I must admit, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I decided to take my art to the next level.
It’s been challenging, I have spent countless hours building HW Fine Arts, LLC. I doubted myself every step of the way, but I kept moving forward with the plan. So, I built my website, figured out an accounting system, went through my inventory, and did all of the adult things one needs to do. I am not complaining, I don’t mind the work, what I do mind is how a lot of my time is spent on the business end of things and it has taken time away from just sitting in my studio and decompressing as I sit in silence painting in peace.
And then in November of 2021 I had an unfortunate/fortunate break…literally. The unfortunate part was that I broke BOTH of my wrists and the very first thing I thought was ‘oh my god, how will I paint?’ My world came to a standstill for a bit, and as you can imagine I was helpless. I thank God for my daughter and boyfriend who did everything for me. I am now part bionic with titanium plate and 9 screws in my dominant wrist (see featured image) and my left wrist has tendon damage. The fortunate part was that I had time, time to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life (I guess the inability to sleep while binge watching the Discovery Channel makes you think deep thoughts) and I decided that if I could still paint, I would just go for it. And I did. About three weeks after ‘the incident’ I stuck a paintbrush in my brace and painted a pumpkin pie, I figured if I couldn’t bake one, I’d try to paint one. It’s not great by any means but it felt great to sit in the studio and knock a little something out. I kept at it and became much more detailed in my paintings due to my limitations.
I was out of work for approximately 3 months and as I healed, I painted and became more confident and started to apply for art shows. Would I actually get accepted into juried art shows? I still had a hard time calling myself an artist. I did not have a photo of my tent set up (a booth shot), I didn’t even have a tent! I had NO CLUE what I was doing but I was doing it.
And then…. one after another I was accepted, even into art shows I had convinced myself I wasn’t good enough for. To say it was a confidence boost was an understatement!
Here I sit, spilling my guts (to the possible one person that will read this) in-between site updates and payment set up, to take a breather and enjoy this quiet evening with a cup of tea before the chaos begins. Am I ready? I have no idea, but here we go!