My first solo gallery exhibition in 2017
Thinking about and missing the art gallery days
Every year, the Art Institute and Gallery hosts the Blooming artists showcase where the Judge’s choice winner for the High School category gets to host their own solo gallery the following spring. In 2016, I was one of those people!
2016 was senior year of high school for me, and the grind time to earn money and accolades for getting scholarships at college that fall. I chose to attend an art school and those are not cheap. One of my art teachers suggested that I submit We Found Love Here to the student annual. I happily agreed and got everything prepped for the showing with my teachers help.
The night of the annual Blooming artist show came, and my body was pulsing with excitement. I showed up extra early to see who the judges had chosen, shown by a small printed label. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when I saw the “Judges choice” label under my work! I tried playing it cool by walking around the gallery for an hour before the show started; getting my nerves together.
The moment soon came for me to walk into the spotlight and tell all the attendees about my drawing, what it means, and why I drew it. One of the judges said she was really drawn to the cats (no pun intended). It was a wonderful night for me career wise.
I had been working hard for nearly 2 years to get this position and having it pay off filled me with great confidence, much needed when I would be going into college a few months later!
January 2017 soon rolled around, and I had a lot more drawings to show in my exhibition from college. I began prepping sometime around March, figuring out how to transport traditional pieces from college back home without ruining it and getting scolded for pastel stains on the carpet (oops). The gallery show set up was pretty smooth! I only had a foyer space to use so there was not much in terms of huge planning.
I advertised my solo gallery show on Facebook and Twitter (mostly Facebook) and reached out to some friends and teachers. Salisbury is a small town so the teachers were already in the loop about it, they even invited some younger students from their art class to show up.
It was not a huge showing but it was more people than I had thought, which is always good. I now have the fortune of saying that I had my first solo gallery at 18 years old.
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If you would like to learn more about me and my art, you can find my portfolio at www.dominiqueramsey.com and my archive site at dominiqueramseyillustration.com.