Wonderful baby Kauai

These are hard times

Since my retirement, the plan of action was to continue working, earning money, at least for myself.  My wife and I have finished giving our children the education they need so that they can be independent, earning on their own, enough to sustain their lives from here on.  The long term plan is to go full time in painting and find myself a career in that field.  After all, this has been a long time dream.  So I have been painting and painting thinking I shall be known one of these days and establish a list of clientele and be plagued with commissions. This is proving to be a very hard route as I have imagined.  Not only are sales of my paintings at a minimum, and my production itself is not that numerous as it should be.

I have joined art exhibitions, had my works exhibited hoping and praying that at least one of them shall be sold.  Well, the closest to a sale in an exhibit happened with the Art Center at SM Mega Mall.  A few days after I have  picked up my works, the gallery called me asking if I still have my pieces.  I told him I did.  He asked me if I can trim down the price of the paintings as a buyer was interested but was asking for a discount. I did lower the price but still the unknown buyer still wanted more.  I staved the price a little more but still this was not enough for the said buyer.  At this point, I told the guy in the gallery that I cannot lower it anymore as I  have to protect those who have already bought from me.  I do not want to be rumored that I just give in easily to make a sale.  To my mind, that will not be too good for my reputation.  I thanked the guy in the gallery and decided I did not need the sale.  Once again, after several days, I received another text message that the buyer was ready to purchase one of the works.  Luckily, he wanted the   bigger one.  The  only glitch was that his wife did not want it..  After several prodding, his wife gave in and the sale was about to be done.  I brought the piece back to the gallery and waited.  After two weeks of waiting for the payment, I received note again that his wife really did not want the piece and so was not getting it anymore.

This goes without saying that as expected, I am having a hard time making my professional name known in the  art scene. While I have sold and have accepted a few commissions, they are not enough to sustain me or this career. I am spending more than I earn. My fear is soon, the well shall run dry and my retirement money shall run out. My next plan was to join a very prestigious art competition which to my mind would instantly make me famous. I joined the GSIS Art Competition, an annual event being participated in by practically every art practitioner in the country.  This was the first time I joined a contest and I was very eager. You can read about it
http://titorolly.blogspot.com/2019/04/welcoming-kauai.html">here
.I patiently waited for the result.  My gut feeling told me that I should be receiving word from the organizer even before the intended announcement in June 1.  Nothing!  Now that it is the fifth of the month and the announcement of winners shall be two days from now, I have learned to accept that I did not make the cut.
In the meantime that I am working to have my name ring a bell, the short range  plan is to find me a regular job which shall sustain me while I work on  my paintings for after all, I am still strong and can still work for more than eight hours a day.  This is harder that I thought. None of my prospects are pushing through. The first prospects were very promising.  There is the putting up of a school somewhere in Taguig with Henry and a couple who would help us finance the project.  This did not push through.  Then there was this prospect of managing a school in Cabanatuan which should have been a high possibility as I have already been introduced and sort of interviewed by the owner.  This was done while I was still teaching and I had high hopes that if it pushes through, I would have the best deal in town.  For reasons beyond my control, the person I was supposed to replace has not retired to date and so the vacancy that I was hoping for did not materialize.

The next option was another one given to me by Henry.  It is another job to head a senior high school run by the Zobels in Calatagan,, Batangas.  But again, this failed as I was told that they would rather hire someone who is in the know of the culture in Batangas, hence someone from there.

My hitherto last  option was shared to me by my wife. She told me that the she knew someone from the Senior High School at De La Salle University.  Since I had several prospects then, being a teacher again did not appeal to me.  Thus, instead of applying for the job right after retirement, I opted to travel to Brazil and then the United States.  Now that all possible jobs that I had have been for naught, I told my wife to give it a go. And so she sent my resume to her contact and waited.  Never heard  from the guy and school has already started.  It seems like there is no vacancy at this time.

And so, to sum these all up, it has nothing but disappointment after disappointments.