I’m not certain whether I can count this or not, but it’s as close as I’ve come.

I’ve been kicking myself very hard for not getting things together properly (or even selected) for the artist’s collective show I was asked to be a part of (with paintings, sculpture, photography, collage, jewelry, etc.) that opened last week.

At first it seemed like I had so much time to prepare that I put it off, then I got a huge transcription project last month which ate every last second, then these last few weeks I was struggling and really not in the right mood, so I left the majority for last weekend when I was hit with a killer 3 day migraine, so I was ready to give up and emotionally flog myself for flaking out.

Then Friday night I sat up until the wee hours randomly picking things I liked, but my monkey brain started being extraordinarily mean (inarticulate as well), so around 2am I stepped away.

Yesterday morning M. sat down and went over the batch I’d flagged, giving me some excellent feedback that let me see through other eyes. Together we picked out 15, 5 of which I was planning to print at 8.5 X 11 and put into those glass clip frames, which is all I have right now.

After driving all the way out to White Rock and suffering all sorts of thoroughly annoying editing, resizing, and printing issues (I wasn’t using my own computer) and nearly throwing in the towel, they started making their way out into the tangible world, and honestly, they really looked good – every one the printer carefully birthed pleased me, so we printed all of them. It was a strange feeling, especially when they were clipped under glass and I stood back quietly looking at them sitting against the wall.

Everything took so long I wasn’t able to drop them by the gallery last night, but my dad is arranging to drive them over today or tomorrow (a 15 minute drive for him, an hour drive for us).

After seeing my pictures in the tangible world and stopping by the gallery to see the other stuff being shown, I’ve decided that they really deserve something better than plain glass frames, so I’m looking to find some inexpensive black frames with white mats they’ll fit into. I can stop by and switch them up, bring more, whatever. I also want to whip up a CV and some cards, titles, etc. A touch of polish.

So I’m thinking this counts – things I created, under glass and on a wall in a wee gallery, my name on the promo… yes! A baby step, but one I’m feeling proud of.