good questions

It occurred to me the other day that this month, November 2013, marks one year since my boss decided to close the Closet Factory showroom on Congress Street (this was the annex location of the business; the shop on Presumpscot Street is still open and moving right along), thereby ending a nearly two-year run of First Friday solo shows in that location for yours truly. If you knew me at all a year ago, I was kind of freaking out. My thoughts were ranging from panicked ("Where am I going to show my work? What will happen next?") to hopeful ("Well, maybe this is a way of opening me up to new opportunities"). Obviously, the latter approach was nicer than the former, so that's what I focused on and tried to cultivate. By the time March 2013 rolled around, I had shows booked for every month of the year.

I'm happy to say that as the year has progressed, more and more opportunities have made themselves known to me, and yet another one has just materialized: I've been invited to participate in the 7th annual Creative Economy Studio Show and Sale in Freeport on Thanksgiving weekend! I am SO psyched. I've been hearing about this show for a couple of years now, but I never knew how to get in. Turns out it's an invitation-only show, organized and run by an artist named Cat Schwenk. I've never met Cat, but since Brunswick is a small area, many artists know each other, and I know people who know her...so, I would like to send Christine DeTroy a very big THANK YOU for getting me into this show! My friend Patricia Boissevain introduced me to Christine in February, when Trish and Christine were sharing a booth at the Flea For All in Portland and Terry and I stopped in for a visit. Fast forward to the October Second Friday Art Walk in Brunswick: Christine came into my room and recognized Terry right away from his Bohemian Coffee House days, and then she recognized me from the Flea For All. We started chatting and she asked if I ever did Cat's show; I said I would love to but I had no idea how to go about getting in. Christine took my card before she left and kindly passed my info along to Cat, who then sent me an email invitation three weeks later!

Who knew that the questions "Where am I going to show my work? What will happen next?" could have positive, exciting, and hopeful answers right behind them? Lesson learned...