Her exhibit was a series inspired by a bar brawl.
Her description :
About this collection:
"This body of work was inspired by an altercation I had with a man in a bar called The Painted Lady on Ossington Ave. in Toronto. At first he was full of compliments, but when his affections weren't returned he became quite ugly. Another man I met, a gentleman had just asked me out to dinner but instead of basking in that, the inappropriate behavior of his employee enraged me. I pushed him before he could hit me. He threatened my life verbally. Long story short, a bar brawl ensued. I felt quite guilty about that act of violence as I prefer peaceful resolutions. The incident inspired me to create this series.
The full story is told in a book submitted for publishing called, No More Kissing Frogs."
Beautiful work. I'm really liking the idea of doing any kind of series. I talked to someone last night about Ntozake Shange's, "For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf." I've been carrying that book around with me since I recently watched the Tyler Perry movie for it.
Yeah I like the idea of doing some sort of series and looking at a topic or a feeling or an incident from every angle.
I'm glad that I went to the opening. Thankfully I promised myself that I would go to it no matter what and once I make a promise... I can be shy with new people. Even worse is I can talk myself out of going places because I get caught in what I think is going to happen and then I don't show up. I think I'm going to be the only single person and I'll be standing by myself in a corner trying not to look awkward. I've done the no show so many times that it really has to become the fear that I walk through. Especially since I'm always glad, at the end of the outing, that I showed up.
I've also noticed that I get shy about talking about myself as an artist. Simone introduced me to people as "my writer friend" and I got scared of the inevitable questions. I added the qualifier that, "I'm her unpublished writer friend."
I shouldn't have worried though. In a group of other artists, they totally get it. There wasn't that normal look that you get from people sometimes where you feel that they think you're not really a writer if you're unpublished.
Some of the different conversations I had with the different artists and friends of the artists were about self-publishing and e-books in particular and whether I was thinking about going that route. I think certain types of genres are more appropriate for self-publishing, straight to e-book. We talked about blogging and social media and putting yourself out there and how much do you focus on stats vs just doing your work and letting the right followers come to you. If you build it they will come.
Some one asked me if I did any other art and I told her about the two times I've met the cartoonist Lynda Barry.
How the first time I met Lynda, she asked me "do you draw?"
And I told her that I used to draw cartoons.
She told me, "start drawing again."
From that suggestion I started doing my scribble drawings. The 2nd time I met Lynda, I mentioned that she had told me to start drawing again and I showed her the drawings I'd been doing. It was such a positive experience. Lynda Barry is a wonderful, wonderful woman!
Needless to say, talking about myself as an artist/writer last night turned out to be good for my soul. I felt good. I felt comfortable. I felt like I was with people who understood. Which of course is the whole point of having a weekly artist's date, right? It's to feed your artist's soul.
And part of the universe's message to me of Living Now, I think, has to do with walking through my fear that stops me from going out and meeting new people. I always feel good after I've shown up. I'm still that scared kid who went to a different school every year. I just keep forgetting that I always made a new friend on the first day of school. :)
EY
