My Meteoric Rise (To Here): The Story of One Glass Artisan

By linda billet

I am not an author. There’s that. I wrote this book with the hope of maybe convincing somebody to stay on the path to their dreams. Mission accomplished, it was me. I didn’t realize that this book would become what I NEEDED to help ME to keep the faith. I may have been too honest, but it did show me how much I’ve learned and how much I have yet to learn. Generally, when we are on the high parts of the journey, we’re busy and not searching. It’s when we’re at our lowest that we either give up or grow. If my journey and journaling can give someone else the kick in the ass they need to launch, hang tough, or even see the job that they currently have as their dream job, that’s just more icing on my cake. My meteoric rise showed me that I was always exactly where I was supposed to be, a pretty good place. Maybe it will help you to view your situation differently too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: linda billet
• Release date: Jan 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311075703

linda billet

Linda Billet is a glass artisan working in Central Pennsylvania. Her work is in private homes and public spaces. She sells through galleries, outdoor shows, and she takes commissions. Find her on youtube.

Book preview

6/28/2010

As I am sitting down to write this book, I am at a rough spot. No, I mean really rough. Rob and I are in debt further than we have ever been… I just got TWO letters of rejection in my mailbox today, each from a different show I applied to, and last night I just returned from my second goose egg show in a row! I am an artist trying to make a living with full-time art. I think that’s what artists should do, right? Today is June 28, 2010 and the economy sucks. Four years ago, I had been a full time postal employee with all kinds of paid vacation and sick days. The economy was good when I quit my job. We had our ducks in a row and thought long and hard before we made the decision to eliminate a $50,000 a year paycheck from our family. I knew I would be working twice the hours, and it would take time to become established and generate income again.

It always seems like it is easy to solve problems when you are not the one having the problem. I can always tell somebody how they could feel when they are experiencing a problem. Now it is me who is in the rut. I always think the first thing one needs to do is to have an attitude of gratitude. Anyway, that’s what I am always preaching to people. And I genuinely AM grateful that I don’t work at the post office. I am SO glad I quit when I did because I may not have had the balls to quit in this economy, or maybe Rob wouldn’t have been willing to go along with my cockamamie plan if I had waited to quit. Regardless, everything happens for a reason. I am grateful that I still have the belief of my family. I don’t know how I’d do without that!

For a fleeting second, I had considered changing mediums till the economy comes back to where it was. But glass is what I love. In the show I was in over the weekend, the artist next to me said that none of the work he had with him even existed last week. Are you fucking kidding me?! Let me translate that: Everything in his booth was cranked out in one week! Just ONE of my works takes up to two weeks from start to finish! This man did not need kilns, saws with expensive diamond blades, sandblasting cabinets, or copious amounts of electricity. Instead he needed a paintbrush, canvas, and paint. I won’t even compare costs of paint and canvas to glass. Yeah, I’m over it, but it is a bit frustrating.

I talked to another artist at the same show that bolstered my confidence and also helped Rob to believe too. I think that was probably the best part of the show. I mean, of course I can deal with a goose egg show here and there but two in a row is rather unheard of. It’s devastating, actually! Not only are your emotions crushed, but your wallet is bleeding profusely. At shows, I always talk to the artists around me. At this show, there was a guy one booth away who would not even return a smile. I admired his work which was huge copper sculptures of sweeping curves. There was no little stuff made for the purpose of a quick sale. On day two I was determined to ask him what kept him going and prevented him from selling out. Note that I don’t mean that all people who sell small or production work are sell-outs.

Anyway, on the second morning of show, I was trying to figure out how I would phrase my question. Like- how would I approach this guy who did not even acknowledge me when I tried to engage and then ask him a question about his work? I did not need to know his reasoning for myself. I know why I don’t make little stuff. However, I thought that maybe his answer would possibly help me explain to Rob who has been pushing me to crank out little shit that sells. Don’t get me wrong. If little shit is what I wanted to make, I would have no problem with it. So the way to approach this guy turned out to be that I should let the universe bring him to me.

Before the show started that morning, HE came up to ME and we started talking. Rob walked up to join the conversation. Eventually, I asked him about his choice of making only large work when everyone is saying right now to make small inexpensive work that is easier to sell. I swear this is true. He said, Let me explain to you in a story that he (nods to Rob) will understand. It was as if he could read my mind. He kind of explained his reasoning in a fishing story and then added that he thought the good lord had a lot to do with success. I was also glad for that addition because at this point, I know Rob is also starting to see all the lucky coincidences I am blessed with. It was just what I needed to be reassured that this latest goose egg show was just part of the plan. His story is irrelevant and his reasoning was not the same as mine, but the fact that he walked up to me and answered my question as if he had read my mind is what I would call kismet.

My mantra for about twenty years has been, Everything happens for a reason. I do firmly believe that things will work out for my good AND your good. There have been way too many rotten things that turn out to be exactly what I needed so that I cannot think of them as coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidence. Everything is orchestrated somehow. I would tell someone in my situation that the rejection letters will free them up for something else that’s in store and it’s probably a better situation than they even imagined. I know in my brain that this is true for me, but I am trying to feel it in my heart.

About three years ago I was so new at the art game. There was a small local gallery that asked me to bring in my work. I thought it was hugely serendipitous because my neighbor, a talented, professional craftswoman, was always telling me to contact this gallery owner. A turn (or a few turns) of events led to that gallery owner sitting at a meeting beside me and ASKING ME to meet with her! When I took my work in, the gallery owner said she liked my work, but she would not be able to sell anything that expensive. She wasn’t saying it wasn’t worth what I was asking for it, she was saying she did not have the clientele who would buy it. I walked out rather disappointed. I called Rob and he was certainly not happy. What followed was a perfect example of positive thinking.

I told Rob that it was OK that they didn’t take any of my work because it would free the work up for something better. I truly felt that way. There was one piece in particular that the gallery owner liked. It was a gently curved rectangle with a nature theme. It was called Renewal. Shortly after I got dusted at that gallery, I submitted Renewal for a juried show at a prominent art destination in Reading called Goggleworks. They accepted Renewal. At the time, it was the biggest thing that had happened in my career. As soon as the exhibit was over, the Susquehanna Art Museum of Harrisburg emailed me to ask if I would exhibit in their traveling show for a year. First let me emphasize that THEY approached ME, then I will say that they accepted Renewal into their show. linda billet in a museum? Yep!

Shortly after Renewal started the traveling show, there was a mishap and it broke. Susquehanna Art Museum was extremely professional, hugely apologetic and paid me the full price for the piece. I told them that I was really sorry it broke, but admitted that the money couldn’t have come at a better time. If the little gallery would have taken Renewal and IF they would have sold it, I would have gotten less money because of the commission that they would have taken. The museum then accepted another piece of my work to replace the broken work and gave me all the shards left from Renewal. From the shards, I figured out how to make a mosaic that utilized a leveling technique for combining fused glass and regular glass. I still use this technique in my work today. The resulting mosaic, January 29th, 2008, won First Place in a little group show that I entered it in… which came with even more cash!

I’m saying, who knows where things will take you if you just relax, wait and trust that you’ll be OK! Letters of rejection are not necessarily a bad thing. I will have more time now because perhaps I’ll get the $48,000 project I applied for. Maybe I will sell everything in Brooklyn next month and need more work. Maybe it is the right time to complete another glass video for YouTube. Maybe it will be my time to get in more galleries?

OK, jumping ahead a few years, I am editing my finished book in 2015, and I want to interject a few little progressions of this story that I think look like evidence of progress… or for whatever reason, I think they look like dots connecting in interesting ways. First of all, I now consider that gallery owner a friend. She has contacted me about numerous opportunities where I could exhibit and grow my business. Most are things that give her little or no benefit. She just did this because she’s cool. Besides that, her gallery has since gotten some really prestigious awards so that she now has clientele who would buy more expensive work like mine. She has asked me to show in her gallery and I’m looking forward to finding a time to showcase my work there.

The leveling technique that I had developed back then is far more perfected but it is essentially the foundation for every major work I have completed since 2012. The shards of glass are still giving. In 2014, Susquehanna Art Museum asked me to again participate in their traveling show. The piece I created specifically for that show contained a shard from Renewal. There was even ongoing email exchanges about the possibility of linda billet mosaic work installed into their new building. Although I was extremely disappointed when these plans got the kibosh, I KNOW that this frees me up for something else and a kibosh could actually just mean a delay. Back to where I was…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is credited with saying this but William Hutchison Murray wrote it near the beginning of his 1951 book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition ; "... but when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money— booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

* *

8/19/2010

Each time I think I’ve sunk to a new low, I surprise myself with yet another level of even deeper shit. Ok, tell me if this is nuts. Over a year ago, an email asked if I would submit photos of my work for a book being published, Art Glass Today. I submitted 10 and they told me 6 would be published. Great freaking news, right? I mean, my best to date anyway. When I saw the notice that the book was done, I immediately ordered just one. I couldn’t wait. So TODAY the book is available to be shipped. I had assumed they would ship to me as soon as it’s shipped to them. Instead, I get a call from them and they said my card was declined. Instantly, I know exactly why. It’s surely maxed.

I saw the cover of this book on line. I recognized some of the work on there. These are monsters in glass art- my idols. I wonder how many of them can’t freaking afford the book they are in!! Probably one and that would be ME. I didn’t get my panties in a knot. I can tell you that years ago, my stomach would have rolled if I’d have gotten a call like that. The fact that I am past that now means I could think clearly enough to move money over to the card, and call them to try again. Thinking positive doesn’t mean you ignore problems, it means you do not focus on them. You don’t fear them. It enables you to think clearly. This is not the worst thing. Yeah, it sucks that I can’t get this book yet. But I know it is a temporary thing.

While I’m at it, I will talk about my car. Before I had quit el post office, my car was in perfect shape. I always got regular checkups and stuff. OK, right now my car is not even inspectable! Is that a word? I LOVE this car. It’s not like I’m driving around in a hoopdy. I want to put 200,000 miles on it if possible. It is my dream car….. my beetle. I have no gas gage on it. That’s broken. My passenger side mirror is broken and flails in the wind when I drive. I can get it fixed for $100. If I had wanted to, I could have wiped my ass with $100 bucks four years ago. There is a slow leak in one tire that I just keep refilling, but all four tires need to be replaced before it is inspected and probably the brakes. The worst thing is that it keeps overheating, and I need to get out and fill the radiator with water. Yesterday I filled it twice and I only drove about 50 miles! My car’s air conditioning isn’t working. I sat for an hour in traffic with 100 degree temps on the way to a show in Brooklyn. I should have looked a lot less sweaty to meet people at the show. Just wanted to say these things to tell you that there are things that suck here. I know whatever your problems are, they could be worse or not, but they still suck. I am saying that yeah, I KNOW about them. I am not FOCUSING on them. This is temporary! I won’t even mention the sorry-ass condition of my wardrobe!

* *

8/23/2010

Deeper shit. Shitstorm? Shit. OK, last week I thought I scored a great hook-up. A lot of serendipity going on. I posted a photo of a mosaic I did, Universal Support (of all things) which included some tesserae that were recycled bottles. Someone happened to see it and gave a nice comment… Well, really it was a few people. Two were my idols in mosaic, one from Japan, and one from England, so how cool was THAT?! Anyway, the one comment was from a mosaic artist who does most of her work entirely in white. I commented that I like her white work, and she then inquired about me making her some recycled glass tesserae. Great, huh? Well, the day she said she wanted them, my glass saw crapped out, which left me unable to produce them.

I called my brother to give me clues about things that might fix it. As kismet would have it, he was just going out the door, and his destination was about 10 minutes from my house. He said he’d stop and look at it. So yeah, I thought that because of this coincidence my saw will definitely get fixed. NO, it did not. The saw I want is $1000 plus. The saw I had was $140 and lasted for way longer than it was meant to. I’d be thrilled if I could afford either at this point but I was thinking that I had a good show, Mount Gretna, coming up and I thought SURELY I would make SOME money. Well, the show ended yesterday. I didn’t even make enough to cover booth costs! This is the third show in a row that is close to nothing in sales. If I figure costs, they are actually negative income!

The reason I am telling you this is because it would be perfectly legit for me to sit and pity myself at this point. A lot of people quit here. Last night Rob said we might have to skip vacation. I am telling you- we live for our one week, cheap vacation. This sucks, YES! But it is temporary. At Gretna this past weekend, there were so many signs that I am going in the right direction. A man on my mailing list started the dialogue for an artist-in-residence program. It might not be a huge chunk of change, but it is the opportunity that leads to other bigger things and it is immeasurably valuable on your resume. There were countless people in my booth who recognized my work at the airport or library or Second Floor Gallery (a Mechanicsburg gallery in which I have rented a studio for years and am just on the verge of letting go because of low funds.) These are the things that tell me that I am moving in the right direction. There were numerous people who talked of commissions and future purchases. One can speculate all they want about how those people may never follow through because they have not in the past. Even just logic would say that at least SOME will follow through! I just need to give it a chance! What I am saying is that I am focusing on what WILL be, not the little inconveniences I face now. This too shall pass! Soon there will be even more who recognize me from the book. It is all coming around even if I cannot yet see it in my wallet. I really feel it is like a seed sprouting, and it is just ready to break the surface. You can’t always see the growth but it’s there.

* *

8/25/10

One of the things I do constantly is to LISTEN or read what successful people do. Yesterday I read something in Danielle LaPorte’s blog about her being a philosopher. Sometimes I think that word fits me. I mean I always want to know WHY. I think I know why I have become this happy with where I am but I am just getting more confirmation every day. I mean EVERY DAY! This morning I saw a FaceBook post from a friend’s business. This friend has made his dreams come true with shows that travel all over the world, and I definitely want to know more about his story. Till then, his post this morning was a video clip from pop star, Debbie Gibson. The thing she said that struck me was that she enjoyed every step of her life. It made me think of raising my kids. I absolutely loved it when they were newborns. I absolutely love every moment I get with them now. At each step of their lives, I felt like I would never want to go back only because it was so good right where I was with them, AND right where I am now with them. I know it will be fantastic next year, but I am mostly just enjoying the now. When Shaundi was born, I thought I would die when she would someday move out. Every second I thought about that, was a second that I missed what was going on at that time. You don’t get those seconds back. Growing a business is really like raising a child, when you look back, you can forget about all the painful growing parts. The book I am planning to read on vacation… if we go… (I should be hopeful and say when we go?) …is A New Earth. From what I have heard about the book, it focuses on how good it is right where you are.

A few years ago, Kaleo said something pretty profound. We were talking about when he will be a successful musician. I don’t remember the whole conversation, but the line that sticks in my brain is, The journey is half the fun. I think of that often. Like- I am glad Kaleo didn’t walk out of high school into instant fame. Was he good enough at the time? Absolutely! I am so glad for the journey I have had in the last 4 years. I did not even dream of the things that have happened to me. I know there is so much more in store! If I would have quit the post office and walked into a wildly successful art glass business, I would have missed a lot of great joys. The first time I got in a real art show, I cried after opening the letter. The first time I approached a gallery, I almost threw up in the parking lot because I was so nervous but I was almost bursting in the car on the way home. The first time a museum called, I jumped around the house screaming when I hung up. My work in Art Glass Today? You know I will freak when I finally see it. These are indescribable joys I have experienced but they would be a small deal, really nothing, to an established artist. It is like the appreciation of my air conditioning in my house after it was broken for a week in 95 degree, humid weather. I didn’t even think about it and definitely didn’t appreciate it much before that.

I would have also missed a lot of lessons… life lessons, are what my kids resentfully call them. When I launched a life lesson sermon, my kid’s eyes would roll back in their heads. Not anymore. A couple of years ago, Kaleo had a friend here who was complaining about a problem. When I started talking to the friend, he snickered. Kaleo quickly responded to the snicker, Listen to her, dude! She knows what she’s talking about. Hmmm. Maybe that was the spark that started this book. Initially it was for Shaundi, Kaleo, and Rob. I just wanted to journal for them when I am gone. Of course, I want everybody to be this happy. Often people tell me that they think about what I said to them, or that I was right about something I told them. One of my friends calls me Dr. Billet because he says I make him feel better. He makes ME feel better too, with his stories. These people don’t know that when I talk to them, I am also trying to figure stuff out for myself. I’m trying to confirm or discard what I believe may be true. The philosophy stuff, I guess? At any rate, I am finding that no matter what the situation, there are things to be happy about RIGHT NOW.

* *

8/27/10

I think that you have to keep reminding yourself what your goals are. Almost every success coach will tell you that. I think the reason it is important is because you can lose focus. Here is an example. When I was in HACC’s career development class, the prof, William Neilson, said that you should write down your goals as the final project. We were to start with the main goal in our career and about 5 smaller goals that will lead up to that. One of my goals in my paper was to have my dog, Celia, come to work with me. I said that I would like to achieve all these listed things in Celia’s lifetime because I really love her. Well, a couple of years back, I came across the paper and read over it. Amazingly, all goals were achieved, and I had not even thought about it. And Celia is STILL kicking. So if you consider that I was working at the post office when I wrote all that, taking a dog to work is a significant goal!

Now, of course, you’ll keep making new goals. My point is that writing them down is SO POWERFUL. This is nothing new. You’ve heard it a million times from a million successful people. Why wouldn’t you do it? If your goals are written down, and you are referring to them, you will be less apt to get off track. You can adapt them if a new thing comes along. One of my goals is to have freedom. I mean freedom to spend time with my family. The professor said that if you clearly know what your goals are, then you can make every decision by asking yourself, Will this help me achieve my goals? Blam, decision made!

There have been times when Kaleo has dropped in unannounced, and asked if I wanted to go off on one of his epic adventures, usually a hike with the dogs. Generally