Heather Ainsley
ECB Publishing, Inc.
This past week, I partnered with a local entrepreneur and will have my artwork featured in his brand new gallery, which is located in the storefront connected to Tupelos Bakery here in town. In spite of my cautious nature, I find myself precariously out on a limb, trusting this near-stranger with my entire body of work, relying on his advice, expertise and vision to best showcase my art and present it to the community. I have no doubt that I am in good hands. Even so, this is a scary thing, and I do feel a certain amount of anxiety laced in with the excitement.
I have wanted to own my own art storefront for a long time, and while I certainly don't own this one, this creative collaboration is the closest I have ever come to having my own shop. My entire body of work is currently on display at the Starling Musings gallery, and is for sale as well via the gallery website starlingmusings.com/dir. This is nerve-wracking, as I have never pursued my art as a business venture so entirely before. We opened the doors of the gallery for a soft-opening on Wednesday, April 5. Although I write this column on Monday, April 3, it will not likely run until after the gallery opens.
This means that as I write these words, the gallery opening has not yet occurred, and as you read them, it will have. I find myself wondering how it all will go!
In life, we all take chances, hoping to create in our waking lives the life we see in our dreams. This could be the first of many failures. Or the first of many successes. More than likely, it will fall somewhere between the two. But as the saying goes, we miss 100 percent of the chances we don't take. This is me, trying for the first time to take a chance at being a “professional” artist. It might be an utter disaster. On the other hand, it could be a splendid success. And somehow, I don't know which scares me more.
In the future, I'll look back at this moment, and smile knowingly, because I will know how this all pans out. What knowledge will accompany that smile, I don't yet know, and isn't that a wondrous thing?
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