taking it all in
Today I spread every painting I’ve made over the past couple of months across my screened porch. For a moment, I just stood there and took it all in. Maybe even teared up a little looking at twenty-five paintings wondering how on earth I got it all done.
Next week, I’ll open my home to some of the people who have been part of my life in so many different ways to share this collection for the first time. Assuming of course, I figure out where to hang all these paintings. There is something incredibly vulnerable about sharing your art. Perfectionism has a way of convincing you that there’s always one more thing to fix, one more painting to finish, one more reason to wait. And somewhere in all that striving and reworking to make it “perfect” it’s easy to lose sight of the joy of creating in the first place. I don’t want to lose that joy.
To some of you, these might simply be landscapes. But I see the miles I ran to quiet my thoughts, the hard days when painting brought me some peace and the GOOD days when I lost myself in the joy of creating. There are stories behind every single one of these paintings, some I’ll probably never share.
As I looked at all my work on the porch floor, I felt something I haven’t always allowed myself to feel lately. Pride. Not because every painting is perfect (far from it) or because of what might sell, but because I made them and I kept showing up for myself. And the most important lesson through all of this…the value of creating art shouldn't be measured by what someone is willing to pay for it, but by what the process gave me in return.
When I share this collection next week, what I look forward to the most aren’t the paintings on the walls, but the people standing in front of them. The ones who show up simply because they are happy to see you doing something you love (with a cocktail in hand). So cheers to the joy of making something and the courage to share it. That’s something worth noticing.
Love,
Shannon
After my local gathering, Possibility will be available on my website on Thursday November 5th at 12 pm EST.
