Summer Show July 2012

My family is blessed with good friends who love supporting and promoting my artwork. The first time I had a show was fall of my junior year of college. A good family friend–and also my orthodontist–hosted the event at his house (but let's be real, his wife and my mom did all the work while I was in classes). I displayed about 40-50 pieces. Most were for sale, but others were part of the collection that I just can't let go of. Unfortunately I did not document that show as well as the second one, which was held in July 2012, before I moved to India. This most recent show was hosted by another good friend–my dentist (you'd think I had terrible teeth as a child)– and displayed about 60 pieces ranging from small to large paintings and a few drawings.

I took pictures of the layout. They were gracious enough to take down almost everything from their walls to fit 60 paintings in the downstairs of their house. My mom and I had a lot of help from a local framing warehouse who lent us nice frames and easels to display the paintings. We also made sure each painting had some kind of light shining on it. Presentation is everything. Putting a nice frame on a painting will bring it to the next level and helps the viewers picture it already in their house. I sold several paintings and got many commissions because of the show. As a young artist, I had a variety of pieces in the show as my style is still developing and many paintings were studies to expand my learning. Some people keep a very limited selection of less than thirty paintings for a show, but we could not get that low. I used several of our friends to help us select the paintings we would use, and it surprised me how paintings that I hated were someone else's favorite. You never know what will speak to someone. For this reason we kept the number pretty large (around 60), and I was surprised in the end at some of the paintings that sold.

My friend designed an invitation for me, then the hosts sent it out to their guest list. We decided to have two different times, a couple hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. The morning was much more relaxed, and gave some people the chance to see my work before bringing their husbands back after work. We had refreshments and music, creating a nice, relaxing atmosphere.

Some of the paintings like the sunset on the piano bench had a short paragraph of what the painting meant to me. In this case, my friends and I watched this sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica when we did a summer study abroad for Spanish classes. Most of the paintings from Brasil had a description as well, telling bits and pieces about my experiences with those people.

 To avoid the stress of watching people examine my artwork, I did a demonstration during the show that was auctioned off by the end. People were amazed seeing how a painting can come from looking like scribble and splotches of color to a complete painting. This is the Old Main building on the University of Arkansas' campus, a very recognizable landmark to any Razorback fan.

This is a painting of Indian kids who were standing on a pile of rubble in a slum. Their eyes spoke to me, and I was moved by the dependence of a toddler on his young sister. The child on the left is looking out for them on all sides. It amazes me now that I live in India how much street kids are exposed to at a young age and how they have to survive. 

What Now? (12x12)

I love working in charcoal as well. Below is a drawing of an Indian woman that I displayed at the show. I had these two pieces on a table along with a flyer describing what I would be doing in India for the next two years. The show helped me raise money for living here and to build up some sort of savings once I get back. Also on the flyer I wrote about God's love for all the peoples of the world and asked for prayer while I had the chance to be interacting with them.