Sharing My Art Journey … pt 1

February 2, 2022: Last night, an amazing thing happened, I literally watched fourteen of my paintings float across my television screen in the opening scene of episode 104 of Ava DuVernay’s newest show, Naomi – airing Tuesday nights @ 9pm ET on The CW Network and streaming for free on The CW App. It was surreal.

OMG!

On the same day that the show aired, my art was included in a curated group show I Like Your Work- Crop of Kismet, Winter Exhibition curated by Will Hutnick, wait… what?

Yes, three of my paintings are part of the month long show at the same time that Naomi airs on TV. Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3ulNWyT

Meanwhile, way up in Watersmeet, MI my art was showing in The Contemporary at Northern Waters Resort Gallery, tribally owned and operated by the Lax Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, curated Self-Made Genius Art Exhibition.

Meanwhile, a month earlier one of my paintings had won 3rd place in The Cultural Center of Cape Cod’s A Perfect Moment art exhibition.

I’m excited to share my art journey, some of the bits and pieces look like they’ve come together seamlessly. But always there was my drive and determination, as I plotted and planned next steps. Add to this a fierce shamelessness…

I started painting in 2016. I’ve never taken an art class and have no formal art training. I’ve been called a prolific artist, archiving nearly two-hundred paintings on ArtworksArchive.Com. It’s a tedious task, logging details and information of every painting- when, where, how and what-not, when honestly, all I want to do is paint.

Two years ago, I approached a New York art gallerist, who looked at my paintings, listened to me speak and called me an “Outsider”.

It didn’t occur to me to be offended. It fueled me. I started a blog, this blog and artists like Chris Ludke, a trained artist on WordPress wrote to ask if she could share my art on her blog. And that one kind gesture gave me confidence.

But I’m finding time to write now, because last week, while I was building layers of textured paint on a new painting, my easel collapsed under the weight of the dried paint. So I duct-taped it back together, but realized it wasn’t stable. While I was waiting for my new easel… Naomi aired and well, I’m over the moon with happiness and speechless and humbled, so humbled…

By the look of things, this is going to be a long journey and that’s a good thing. Every couple of days or so, I promise I’ll come back and add to this story, my story about my art. Onward.