Last night was my 2nd official art show. It was held at Atlantic Artisans in Atlantic Highlands and was completely different from my Jamian's show. It was in a really cool shop attached to the restaurant Zoe (which apparently has phenominal breakfast). At Atlantic Artisans, they do framing and support local artist and the two women who run it are UBER cool. I had a blast hanging out there.
I was really nervous going in. For Jamian's, well, I already knew how to hang out at a bar. I've had 4 years of practice at that. Plus I had an entourage of people at Jamian's, about 20 people deep that night.
Last night, it was a totally different event and I was flying solo. It was just me, with my art, waiting for people to come up and talk to me. I think I did moderately well but I need to get better at selling myself. It seems the past week I've been in several situations where I feel shy and timid and just out of my element. Time to make those places into my element.
The steps up to the show have all been about me branching out of my bubble too. I got the show through Ty, who I met at my first show and broke many hearts by buying Mother. He works at the Y (where I used to never talk to anyone) and introduced me to another woman who works there named Tony. And Tony's neighbor was Nance, the owner of Atlantic Artisans. Networking, networking, networking.
Now I talk to lots of people at the Y. Sometimes I forget though, and I walk in with my headphones on and no doubt snub people I say hello to. That's the problem with branching out.
I digress (this is probably one of my favorite things to say). The show was fun. One woman I met also has a daughter named Julia who likes to draw and she wants to hook me up with Middletown library to talk to kids about art. Maybe that is my next niche, get into painting for kids. I think a lot of my art does speak to kids and I like making kids happy and hopefully encouraging dreams.so that would be a win-win.
And, if I sell nothing else, I hope to sell this painting:
