Focus
March 30, 2007
Lola :: 6" x 6" mixed media on wood
I have been awake for less than an hour this morning and have barely emptied my bowl o’ coffee, but already my mind is filled with thoughts and observations from last night’s show. This show was a bit of an experiment, as it was held at a shoe store and not a gallery space. The tag line on the promotional postcards was "Art + Fashion = Fabulous Girly Fun", and I created a new series of my Girl playing dress up in different outfits throughout fashion history. (You can see them on my website in my painting portfolio). I created twenty pieces and had a great time doing them.
The evening was swanky, fun and absolutely fabulous girly fun. And I sold absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. (But I miraculously did not indulge in a new pair of shoes so losses were not as great as they could have been.)
My dear friend Marisa’s latest podcast speaks of happiness, and one of the points she makes is that there are bits and pieces of happiness in every single moment. I think of it as stringing beads on a thread – each positive element of any given experience creates a colorful, sparkling garland that is much greater than any negative element. Last night is a perfect example. It would be all too easy for me to bemoan the fact that my wallet came home empty, and in doing so I would be ignoring all the wonderful things that happened at the same time. My friend Helen staying for the entire show talking up my work to anyone who would listen. My friend Jon, who came directly to the show after getting off an airplane from an exhausting business trip. My friends Brian and Julie, who made it despite the fact that they are accountants and this is their busiest time of the year. All the new people I met, and all the people who told me how much they love my work, one of whom could turn out to be a goldmine of a business contact. And then the time spent after my show at a lovely restaurant next door, where we took a table meant for eight and squeezed in more than twelve, everyone laughing and talking and having a great time. At one point I sat back and looked around, feeling terribly proud that it was my work that brought all of these people together, that they all made the effort to be there despite crazy schedules and an array of very rational reasons why they could have easily said no.
All of my shows thus far have gone extremely well in terms of sales and I realize that as an artist the experience of not selling anything will sometimes happen. I learned a great deal and shared my work with more new faces, and something could come from this show later that I can’t see just yet. With every show, sale, series of work and opportunity I learn what works and what doesn’t work, and I am also able to fine tune my priorities with every step. On the surface it might seem like it would be easy to doubt my work or myself after a show that came up zero on the cash register, but it has actually strengthened my belief in the work I am doing. I am just as proud today of the series I created as I was yesterday and I know they will all find happy homes.
More importantly, my friends kick ass. How can I be grouchy in the face of that?
i love the way that you put this.
i love that you always have the
priority straight and i love that you
have such sassy friends who have your
back and i dig that your words sink deep
within and make me reflect on my world.
happy fun day!
love to you bumblebee
Absolutely!!! never forget, “this is your work now”, taken from that beautiful little painting you passed on to me. There’s no going back now and these pieces were some of the most beautiful yet.
And, I loved sharing the evening with you and everyone else. Thank you for including me.
thank you so much for this post. since i’m getting ready to launch my own creative business in the next few weeks i’ve had a lot of fears stalking me…especially fears that i might fail, that maybe nobody will want my work. i needed to read this–i needed to know that sometimes even someone who’s been in this business for a lot longer than me can have a show that doesn’t sale. i just needed to be reminded that it’s okay to sometimes not sale anything. i needed to know it could happen to someone other than me…ya know what i mean?
Right on Christine!
It was a lovely show and great new work!
My husband Alex walked up to the door and said “they’re all women”…
Surprise, it’s a shoe store!!
I found it to be the perfect match for your artwork.
I had a great time.
I love going to art openings. If I lived closer, I would have come to this one. I just like to hear the conversations people have. . .
Wish I could have been there…I can picture it though and it makes me smile. xoxoxo
I love your attitude. You’re absolutely right — you never know what will grow from the seeds you’ve sown at this exhibition. So often we (and I guess I’m specifically referring to myself here) want insta-gratification when we put ourselves and our work out in the world. It’s a way to limit our vulnerability, I think, to feel safe as we spread our wings. But the universe has bigger plans for us. Sometimes it just takes a while to see what they are!
I recently had a show that the gallery coordinator was just ineffectual when it came to selling. Nice woman, but the gallery was a hobby to her, I think. Despite this, lots of great stuff came out of the experience, though I was initially kicking myself for investing so much time and money. And it was stuff I could have never predicted. A curator in England found my work through the exhibition, I made new friends, and I was offered another show through a different gallery (fortunately with a more sales savvy coordinator).
I always think of that quote from the Artist’s Way (and I’m paraphrasing here) about planting apples but getting oranges. I’m sure your oranges will be coming up soon!
not quite home from artfest yet, but wanted to check in and see how the show went!
christine, you are fabulous in every sense of the word. YOU are kick ass, and i love that your moments of wild happy on your special evening became your vision of the night. you are an inspiration.
xoxoxo
I’d never go to sleep without your beautiful posts!:)