Dear blog,

uffiduffi, the proposal is almost done .. i have to fine fine fine tune it and then it only needs
a budget and schedule. the schedule itself is almost done as well. its quite a bit of work this proposal.. it took me more than a week just to fix the written part. this is five pages.. not even..i think its worth it... i could not have made it without the help of elke, though. elke gehweiler.. she is a friend who lives in berlin with her boyfriend phillip and justus, the dog. they are lovely and she is crazy about words so she knows a lot about how to put them together, thank god ! .. i will let you know when i hand it in.. oh, i also did a quick run on a proposal for a residency in schöppingen in germany: http://www.stiftung-kuenstlerdorf.de .. there deadline was yesterday..(their website is helpful if you are looking for artist's residencies in germany, not as good as the goethe institute, but still very, very helpful) .... it felt good to send something on its way.. i like the excitement to wait for the results of a residency or a grant. i also noticed that it is quite good always to have at least two applications on the go. this means while you are waiting you write new ones and if you do not get one, than it does not matter, because you still have at least one more out. so you can always look out for better news. last year, in 2006 i wrote nine proposals. the result is one
got through and i can do a major project, which is nice and with another one i got invited with my partner merete röstad to an idea's weekend at this place gravenhorst, which is why i am writing a second proposal.. so the rate for me is 1.5 out of 9. i had to learn to get rejected and see that its a lot of hard work that you dont get paid for. at least you get better at writing, structuring your thoughts, talking and writing about your artwork.. and you get through it also lets you do wonderful things. fair enough so far.
i also realised that the more attention to detail you give to a proposal, the more likely it is that you are accepted. this means by making it look professional. so the person gets all the information right there...also if you have an idea, that seems strong, but is not planned exactly to the very least detail.. and as for residencies i think
it also has to do, if you feel that there is something that you can give, as a friend of mine pointed out.. there is still a lot more to it, but this is what comes out of me.. dear blog, i
got completely distracted here.. i thought i would talk to you about listening art.. instead
i go on about proposals... oh well.. just cross your fingers for me, that it will go well..
thanks for listening, blog !

alexandre