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Artists enter art shows for many different reasons.  Some reasons include sales, accolades, resume building, hopes of getting discovered, connecting with a particular judge, feedback, and even emotional connections.  

Emotional connections?  Yes, you read that correctly. Emotional connections are want to expand on, as the rest are pretty straight forward.

For me, showing at certain venues is solely to tell my past self I did it.  These places typically include very personal, meaningful places from my history, places my past self would not believe I would show my artwork.

I got married in 2005 at the Glenview Mansion in Rockville, MD.  For those of you whom are unfamiliar with the venue, it is a 1926 Neoclassical revival historic home that, in addition of holding events on its ground floor, hosts multiple art galleries on its second floor.  In 2005, I was working as a financial manager and taking the same weekly art class I had taken for years, just for fun.  I thought it was cool that the place I was getting married had art galleries and I remember thinking I had no clue how to show my art.  Well...fast forward twelve years to 2017 where I had a solo exhibition at one of Glenview Mansion galleries.  During the exhibition, I was on cloud 9, not for the sales or prestige of venue, which I come to realize was not as huge as I initially  thought,  but for the emotional connection to the facility.  I walked around whispering to past self - "look what you did!  You figured it out and found your path.  Your 2005 self would never believe it."

This post really is about coming full circle in my Washington DC life.  I moved to DC straight from undergrad with a degree in economics and a promising job as a research assistant the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in 1999.  I had always taken art classes, from the age of 7, so I  signed up to continue the tradition with a weekly painting class at the closest, biggest art facility near my apartment, The Art League at The Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.  The awe I had for the artists that taught, had studio space, and exhibited at this art facility was vast.  I never thought it would be me, I was just painting because I loved it.  Two weeks ago, when I dropped off my painting, "Wealth," at the Torpedo Factory's Target Gallery Fall Salon Show, I felt the same set of emotions and connections as I did at Glenview Mansion.  I wanted to whisper to my 22 year old self....."take stock, you have come a long way." Money, accolades, and prestige are not the end all be all.  Sometimes it is just proving to yourself you can do it and patting yourself on your back.

The Target Gallery's Fall Salon runs from November 10th to December 12th at the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA.   Click here to view the Online Catalog.