I am the worst surprise spoiler in the world. As some of you know, I’ve been working on a series of three paintings called “Sparkle”, “Shimmer” and “Shine” and when I started them, I promised myself that I wouldn’t post any of them until all three were completed but…here are the two that are done anyway (as per usual, my photography skills are sub-par and they look a whole lot cooler in person):

And here’s a pic of them on an angle so you can see how sparkly they are:

Touched By Fire‘s call for entries is right now until September 18th (I believe), so this weekend I plan on getting “Shimmer” finished (she’s a mermaid), as well as “devil girl” and I’m going to submit all four for acceptance into the show. I think I’m also going to enter “Binary Ballerina” and “Flower Girl” as well, because why the hell not? I believe I can submit up to ten entries and this is what I have kicking around, so I might as well.

Touched By Fire is being held at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto this year, which is sort of a big deal, so I’m really hoping I’ll be accepted. Last year they accepted three of my pieces, so I think I’ve got a pretty fair shot at getting in but I won’t know until the end of September.

They also have a call for artist’s stories which they want by Monday and I’m torn as to whether or not I’m going to submit mine. They want:

- Brief history of your mood disorder(s) if you are comfortable sharing
- Brief history of your art, which art form you work in, etc.
- How your art affects your mood disorder and vice versa
- Your history with Touched By Fire
- How Touched By Fire has helped or affected you or your art
- Your hope for Touched By Fire and your hope for your art in the future
- Your relationship if any to MDAO – ex. You’ve attended peer support groups, volunteered, etc.
- Anything else you’d like to share or might be of interest to the media

I don’t mind writing out my story, it’s not like I haven’t been writing about mental illness on my site for the past 3 or 4 years now, but I’m leery of the “media” part. Do I really want to be in the Barrie Examiner saying “hey yeah, I’m fucking NUTS!”? I’m just not sure about that.

Anyway, I figure I have the weekend to think about it and decide whether to do it or not. Doing it probably means automatic acceptance into the show and of course, media means more people will see (and hopefully buy) my work and those are all good things, but I dunno…I’m just leery. No one up here really knows me and I kinda like it that way, but if I’m in the paper, everyone in my little town of 1700 people will know me and know I’m not right in the head and I’m just not sure how I feel about that. :o/ Whether anyone likes it or not, mental illness carries a huge stigma and I realize I should be on the front lines fighting against that stigma but dammit, I’m tired.

I’ll probably end up doing it because it feels like the right thing to do, I’m just loathe to actually go ahead and do it. I loved doing Touched By Fire last year and this year sounds like it’s going to be even better, so I guess I’ll just suck it up and do it. *nods*

And my hamburgers are burning, so I’m just gonna shut up now and get back to my Sookie Stackshouse novel (I’m on #4).