next envelope in the pile. It is from Arkell Museum, the gorgeous new facility that is located in Canajoharie, NY, my current hometown. They review artists exhibition proposals once a year in June, and I had turned in my proposal with a shiny CD containing 10 images months ago back in March, after which I promptly forgot about it. This letter? It was a contract for a solo show in October of 2009!!!! I am so psyched! If I had to pick a local place to show my work, Arkell would be #1 on the list. I sure didn't expect to get accepted! Immediately, my ego responded with big smiles. What hailstorm? Amazing how you can go from such lows to such highs, all in one week. It's so emotional...it's so female of me, so artist of me...

A view of the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY

Update:
I went back and read the letter again, and good grief!!! It isn't from the Arkell Museum!! It's from the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts in Little Falls, NY. I sent out the applications on the same day, and apparently my mind did some kind of weird dyslexic thing, and I got this all wrong. I apologize!! I am very excited about exhibiting in Little Falls. It's a super great venue. Hope to see some of you there on '09!