The First Time

The first time I felt “black” was in kindergarten when I noticed that the children with white skin were treated better than the children with darker skin.  The first time I felt like a woman was in high school when a classmate told me I had a nice body.  The first time I felt like an adult was when I wrote my first check in college.  The first time I felt like a mother was in the delivery room when I first fed my little one.  I looked into his eyes and knew I was needed on the planet.  And the first time I felt like an artist was Wednesday night when I received a letter accepting my application to exhibit in the Schauerman library on the El Camino College campus.

This was the first time I had ever been accepted to show my work without having any kind of “in”.  While technically my first exhibition was in the student show, where I had one piece shown, “The Unborn”, that was a teacher-recommended show.  The applicant pool for the Library, on the other hand, was open to any artist (students, faculty, and community) and I had no connection to the decision-maker.  I just submitted my materials and, quite frankly, expected a rejection letter.

In fact, when I started reading the letter, it began with such formal language: “Thank you for submitting your application…”, that I just skimmed it, looking for the “NO” sentence.  The first thing my eyes landed upon were the bolded words “June and July 2014”.  So I was confused and went back up and actually read the letter.  Then I found what I was looking for:  “It is our pleasure to inform you that your application was selected for exhibit in the Library.  We have scheduled your exhibition for June and July 2014.”  What?  Wait, what????

I danced and floated into the next room to tell my mom (forever dubious about my aspirations), that I had been accepted.  Accepted.  What a nice word.
Anyway, does this mean I have arrived?  Um, no.  Is it super cool and a wonderful opportunity?  Hell to the yes!

I am very grateful for everything I have and everyone in my life.  Thank you to those who read and follow this blog.  Please visit me on Facebook if you haven’t already so we can inspire each other on the regular!
Have a great week and please, please…Follow your bliss!  Peace and blessings….

This is my only work in progress from this week.  I will mostly start posting finished works from now on.  This upcoming week is the last week of school.  Yay!!!