It’s the Little Things

On Friday I attended my first art exhibit reception as an exhibitor. I even have an official exhibitor button, although I didn’t realize they were available until half way through the evening. My three paintings of frogs and toads were on one wall with two other smaller frog pieces between them and a large repurposed door painted in acrylic and resin with a swamp scene hung above them. It made for quite a fun scene. And my paintings looked just fine and the pricing wasn’t out of line with the rest of the exhibit. Really, I was quite please.

And then I noticed that my first toad had a red sticker on it. Yes, it sold! That was a nice surprise, and it was the first one I’d painted and the one I had the least confidence about. But in talking to some of the other artists over the course of the evening I discovered that not only had my frogs picked up fans, but the one that had sold had acquired a nick name, “Cosmic Toad”. And best of all was that it was bought by another artist at the facility, one whose art I’ve been admiring by peeking through the door of her studio when I walk by.

One of my friends did show up and hung out with me looking at the other art, and there was a lot to look at, as well as checking out the open studios. The worst part of the evening was that it got too crowded and hot and I had to step outside a few times to keep from getting over stressed. But the best part was seeing the sheer variety of art and talking to other artists. So much inspiration and so much to thin about. But by the time the evening was done, I was more than ready to escape and spend some time by myself.

It wasn’t until after I got home that I realized just how much good that evening had done for me. Those frogs were a lot of fun, but they were really studies I used to try to learn some things. But I still need to push myself into something that’s more myself, whatever that end up being. I can say that I am very happy that I decided to go ahead and apply for this show.