Don't wait for a knock on the door

I remember when I entered my first art show and saw my work in a real gallery I was thrilled to bits.  It was exciting and I made it happen.  I bit the bullet and applied to have my artwork accepted. 
From that one piece being accepted I mustered up enough courage to approach a gallery to see if I could add some pieces on consignment.  Yes, I was naive, but if you don't give it a go you will never know.

In June 2023 I decided I wanted to exhibit some of my work, I had no idea how I would do this until the light bulb illuminated and I thought, why not have my own exhibition. I was totally unprepared for how much work this would take and what I needed to do to make it successful.

In July, I ran my first open studio and art sale.  It was harrowing to put myself "out there" even though I held it at home in our expansive patio now named "Art in the Garden Room".  Would anyone turn up, what would they think of my artwork, will it be successful, what if it is too cold, too hot, too this, to that? Pushing through self-doubt with anything in your life is hard, I believe not trying is a harder pill to swallow.  You can't sit around waiting for a knock on your door or the phone to ring. Instead, make your own luck, you never know what exciting things will happen. By the way, I have another open studio in November over a night and a day because, people turned up, it was a freezing cold wet day and they still came, I sold artwork and had an absolute ball. I learnt from it and hope the next one is bigger and better. Oh, is that a knock on the door?  

---