Friday, January 21, 2011

My First Ever Juried show @ the Art Gallery of Mississauga

... It started on the 9th of January... It was the day of the submissions and I had woken up far too early... All submissions were due at noon & I thought I had enough time... By 11am I could not find my hanging wire... I went into complete panic and ransacked my looking for it; it looked like a tornado hit... I raced to the mall which is luckily across from the AGM and got some gardening wire from dollarama... Put it together & Voila... Ready to go...

... Standing in line was torturous as I was the youngest one there... It was like my VAM class all over again... How could my pieces compete with landscapes, abstracts and flowers?.. Luckily I had flowers in my piece... I had knots in my stomach from all the anxiety... I saw a cute guy sitting on the bench waiting for another person submitting pieces... that made me more nervous cuz i was in my comfortable clothes which include my big puffy jacket and rad-ass construction boots i've had since i was 13years old... yes, my feet are still the same size...

The show opened on Thursday January 13th, 2011 and I was super nervous... It was local show and not downtown so I knew there would be no familiar faces for me to meet and greet... The show itself was only 2 hours long... Luckily my younger sister got off work early and came with me... It was really cool... There were lots of people, the artwork on the walls, the labels, the free wine..

Looking at the walls at the other pieces made me really discouraged... My artwork has always been different from the pieces I see at museums and galleries... It discourages me alot... My art seems like a misfit... Even how it was hung... I let too much wire loose and it's hanging a bit off the wall... O.M.G!!! Another lesson learned... They announced awards, had sponsors on site... It was pretty fabulous... Here are some shots I took... I'm hoping to get a new fancy smacny camera, once my last few months of payments are completed for my braces... =)

Event Flyer

Accompanied by my supportive sister
I really was enjoying this piece with my wine but this specific picture was staged, lol
Flower wall
High Ceilings
Watercolour piece that we loved! The frame matched perfectly
Pieces in the larger room
One of the few abstract pieces
Another corner
We loved this piece!!! It's absolutely breathtaking, but did not win any awards
Another Corner, love the landscape piece on the left
Pretty colours
Another Corner

The whole experience as a whole has been quite fulfilling... One of my life goals was to have my own solo exhibit... I'm still working to get there... Being an artist has many ups and downs... You always worry, "is my art good enough? does it say something new? different? Is anyone going to like it?".. It's often self sabotaging and self inflicting... Yet we continue to create... This has given me a big confidence boost; although even if I wasn't selected, I was going to come back next year with a more solid piece...

The show will be up until Feb 25th... If you are in the area, please come in, check it out & vote for me! for the People's Choice Award... that would be wicked...

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations Nga. Alot of artists have the same reservations about their own work. You're not alone :) i say make art for yourself, first and foremost.

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