Thanks, but no thanks.

When you're in school, despite how often you get told how "tough" it is in the real world, it never truly sinks in.  It's only after you finish—when you're searching for a job—that you start to "get it."

Currently, I'm trying to pursue opportunities for funding and promoting my work.  This requires a significant amount of discipline to keep myself going forward.  Every day, I write a new "to do" list of grant and competition submission deadlines, ideas to shoot, people to contact, books to buy.  My walls at work and at home have become bizarre and somewhat obsessive-compulsive shrines to Post-Its and Sharpies.
This also results in periodic panic attacks of disappointment, as admittedly—at least with regard to the progress of my own work—I may not always be the most patient person.

It's hard to keep up hope, when rejection letters are so common and radio silence as a "response" is even more frequent.  Thus, I'm sure most of you will find it somewhat cruel and sadistic that there is a part of me that gets just the teensiest bit of pleasure from this site:

http://myrejectionletters.blogspot.com/

Suzanne Melbourne's site also reminds me of Jo-Anne Echevarria-Myers' book Letters, which I fell in love with at Printed Matter in 2003.  This was her first mail art project whereby she addressed, stamped and sent insured unwrapped stretched canvases to famous artists and curators. Recipients were asked to mark the canvas “Return to Sender” and post it back to her.

She received varying responses...

 

 

And then there was StonyBrook, who loved it so much, they just kept it.  Go figure.  I guess if you keep doing it enough, eventually you're bound to get a positive response.

All images (c) Jo-Anne Echevarria-Myers.

**UPDATE (10/28/09): A link courtesy of Jen Bekman via Twitter:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/onward.html