LAYERS OF DIGNITY BENEFIT SHOW
To Find a Quiet Place
Wool and cotton, 23in x 11in
This year I’ve made it a goal to invest more time in creating fine art work. It’s crazy to think that it’s been almost 7 years since I submitted work into a gallery show. After graduating art school and in the throes of trying to figure out how to merge my art with a sustainable income, I immersed myself in trying to create a retail line and fit into the handmade maker/market community. I spent the next few years hauling my wares to local markets, trying to figure out a world I didn’t know and in the end didn’t fit into. Though I was having a blast getting to know folks in the community and talking to people about my process, my business was ultimately failing. The work I was producing was not what the local, handmade consumer wanted.
To Find a Quiet Place in progress.
But what did I want? I wanted to create functional art— heavy on the art part. So I closed the business and spent a year reflecting, researching and opening myself up to creating fine art once again. I wanted to return to creating from deep places with broad, organic, gestural, abstract strokes. To make for the sake of making.
Art serves a purpose. It’s necessary. And that’s something I didn’t quite believe once I left school. Who would ever want my art?
So this year, I’m saying yes. Yes to gallery shows. Yes to putting my self out there. Yes to putting my work out there. Yes to being open minded about future businesses and endeavors. Yes.
I’ve said yes to not one, but two(!), shows so far this year— one that I’m helping to curate! And it’s only April. Who knows what the rest of the year may hold.
The work pictured at the top of this post is a piece I submitted to my first show this year. It was donated to a benefit show for Layers of Dignity. Created by two nurses, the gals at Layers of Dignity strive to support and clothe the sexually assaulted in our local community— layering them in their dignity. What an honor it was to donate a piece to their show. And, along with all of the other amazing submissions, it sold! They raised over $2,000 in art sales through our show. I don’t know where my works’ forever home is, but I’m so thankful.
