Me in an Art Exhibition?

Seems odd to actually be talking about my own art exhibit. I have worked with artists for 10 years, appreciating the long hours they put into their work, thinking I could never work under pressure to produce art.

I was asked about six months ago to join my mother and my 12 year old nephew and three other artists in a mixed media collage art exhibition at the Chowan Art Council gallery in Edenton, NC. It all started with my mother showing the director a gift I had given her of a shadow box of my grandmother. This had been her Mother's Day present in 2008. From that short meeting, began an interesting journey for me. My mother and I had an idea to teach an art therapy workshop called "Becoming" which was for women to explore who they were, where they had been, and where they were coming. Each participant ended up with a collage in the form of a dress to express these thoughts. From there, I became more excited about collaging and making more boxes for this exhibition. I did not get started til much later.

During our family vacation in August, I received some bad news. Upon return, I had produced little to no art for the exhibition which was 16 days away. I took all the emotion that had been whirling around inside me since coming home from vacation and began madly producing art. It took a trip to the Portsmouth Flea Market with my friend Cathy Malley to find some of the materials, (and Cathy gave me some great home made paper that day as well) that made it into some of the final works that were produced for this exhibit.

The opening reception for the exhibit titled "Collage: Pieces of Life",was Friday August 7th. I literally was finishing some of my smaller pieces 30 minutes before leaving go go down to Edenton. I put w-a-a-a-y too much emphasis on all this, as once I arrived and saw the work of all the other artists, including my mom. I really was a tadpole in a very large pond. These women have been perfecting their skills for years, and here I was with a few quick inventions.

I have actually been collecting ephemera and odds and ends for about a year hoping to get inspired to create something purely my own. After many trips to flea markets, buying on E-bay and using Michael's coupons for the umpteenth time I finally convinced my husband to convert the dining room into an art studio. It is currently a real mess, but helps me get immediately inspired with new ideas. I like my one word art works the most. They are small, affordable and I love coming up with new topics. The boxes are fun too, but take more time to plan out.