Celebrate

The other day I sold my first piece off of a gallery wall! I’ve sold my work  before but this is the first original drawing that I’ve sold since I’ve come into my own style, and it is also the first piece that I’ve sold from a gallery. When I found out about the sale I ran about the house grinning like a crazy person and, because I was alone at the moment, I shared the news with my dogs. Their reaction of refusing to get up from their nap was very anti-climactic. See if I share exciting news with them again.  

Rude dogs aside, what had me the most excited was the validation. Somebody, that I don’t know, likes my work for my work. They liked that particular piece enough to spend their hard earned money on it. It gave me that little bit of encouragement that was needed to keep working at selling my art; if one person likes my work enough to purchase it from a gallery, then surely someone else will too!

Most artists probably don’t shout it from the rooftops when they hit this milestone; they sit back and pretend that it happens to them all the time. I however, am not one of those artists. I’m proud of my little accomplishment. I think part of the problem in the art world is that not enough people hear about the process that artists go through as they work on their career. Being an artist isn’t all about starving, suffering, and moping about with a closet full of berets. Being an artist takes a lot of hard work, and I intend to celebrate any time I have a success. I’ll leave the beret wearing and moping to someone else.

P.S. Thanks to everybody who supports an unknown artist by buying some of their work. You are probably, unknowingly, giving that artist just the boost they need to keep plugging along.