A few days ago I posted on my personal page that sometimes life hands you Golden Tickets and I’m always terrified I’ll (metaphorically) misplace them…have you seen me look for my keys at the end of a shoot?!?! This is one on my "Golden Tickets" that’s been so hard to keep under wraps. About a month or so ago the Wash Park Art Gallery sent me an email that I wasn't sure was real. It went "I found your work online... would like to include this piece in our exhibit during the reopening of Cincinnati Music Hall next door...and it's during Fototfocus"!
WAIT!? WHAT? So I responded how honored I would be, offered and sent a mini portfolio of updated work, as that image was from my senior portfolio, and assumed nothing more would come of it. And for a few weeks nothing did. Ok, no big deal. It was amazing to just be asked. Like honestly, the experience of a gallery finding me online in another city and reaching out is HUGE! The following week I got an email they wanted not one, BUT TWO of my pieces. YOU GUYS!!!! To say I put down my computer and cried while jumping around like a crazy person is an understatement. (#HopingTheyDontReadThis) On October 5th at 5pm, the opening for the exhibit RE at Wash Park Art at 1215 Elm St in Cincinnati, OH will open, and my work will be part of it.
When you're in art school supported by amazing teachers and a community, there are so many student opportunities to show your work in and out of class. You really get to a point where you can’t be bothered with one more frame. Once your days of hinging mats until 3am, calling Patterson Chase asking for a rush order on mats because you waited until the last minute to pick your images sizes, you don't really think your work will be in a gallery GALL-ERY again. ....at least not when you've had your 2nd and 3rd kiddos and in your mid-thirties by the time you graduate. And yet, here I am. Blown away that this is happening. Let me tell you, trying to play the cool kid like you’ve done this a million time is hard when you just want to fan girl all over the place and scream it from the rooftops. (Did I say #IHopeTheyDontReadThis yet?)
The art world is hard. It’s emotional and personal and your skin has to get pretty thick fast or you lose your mind. Your entire worth and validation is constantly in the eyes of someone else. Yes, there are some pretty hard guidelines on what makes art appealing, but it’s not like math where it’s wrong or right, it’s subjective. Images that you’ve put blood, sweat and (you know me, so literally) tears into can be told are not great…even bad. Art is one of those thing you can walk into a room beaming with pride about your work, chest high and walk out needing wine to cry into. Your art is a reflection of you so it hard not to take it personally. These little validations are 100% Golden Tickets. I am beyond honored that my clients trust me. A gallery picked “me” and I get to share some of what I find pure beauty with more people.
I'll add photos of them up soon!
