"First Light"
Oil on Canvas
18x24"
2007
Warning - this is really just a rant!
I am so cranky right now. One of my goals for the New Year was to enter paintings in a select number of shows that I pick specifically because I feel that they provide good exposure for my work, and lines on my resume. The first deadline was for the OPA National Show, due today.
I wanted to do a new painting for the show, so I had my mom watch Aspen while I painted a few afternoons, and managed to rush through finishing the painting above. It's actually a larger version of a painting I did last year, that I wished I had done a bit larger to start with.
Anyhow, I finished the painting two weeks ago, photographed it, had slides overnighted to me, and put together my entry last weekend. Because it was due today and had to be mailed to Illinois, and because Monday was a holiday, I was uneasy about sending it regular mail. Unfortunately, OPA uses a PO box so you can't send your entry by Fedex or UPS, and they require that it be sent in a business size envelope, so I couldn't send it USPS express mail. I settled for the best I could do and paid to send it by priority mail. I figured if I sent it priority mail on Tuesday it would be there by today no problem, right??
WRONG.
I just checked the tracking code they gave me and found out my envelope has been MISROUTED, and that they will try to deliver it as soon as possible. I paid extra to send the thing priority mail, and the freaking USPS managed to misroute it!!
So now it won't get there today, and OPA will return it to me unopened, and I'll be out $50 from paying for slides, paying overnight shipping, and paying for priority mail. Grrr....
So, that's one show I won't be entering this year - guess I'd better find another. I'm so mad at the U.S. postal service right now!
What a total drag! When the post office messes up, they sure do a good job of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful painting, if that makes you feel any better. The light is beautiful.
It is a beautiful painting... any way you could call the show officials and see if they would accept your submittal, since you can prove the port office flubbed it up, not you? Perhaps ask the USPS to document the mis-routing of the package?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree.... beautiful painting! That certainly wasn't a waste.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with ramblin' girl, about calling them, to make them aware of the fact that you posted on time. You've got nothing to lose and nothing to be blamed for anyway.
You could maybe just phone and ask about their policy regarding this situation?
This is a fantastic painting. Contact OPA, maybe they'd make an exception since it wasn't your fault?
ReplyDeleteLook on the bright side, it's a great painting for the next juried show--andyou have the slides!
You now have a beautiful painting finished, a set of slides, and a lesson it takes some people all their lives to learn (IF they learn it at all!)
ReplyDeleteYour work is beautiful, and you are doing the best you can with a young child at home. You may have missed this opportunity, but there will be others--and now you are ready for them!
Someone told me years ago, "Every day you will have at least one opportunity to move your art forward. And every day, you will MISS at least one such opportunity. No one opportunity will make your career, and no single missed opportunity will break it." When I'm feeling like a total flub-up, I find those sentences reassuring! :^)
Keep up the good work,
Luann Udell
goodness, that was a lot of exclamation points!
ReplyDelete