Thoughts as an Emerging Artist

During the artist talk for my recent solo show at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, one of the professors, after attending my talk, was very impressed saying

“You are so young and so successful!”. I was a little shocked.

I guess that from my perspective, working at a coffee shop and barely making the money I need to pay for housing and basic needs just doesn’t have that savory flavor of success. But, standing there in the gallery, surrounded by students and teachers appreciating the last several years of my painting efforts, I realized that on some level I have already made it.

A little later, one of the students asked me to sign her postcard with the advertisement for the show on it. I immediately laughed. I couldn’t imagine someone looking up to me enough to value a piece of paper I had written on. Immediately after, her friend handed me 5 more postcards, saying she wanted to send them to her family. After signing cards for 4 other students, I was still in disbelief and wonder how I had arrived here.

The truth is, success is a process and can look like many different things. In the eyes of those students and that professor, I had already succeeded. I have been asking myself, when is success enough? It may be that this is the peak for me, but I am feeling the momentum and want to keep pushing. Choosing the title “emerging artist” is to see the glass half full. To see that the road ahead is longer and wider than the road behind. With that said, to see myself through the eyes of those students, even for a moment, fills me with gratitude and, yes, a feeling of success. Reframing what that success can look like and what I value in creating art has been an important lesson that I hope to carry with me forward as I continue to push to make this career financially viable.

In the end, money is not a determiner but a symptom of true value. I have to believe that by continuing to make work that is meaningful to me and others, it makes sense to trust that the money will follow.