Incredibly, success isn’t entirely in one’s own hands, in addition to experience & education there’s variables like self-confidence, timing and luck. And if luck hasn’t found a prominent space, make room for it. And of course be ready, so you don’t have to get ready.
I’ve found out that art really does create community, so much love. And we need that in order to thrive, so thank you @Instagram for giving artist a free platform to show art. I’m so glad I came 💯
Some folks have asked me what I’m up to, so I’m sharing it here, in case I go MIA you’ll know where to find me 🥰
Gratitude 🙏❤️So honored to be invited to these group exhibitions in October, thank you for having me.
“Living in America” @loadingdockgallery Lowell
“Guess Who I Saw Today” @quincyartcenter Quincy
“This is America” @thepegcenter Newburyport
“Embracing Uncertainty” @tagtheartgallery Boston
And thrilled to say that my solo exhibition @cambridgefoundry has been extended thru December.
Golden years. This was suppose to be our time. Kids grown & gone, but then I got sick & our world turned upside down… but when we landed, it was right side up & the other way around lol
This is my story, my art journey.
March 2, 2023 we were @newtonfreelibrary hanging my first solo exhibition! I had submitted my application in hopes of being included in a group exhibition, but in a most unlikely turn of events, I received a white manila envelope in the mail. Enclosed was a congratulations letter with floor plans for the Main library gallery!
Gratitude 🙏 #EllenMeyers @newtonfreelibrary
It was my first solo exhibition and by this time, I had about 150 paintings, it was left up to me to curate and hang the show. Wait… what?
@benjamin.marshall.56 & I rented a van to transport my work. I created protective sleeves for each painting and purchased wardrobe boxes to store them. I had never heard of the Walker hanging system, but like all things in life, when presented with a thing, you figure it out 🙂
We hung all the paintings, and after we were done, I called #EllenMeyers the then library gallery director to come see. It was one of my proudest moments. Today, she’s one of my dearest friends. Thank you Ellen
The opening reception was especially cool, as family and friends, some that I hadn’t seen in years came to celebrate my work. My lil Sis @demanedavis ❤️was there, wearing an original @problak hoodie (up until that moment, I had never heard of Rob Gibbs, I do now! And as fate would have it, within a year I was in an art residency with Dr Gibbs in N Adams & he’s part of my #Famm now ❤️)
One of the best parts about my solo show was to have my daughters be so supportive❤️@wise_browneyes flew home and did an amazing set up for the opening.
And so, I say it again, this time for the people in the back of the room … if you’re reading this, do it! Submit your art. Yes, you should apply. Yes, you should try.
Sometimes we forget all the bits and pieces that go into living life, until we meet someone, who helps us see ourselves, for ourselves. For me, this includes:
In 2021, Piano Craft Gallery with Erik Grau, in a group exhibition which led to #ILikeYourWork founded by Erika b Hess which led to my 2nd group show curated by Hilary L Doyle who along with Catherine Haggarty co-founded the #NYCCritClub which bolstered my confidence and led to my acceptance to be published in 2022 Juniper Rag which was co-founded by Michelle May and Payal Thiffault which led to a studio visit with Christine O’Donnell founder of both Beacon Gallery and ShowUp which led to Claudia Fiks the founder & director at TAG, the newest gallery in Boston’s SoWa Art district. There’s a common thread, a synchronicity, I look for it.
I think you should look for it too 👁️👁️
But like I was saying… last Thursday, I was interviewed and I sat across from a great journalist, who refused to sit on camera with me, but who listened to me attentively and made me feel so, so special. And she revealed my art journey to me, it was pretty amazing.
I hope in her stealth, she stumbles upon my IG post, and sees my gratitude 🙏thank you Mitali 🙏
The following piece was written 6 months ago, since then I’ve grown accustomed to not having a studio. A little harder to adjust to, is living without a cohort of ten creatives. That I truly miss, and although some of us have gotten together, I’m old enough and wise enough to know, as time goes by…
But the words that follow were written, when I returned home with my bags unpacked, full of the magic and awe of a month long residency at MassMOCA.
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Journaling isn’t my style, but if it were I would now have fifteen days filled in, with words of gratitude and kindness written elegantly on the page.
I’m here, at MassMOCA in North Adams, making art for the entire month of February. Already, I’ve discovered new ways to work, to express myself and I’ve made some lifelong friendships.
To be a part of a cohort is brand new to me. How would I liken it to another life experience? It’s not the same as being on a basketball team, where each player has a defined role, in a position suited to their ability and height. And yet, there is a certain quality, in the ways that we support one another, words of encouragement and acts of kindness.
But being around creatives is completely different and wonderful!!! Here, there is a sense of belonging without having to conform and wear a uniform. Here, I can wear whatever I like, say what I like and be both seen and heard. Never before in my life have I been quite as free from judgement and someone else’s expectation of what I should do or become.
And in this space, where I have a studio of my own, that proverbial “Room with a view” I’ve discovered that my artwork is relevant.
To say I’m happy is an understatement. It doesn’t mean that I don’t miss my family, or TV, because both can be true. I’ve no need to minimize one, at the expense of the other…
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It’s been a full 6 months since I wrote those words, since I returned home and unpacked.
I’ve benefitted from my MassMOCA experience in ways that I’m not fully capable of articulating… but I’ll paint a narrative, it’ll tell the story of a moment when my life was transformedand it will fill you with SOL 🙂
How you fall is less important, than how you get back up. I fell ill in 2016, it took 4 years for me to adjust to my hearing loss & to accept that I will always need a cane in order to walk.
I’ve found that laughing is better for me than crying. But I still do both. Self-pity has a way of creeping in, particularly when I’m alone and it’s raining outside.
I go to sleep & thankfully, I keep waking up🙏 It’s then, that I appreciate the sunshine & I know things can and do get better.
In 2016, I fell ill and my world went topsy-turvy. Unable to concentrate to write, I painted abstracts mostly to watch the paint dry, until one day I started painting the stories I wanted tell.
Sometimes, while we’re on this journey of life, we fall down. But then the best parts happen when we get back up. Smiling 🙂
I’m so honored to have a solo exhibition thru Aug 9 @cambcommon Cambridge Common 1667 Mass Ave.
And I’m so excited to be showing at Boston SoWa’s newest gallery @tagtheartgallery Aug 2 – Sept 1
“Startling Unpredictability: The Art of New Beginnings
Opening Reception: Sunday Aug 11. (2pm – 5pm). 460 Harrison Ave. C-2
Oh my, what a day! This one felt perfect. My family and friends say I’m a little too optimistic, but how can I not be? Or even better, why aren’t we all?
In digital world where everyone is staring at their cellphones, on-demand and live-streaming, it’s important to remember to look up every once in awhile & be a light.
I put my cellphone down & look what happened 👁️👁️
Me having lunch with my artwork 🥰
Thank you Holly🙏💕 @cambcommon
My solo exhibition is showing thru Aug 9th Cambridge Common 1667 Mass Ave Cambridge
Triptych made during my residency @massmoca Gratitude 🙏❤️ @assets4artists
This most amazing thing happened & it changed me forever. I’m so very grateful.
Every once in awhile, Life Happens on such a massive scale that you have to stop to catch your breath. You wonder how it could’ve happened to you, how it could be so perfectly executed, when in fact you’ve been working & preparing for it, for some form of success, your whole life.
Gratitude 🙏 @assets4artists @massmoca for giving artists who look like me a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves. From the artwork on a massive scale, to the innovative art in a virtual #ChalkRoom. I was allowed a space to make art, my very own studio! You gave me access to a room with a view, I hope to show the world what I saw. Being part of a cohort is bigger than one’s self, I’m SOL with my new Fam & the new heights I’ve reached.
What if… we didn’t think of Wednesday as hump day? What if it wasn’t used as a signal of peak & flow, that then gives us permission to fall off?
What if we thought of Wednesdays as we do of any other day of the week, but kept momentum going by a sustainable hustle & grind mindset?
What if… here’s a novel idea, we start to think of Wednesday as a rollercoaster, where the valley is engineered into the ride to act as a catalyst that then propels us to greater heights?
Hello World 🌎
We can. So if you’re reading this & thinking, “Why not…”
There’s something extremely special about the day before the weekend. A time when making plans is the norm, exercising restraint in one’s spending flies out the window and a general lightness of being descends upon us, particularly after a long week. A Friday, unlike a Monday is never meant to be a precursor of a long week. (A long weekend maybe, if we’re lucky 🙂
And for some reason I always feel lucky on a Friday. Maybe because I survived the week from hell, or maybe it was an excruciating week filled with meetings and boring reports. For me, the lottery ticket and scratch offs seem like a way, to win big bucks. Maybe then we could flip the bird at the boss, quit our jobs or stop working forever. Imagine that! How lovely would that be? Yes, winning the lottery has replaced the American Dream. And something about Fridays helps us believe that we might really win a game that’s devised to make us losers and systematically takes our money.
But hey it’s Friday! A time for dreaming. Fridays are a time for wrapping things up, it’s hopefully the conclusion to a project, the final draft of a proposal or as in my case, a chance to write a blog after a prolonged absence.
Quick story… back when I was a writer’s writer, a tech writer, using references and reading everything I could get my hands on about innovative smart tech— that was making human-beings increasingly less-smart— I would network on the internet and chat with data scientists, engineers, tech savvy social influencers as they aimed to head off disasters, using the hashtag #DoMoreGood. Back then, Fridays were a big thing, a time to undo whatever Google and FaceBook were up to. After we exposed flaws and deviant tech, we’d wait for Monday.
But now my Fridays are art days. And they seem to never end, and I’m reminded of when my daughters were little, watching The Sheri Lewis Show on TV, singing with Lamp Chop 🎶 :
“This is the song that Doesn’t end. Yes, it goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was and they’ll continue singing it forever just because, this is the song that doesn’t end, it just goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it, not knowing what is was and they’ll continue singing it forever just because, this is the song that doesn’t end, it just goes on and on my friends…“
Ahhhh, art is like that. Inclusive, empathetic, compassionate and so beautiful. It just goes on and on my friends, which makes me SOL. I hope you’re hearing me and not still singing the Lamb Chop song 🙂
Recently, I found out that Boston public schools are no longer teaching cursive writing to the children. Are you kidding me?
And I was immediately saddened. Because cursive writing is beautiful ✍️, (just look at the Declaration of Independence)
Historically, being able to write our names, to pick up a pen and write our signatures meant a lot. As we went from the rudimentary “X” to actually being able to sign a legal document, and to vote. Yes, it’s a big deal.
It makes you wonder, did everyone once know how to read the Rosetta Stone with its mysterious hieroglyphics? Did they collectively just forget how to read it? Or was it no longer taught? What if that’s happening again? And is it a case of the “haves” versus the “have nots”? Purely based on economics? I mean is it just poor kids who aren’t being taught? Coming from that perspective, it’s problematic for me.
When I was at MassMOCA, a school bus arrived full of giggling children. They viewed the Joseph Grimely exhibition and stared at the notes written in cursive, which they hadn’t learnt to read and asked, “what does it say?”
“Hello”
Cursive writing is art & the “Artivist” in us, mustn’t let it die. My kids aren’t little any more, but if they were I’d be fighting to keep cursive writing in schools. Wake up 🙏
For two hundred years my ancestors were denied an education, it seems silly to start that nonsense again. My promise to anyone reading this, is that any & every child that I sit down with will learn a little cursive. I’m going to teach them how to sign their names, so that the English language and history isn’t distorted.
DaNice D Marshall TechnyGalleries 