I had my first art exhibit late in 2016. It was years in the making, months in the planning and eventually, well received by family and friends. I hope to share with you the value of sharing your arts and crafts with others, although it doesn’t have to be by having an art exhibit like I did. Arts and crafts make wonderful gifts that can lift a person’s spirits, celebrate an accomplishment or holiday, or be used to make a little extra spending money.
Those that don’t have a relationship with G-d I hope you won’t shut me down without a fair chance to communicate myself to you. I have to give Him credit for much of what I do, because I do believe He works in my life. However, I have no intention of preaching, so no need to worry.
Twice a year I sit down and take stock of what I hope to accomplish within a year. 2016 was no different, and I knew G-d was telling me it was finally time to put together an art exhibit, but the funny thing was, I had no idea what would go in the show. There didn’t seem to be continuity to my work, and from what I knew about art exhibits, continuity in content was important. It took months of prayer and thought before I had my answer, and was I surprised to find out what the “topic” of my exhibit would be.
Grief: a season of life that one experiences over and over again. I went through a 7-year period of time where I lost 15 precious people, my mother being among the deceased. I was barely handling her loss when another would die. Six people passed away in a matter of 2 months. I guess its part and parcel of the stage of life I’m in, a woman in her 50s, but the emotions attached to loss are difficult and its takes time to get through them. Art was my saving grace through that time and it was the art and photography of these years that would be assembled into my first art exhibit.
To figure out what I would show and how I would show it, I created a photo book of images and words to express my journey. I found it to be good way to sort through my options (there were too many), and compile my choices in a comprehensive and orderly way. I looked at several options available on the Internet because I wanted to make copies for my family. The price range was vast, which limited my options. With this being my first experience, I opted for a lower cost option, which also meant my final product would reflect my choice with regards to quality. Eventually I opted for a 20-page photo book as opposed to a self-published book. I looked at the Internet options like Shutterfly and Snapfish, but I ultimately selected Walgreens because I wanted to be able to see the quality of the images before I printed several copies. (Yes, I’m old school – I like to see and touch things in process) I worked with an employee who was so helpful in assuring that my finished product had the best possible image quality for the product and price point I was paying.
Marketing was a difficult phase for me. I knew people needed to know what I was doing, but I wasn’t very comfortable promoting myself. I expect that will change with time, but for this experience I used Facebook (FB) event and general posts as well as individual invitations. Friends on FB shared my post as well. It was enough for my first experience. My son helped me put together a Photoshop flyer that I used to invite people.
As word spread about my art exhibit through my Facebook posts, several friends wanted to be sure I had stuff to sell, something I hadn’t thought about before, since selling wasn’t the goal of my art exhibit. The photo book was just the ticket. This show was not about making money but reach out to people with a message of hope for those dealing with grief. Walgreens was a good choice because they always have discount coupons, which meant I could offer people something at a reasonable price. I also created note cards with my artwork, because I was not willing to sell all or had already sold the artwork that would be shown. I also created some small wooden figurines as tokens to remind people that there is hope and life at the end of the grief journey.
Sharing my art with others has been important to my healing process. It’s a safe way to express uncomfortable feelings, and an unexpected benefit has been the help it’s been to others who were dealing with similar experiences. I was so blessed to know that people found hope through my work, whether I share it as gifts, through an art exhibit or sell it. They identified with the emotional work I put into my creations, no matter what medium I use to express myself. The effort of planning for an art exhibit also helped me move forward towards a future with hopes and joy. I hope to post a video of the exhibit on my website, so be on the lookout, and if interested in the photo book, send me an email.