That’s the saw and you could amend it to read, “If you want
something done right, ask a busy person.”
Two of the busiest people I know are Ava Richey and S. L.
Donaldson. Ava created Art Happenings and S.L. took the reins when Ava decided
she had had just about enough fun for any one person.
Now you might think that publishing a newsletter isn’t all
that hard. After all anyone who has stuff going on will tell you and all you
have to do it copy their press release.
You still waiting on the Easter bunny?
It takes a ton of work and anyone willing to stick their
head in the lion's mouth should be nominated for Sainthood right away and then
get a really good award.
It takes hours just organizing the layout and fitting all of
the items in. Then you have to navigate the deadlines so that all of the
material gets to the printer and if you are doing it online then you have to
put it in a .pdf cause there is always one who can’t read a Word file and they
will whine to the heavens if it isn’t in a form that they can read the minute
it lands in their in box.
Then there are the folks who believe that a deadline is
really just a suggestion. They lag behind until after the very last minute and
then they rush around getting their news in and are highly offended when it
doesn’t get in cause it is after the deadline.
Any idea how long it takes and how much effort goes into
doing all of that and then multiply it by every week when you could be out
doing something that promotes your own art and might just bring in the money
which you need to buy that turkey for the holiday coming right around the
corner and even if you hate turkey there will be those who cannot live unless
you have a turkey on the table and don’t care that you will be eating turkey
well into March cause they will pack up and go home before even the dinner
dishes are done and they won’t have to watch as the cranberry sauce turns green
and the dressing becomes a block of concrete and the yams are reduced down to
orange slime and you want desperately to run
out and get a Subway or a hamburger but your mother told you it was a
sin to waste food so you know in your heart that you have to eat all of that
damned turkey even if you never liked turkey and so you keep surfing the
Internet for receipts for turkey pudding and turkey tofu and turkey meatloaf
and all the while you are getting farther and farther behind and then there is
that newsletter hanging over your head and the weight of the responsibility is
like a 1954 Packard hanging over your head and you know it is your
responsibility even if no one else would say so and so after all of the dishes
are washed and the table cleared and the football games over you drag out the
laptop and spend those wasted hours between midnight and dawn when you wouldn’t
be doing anything besides sleeping and you finish the newsletter.
Is it any wonder that after a few years the one thing most
newsletter editors want is for someone to come shoot them?
And Ava and S.L. did this week in and week out for all these
many long years and never once whined nor complained and as the voice of art on
the South Coast I thought I should do it for them.
But better than whining which is a wonderful thing to do and
most of us have years of practice at it, why not tell these two hard working
volunteers how much we appreciated what they did for the art community and how
badly they will be missed and how even though it is a loss to the art community
they should and certainly have the right to work on their own art so that they
can enjoy the pleasure that a completed project brings.
Now it is true that the South Coast will be the poorer for
not having Art Happenings and feel free to take up the challenge and do the
work and receive the laurels for it, but remember that is all you will get
along with a healthy dose of whining and complaining so if that appeals to you
go for it.
And if it doesn’t then you will be in line with the majority
and that isn’t a bad thing just a normal thing and one of the reasons why when
someone does such and extraordinary thing we should always remember to thank
them.
Ava Richey for creating Art Happenings and guiding it along
for so many months and for S.L. Donaldson for taking over and keeping the
newsletter going, you done real good. And that is a very special thing.
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