I recently hung art at a coffee shop I used to frequent before moving to the other side of the lake. It isn’t quite as impressive as exhibiting in a gallery or a juried show, maybe, but it’s the first time my paintings have been on display since college, and I’m delighted. I’m realizing that there are so many things I don’t know about being a professional artist – all my painting classes were on the technique, not on what to do once you’ve finished a piece. Maybe I would have learned more if I’d undertaken a degree in studio art instead of graphic design…
Interestingly, this show, as humble as it is, means more to me than my senior graphic design show. I never felt a great deal of love for graphic design, and couldn’t quite grasp the significance of displaying a show of all my homework assignments. This, on the other hand, feels more like leaving a piece of my interior world out in the open for strangers to peruse. People will have opinions, or be indifferent, or spend a short part of their lives in and about my visible thoughts. “Why is the tiger blue? Why is there a giant turtle? Why is it so expensive?”
These are first steps – exciting, exploratory, experimental steps.
