Last week I accomplished a goal that was on my vision board this year – to have my first solo art exhibit!
Last Thursday was the opening reception to what will be the 2 month art exhibit showing at Gallery 505 in Riverdale, NY.
When I was asked if I wanted to have a show of course I was excited and said yes but then I had to start planning and creating! I had a vision in my mind of what the exhibit would look and feel like even though I didn’t know the exact pieces I was going to show. This year I was really into photographing botanicals so that’s the theme I stuck with. After many photo shoots I narrowed it down to my favorite 10. When I was done shooting, the creative process continued in Photoshop. I’m not a painter but wanted to give my images a painterly feel. I achieved that by the way I shot the images, the color choices, adding textures and then deciding how to finish them.
I had 5 of the images printed on maple wood and the other 5 on fine art cold press watercolor paper, then framed. A couple of weeks before the opening I went to measure the wall space and created a grid so I could determine what size to make each piece. The wood pieces are 16 X 24 in. and the watercolor prints are 11×17 framed to 15X21 in.
I was really happy with how it all turned out!
Was everything perfect? Of course not! Does perfection even exist? !? At some point done is better than perfect. Last week leading up to the opening was so crazy. I was working on the final details down to the last minute which is so typical of me! 🙂 A habit I really need to change. I even had to recruit my husband to help! My living room literally looked like a bomb exploded!
The event turned out so great! Linda, Tracy and everyone else at KRVC were great hosts and helped to make it really memorable. There was amazing live original music played by Robert Mitchell and William Weisbach, sushi, dessert and plenty of wine!
It meant a lot to have my family there with me. When I told my girls and nephews about the event they weren’t exactly thrilled. I got questions like – – how long do we have to stay? and – what type of food will they have? (It’s always about the food!) I think they ended up having a good time though. Sushi definitely helped! 🙂
After the opening when we were home discussing everything, my daughter asked what my favorite part of the night was. That was easy! It wasn’t accomplishing the goal or selling my art. Those 2 were great of course but my favorite part was the PEOPLE!! The support from everyone in my life that either came to the event or sent me emails and texts wishing me good luck. Whether someone stayed for 5 minutes or the whole time I definitely felt the love! I had friends that came that I knew since middle school, high school and college as well as friends from the neighborhood and online! . My worlds were colliding but unlike in Seinfeld, it felt great! There were also complete strangers that attended. Always interesting to connect with new people !
If you missed the opening but would still like to see the show, it’ll be up until January 3, 2020. Here’s the info:
Gallery 505
505 West 236th Street
Riverdale, NY 10463
(718) 543-7100
And yes – the art is available for purchase!!! I’ll be updating and reopening my online shops to make the art available to people that don’t live locally as well. I’ll keep you updated on when that will be done but if you have any questions in the meantime just let me know!!
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