Patience

Patience is not one of my virtues.

In fact, being mother to a toddler, this deficit in my personality is a recipe for disaster. Sure, I have tried many things over the years to chill out--deep breathing, whispering instead of yelling, walking away, punching soft inanimate things like mattresses (walls are kinda hard, and well, they actually hurt. It is not pretty like you see on TV.) Despite these efforts, I still struggle. Most days are fairly even keel (I know other moms are hard-pressed to buy this one) and if I had money to put in a jar for every time that I failed to be patient, I could probably end the recession. Ironically, it is not my child that might nominate me to see Dr. Phil. It is Adobe.

As an artist, I have a love/hate relationship with Photoshop. Don't get me wrong--it is an absolutely fantastic (and necessary) tool to market your work, plus if you become adept at it you can get in really good with your in-laws when sending them oh-so-adorable photo collages of their only grandchild.

If you can figure it out.

Adobe Photoshop is perhaps the only sure-fire way to motivate me to swear like a drunken sailor in ten minutes flat. I have no patience for it. Tutorial schmootorial. The "Help" feature sounds like the perfect option when at my wits end, but wait--none of the key words I select show up in the Search For. Funny, since the key words are used by Adobe in the program menu. Even better is that different features are in different places, depending upon which version you might be using, so make sure you have the same version as someone who might be giving you instructions on your "how do I do this" question.

The good thing is, though, that rarely do I experience a higher level of satisfaction and competence than when I master a new Photoshop technique (take that, Layers and Text! To the Mattresses!) It is when these achievements come without me having to take a valium, however, that I know I am one step closer to being the more laid back artist and parent I've always imagined. Now if it could just happen sooner...