So- Is This Anything?

Looking for some feedback in the art department people. What do you think of old chain link gates made into garden gates-- with colorful steel flowers added, and maybe other artistic touches, maybe holders for potted annuals etc? They could be an actual gate or could just be stuck in the garden or whatever.

Is this a cute idea or is it just me? (Really-- tell me. I don't want to waste my time right now.)

Another idea would maybe be using old screens and somehow making those into gates... (?)

Or old picket fence sections--? I'm thinking undercoated with one color, and top coated with another, roughed up, and then having metal flowers etc worked into the design. Bluebird blue over marigold comes to mind. (???)

Here are some flowers I've been working on.

Originally my idea was to make the entire gate, and that could stick, but then I saw all these old gates at the occasional sales and they seemed kind of nostalgic and kitschy. Anyone care to weigh in?

I've been in a creative slump lately. Big stuff isn't selling right now, and that's kind of what I'm in the mood to make. I've taken so much time off, no matter which way I go right now, I'll have to work my way back in. Work begets work. Fake it 'til you make it. It's like when you turn the hose on and it takes a while for the water to come out. The gates idea could be fun to fool with, but I sort of feel like making a big horse, or, stubbornly (hmm- moi?) more of those formidable female guardian figures that no one buys.

On the writing front-- a popular agent blogger did a post this week about how writers shouldn't self-identify as "writers", saying, "unless you're being paid, what you have is basically a hobby." It literally gave me a chest pain when I read that line. It felt very dismissive and like a slam.

But I have to say something has shifted in me lately. Not too long ago I told a few confidants that if nothing ever happened with the writing I would consider my whole life to be a failure. Talk about laying your cards on the table. I felt like through sheer force of will, and working my ass off at it, I could somehow "make" something happen. Cause some kind of universal wave form or something.

Call it selling-out, burn-out, or plain old battle fatigue, but now I've gone more into "if you're not enjoying yourself TODAY you're doing it wrong" mode. This is not to say I'm done writing. I do enjoy it, even when it gets consuming-- which it always does once I get into it, but I guess I feel like I've released it a bit. It's not the only yardstick by which I'll measure my life anymore.

I suppose this is healthy, even though part of me is reluctant to let that fighter part quit. I don't know. That doesn't seem right either, because I'm not quitting, and I'm not giving up, but I guess I feel guilty for letting some of my zealousness mellow-out about it.

Any writers out there read that post of Nathan's, or have any reaction about this?