Goin' to the Show

Home Grown, 2012, acrylic, transfer, & charcoal on canvas, 9x12

Gah!!  It’s the deadline to submit work for an upcoming exhibition, my first, and I am frozen in petrified procrastination. I have the entry form filled out, and the waiver of liability. I’ve completed the artwork and even taken a picture, but now I have to put on my geek hat and figure out how to get it into the proper size and format to send. And now I understand why so many calls for entry specify sending images on disk. Adding blank CDs to my shopping list, along with eyelet screws and picture wire, so I can make sure all work is "hang-ready." Guess I’ll need to put on my art-handler’s hat later.

There is a little work to this, but it’s doable. It just has a way of bringing up the old term-paper-due anxiety and I am suddenly much more sympathetic to my 7th-grader’s dilemma of facing down a 30-book minimum reading list, one third complete, and less than three weeks left in the school year. This uses a different brain hemisphere than painting does, and toggling between them is a wee tad uncomfortable.

Also - it’s kinda scary to put my work out there for strangers to judge. Literally, judge. And vote on. Oh god, what have I done? Plus … this is the first painting I’ve made specifically to sell and I feel quite guilty about it. I mean, these things are personal. These are my babies.

OK, breathe. If they hate it, it’s a learning experience, right? Likewise if they love it. Even better if one of the judges has some constructive criticism. Yeah, OK. No problem. And if it doesn’t sell, I have a head start on Christmas presents! I think if it does sell, though, the money will go toward more supplies and entry fees for more art competitions. And I might have to start a therapy fund ...