Art Show

After moving back to Del Rio a few weeks ago, I set two goals for myself to accomplish over the next four years we'll be here.

One is to learn to fly an airplane. That is doable, being married to an instructor pilot and all. That one will take time.

The second one was to have my own art show.

When we lived here ten years ago, I taught a handful of children's art classes at The Firehouse, home of the Del Rio Council for the Arts. It's a really neat place, offering art classes, music, dance, pottery, cooking, photography, and other classes all for a reasonable fee or even free!

At the front of The Firehouse there are two show rooms. The largest is for traveling or group exhibits while the smaller one off to the side is reserved for local artists.

I took the kids down to see the current exhibit and while we were there I talked to the director and told her about my art, my history at The Firehouse, and my desire to have my own show. When I finished my spiel, she reached over, grabbed a clipboard and asked, "When do you want to have one? I have November, March, or May available."

Huh?

Yes, it was that easy to get your own show. Wow.

I signed up for May knowing that I would need the time to put a show together.

The show will last the entire month, I can display any type of art be it paintings, paper art, sculpture, anything that is handmade by me. I can sell my items and the Firehouse will take a 30% commission. I don't know if that is a competitive commission rate of not.

On the first Friday night of every month, Del Rio has what is called an art walk. An average of 150 people walk from Casa de la Cultura, another art museum and workshop that focuses mostly on Mexican culture, to the Lee-Bunch Studio Gallery, and ends at the Firehouse where the new exhibits are formerly opened to the public. There is wine and cheese, hobnobbing and schmoozing, and *scary* meeting the artists.

I have to meet the people, introduced as an artist!

Am I an artist? I've been painting for 12 years and have sold a few dozen pieces or so. Does that make me an artist? I don't do it full-time. I can't even really say I do it part-time. I do it as often as I can, which is to say, not enough.

And if I am an artist, what the heck am I going to show? I paint this that and the other with no matching pieces or sets or themes. I can't even decide on a medium, wavering between acrylics, gouache, watercolor, and pen!

I know I'll have to paint all new pieces specifically for the show and that's great. I love a plan, an activity, and a goal. But what do I paint? Do the pieces have to have the same theme, the same medium? Should I stick with desert stuff or mix and match?

Truly I know that I can do whatever the heck I want to do with my show. I can paint purple circles and call it a day. But I want to do it right. I want to do it well.

I don't want to have a homemaker shows off her hobby kind of show. I want to have an artists' art show.

Help!!!