Love, Paint & Dance - After the Show

 My very first art show opening came and went and even better than what, in my worried mind, I had imagined.  It began a bit slow when I got there right at 6pm, I'm a very timely person, there was no one but the wonderful man who served the ice cream.  I chatted with him for a bit and decided to go get coffee.  Once I was back I proceeded to drink my coffee and text my friends practically begging them to come and check out my show.  I was beginning to imagine various sad scenarios of me sitting by myself the entire evening, no one paying any mind to me or my work, then the world would explode...  Luckily most of my over the top imaginings rarely come true.

I was there, waiting, for maybe 1/2 an hour when my first very lovely friend Heather came strutting her cute booty through the door.  She is also the muse of one of my paintings.  After that it worked out to be a steady flow of friend after friend, it was almost like they were planned in shifts.  Then my two lucky charms walked in, Corinne and a friend of hers visiting from New York.  They got ice cream, we chatted about my work, Hipline, the ladies of Hipline in my paintings... Then two men walked in looking closely at my work, I spoke up to let them know I was the artist, they seemed happy by this and to talk with me about my work.  They then left.

About 2 minutes later I see one of the men come back in and he says to me "I'd like to buy one of your paintings."  I was very shocked and excited to say the least.  My first sale, the first night of my art show and to a man that I didn't know previously or call friend or family!  "Samar" was my first sold painting and it was even better that two lovely ladies were there to enjoy the excitement with me.  This made my night, and even better, Jesse the ice cream man, told me that it's not often an artist makes a sale the first night! Best art show opening EVER!  So far...

The two lovely ladies that brought me some luck! :)

 

Love these two!

My fella and I, my self portrait in between us.

My First Art Show

Love, Paint & Dance
This is the title of my very fist art show!!  It all started with my friend Brownyn telling me of a sign she saw in the window of Tara's Organic Ice Cream looking for Artists.  I used the e-mail she sent me, Tara replied and asked to meet with me and see some of my work.  Tara's in Berkeley is a very small space, so when I went to meet with her I completely expected her to maybe pick a few pieces to hang in the space for a while, or just tell me she didn't like any of them and that would be that.  What I got was so much better!

10 pieces from my Dance series, half of them completely new pieces, will be hung in Tara's Ice Cream, Oakland Telegraph location for a whole month and the opening show will be a part of Art Murmur on Friday April 6th! AND there's a strong possibility I could sell some of my work there as well.  I could barely contain my excitement, but I composed myself and resisted the urge to jump up and down and squeal with glee like a five year old who just got a pony (not the most professional reaction).

So for the past couple of weeks I have been working furiously creating new pieces, designing a post card for the show (see below), writing my artists statement, creating a price list, creating a facebook invite, and buying frames...  I got a little eye twitching going on, feeling a bit of stress, bubbling with excitement and nerves though I know it will be all worth it!

Check it out!

Yay! New Art: Gabriela

I finished this piece a while ago but failed to blog it, as I mentioned in my last post, I've been lacking in regular blogging.  So here I am, back again and doing a little better on time spent in between my last blog post... I'm getting there!

This is another original gouache painting titled, Gabriela.  I met Gabriela a little over 3 years ago, and I'm definitely grateful I did.  Gabriela is part owner of Hipline, the belly dance studio that changed my life.  She not only runs part of the business but teaches toning and cardio classes, works a second job, and takes online classes, she is a super woman if ever there was one.  I tried to express this in the image below.  Gabriela is a powerful dancer, she is fabulous fire in motion!

I'm already working on a new piece and will have it up soon.  I love this series though I am having the urge to do something new... To be continued...

Check out Gabriela at Elven Grove!

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, and though I believe I have said this before, I am definitely going to start blogging more regularly and this time I mean it!

But how can I say that if I've said it before and failed, HORRIBLY FAILED?  Well things are changing in my life and for the better.  You may now be saying "and what are these changes?"  Or "change, pray tell what these changes be?" Or you've left to get some lunch, either way I'm going to tell you.

Over the past 3 years I have worked two jobs, one is a women's dance fitness studio which I love.  The atmosphere is creative and positive, I am surrounded by amazing talented women, I get to listen to music I enjoy, I belly dance, I can grow in so many ways and the list goes on.

The second is a evil and dark place, it is a children's consignment store.  Most of the children are not evil, the evil comes from the owner of this store.  I could go on and on about how crazy this woman is and how she has tortured me but I will spare you.  Perhaps I will make a separate post just to describe the evil craziness of this woman.

So my big change is in less than I month I will be saying SEE YA! to the crazy children's store and calling job #1 the only 1!!!!!

With having only one job to worry about and being in such a creative environment I will have more time to focus on other joys in my life, such as my art which comes in many forms, writing, dancing, drawing, painting... I love it all and soon I can do it all!!!

So I just had to share my good news because I am jumping like a jumping bean with excitement!  2012 is a year for change and I hope you all have some amazing changes coming your way soon!  Thank you to those who have stuck around and to those who have joined my blog while I was away.  Welcome and I hope you enjoy my art and my ramblings!

New horizons ahead! Yaaaaaaay!!