All Together Now, “A Group Show!”, Our First Studio Show

On Saturday, September 7, 2024 the studio I am a resident artist at hosted our first group art show. I haven’t participated in an art show since pre-covid. I had known about the show all summer and while I thought I had more time to prep before the show, I was in a little over my head. Summer is our busiest season for my full time job outside of my career as an artist as I am a full time server at a beach club. Originally my idea of the work I wanted to show was going to be a series of still life images of individual fruit each painted on an 8 x 8 wood panel in oil paint relating to the fruits of life. As I painted the first apple in early June, I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I pushed the apple painting aside and went about my daily life focusing on my serving job and personal relationships where other obstacles had arose. Before I knew it, august was here and I felt defeated. I started to experience burnout from a busy summer at my serving job, where I picked up as many shifts as I could. As this feeling kicked in, a painting came into mind. A painting of a female with her eyes closed, her head tilted up, and two butterflies in the top right corner and bottom left. I had started this painting exactly two summers before and never completed it. This painting sat in the back of my mind wanting to be completed, but I never allowed myself to do so and I had eventually forgotten about it. For some reason now, more than ever I was pulled to revisit it, and I felt like I should listen to that feeling. She represented transformation and growth which was how I was feeling at this particular time in my life. The curve balls that had been thrown at me this summer, this painting reminded me to turn those challenges into strengths instead of dwelling which is what I was doing. When I shifted my mentality, my direction for where I wanted to go with what I was going to show shifted too. This is where the series “Bloom” was born.

Our first studio show was a success. Truly grateful for this community. I’m looking forward to what else we will do in the future!