First Gallery Show!

Last Saturday, my husband and I went on a date to celebrate our 12th anniversary. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped by the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts to drop off a painting. It was surreal. This is the first time one of my pieces will hang in a gallery.

Last year I joined a writing group to polish a book I had written for my kids. I've always wished they could know what my old neighborhood was like before it was destroyed by Hurricane Floyd, and a few years ago I decided that writing a story might be able to transport them into something akin to it. I wrote the story, and they loved it, but I wanted to make it better. The group has been really neat, and I've enjoyed the creative souls who I get to hang out with and learn from each month. Long story short, one of them, a talented writer/illustrator, sent me information on the Hillsborough Gallery show.

I really didn't think I would get in, but I told myself that it was a good experience to go through the process of submitting, and that I need to rack up some rejections to practice putting myself out there. Dave was super encouraging as always. To my surprise, one of the pieces I submitted got in. Woohoo! After the initial excitement, and then the terror that I was going to have to try to frame/prep the piece and that they were going to figure out they had let in someone who had no idea what they were doing, I settled into prep mode with lots of Googling and just a bit of anxiety.

We won't be able to go to the reception because we are attending a dear friend's wedding, but I'm excited to go see my piece hanging with other works for the first time.

Below are my pages in the artist's notebook from the show. They explain the piece, and talk about my art in general.