Well, today I took the leap. I have three paintings hanging in Solomon's Porch coffee shop in Wilmore, complete with pricetags. I knew I was nervous about this, but I didn't realize how nervous until last night. I got nearly no sleep last night. Granted that is at least partially due to the fact that I came down sick last night. But part of it was anxiety, pure and simple.
Why the anxiety? I pour a lot of myself into my paintings. There's no a single one that came from outside the Inner Sanctum. Most of my paintings are, in a sense, portraits- windows into self. So it's a little frightening to put them out there for others to see and critique.
Another anxiety producing aspect is pricing. It is NOT an easy thing to price one's own work. One price feels too high- who would pay that for a piece of art? Another feels too low- I'm particularly attached to this piece, I can't bear to see it go for that little.
And, of course, there's the very simple issue of wanting to know that others find my work worth their time, if not worth their money. I want to know that people look at it and experience something in themselves, and come away with something they didn't have before.
I took Mother Africa, Self Portrait in Red (Originally titled Seeing Red), and Phoenix, all of which can be seen on my other website, beautyofashes.com.Celebrate with me, and wish me well.
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