Last year I had four art openings, each with new and different work. Not prints. Original work. I spent much time and effort matting and framing all of the pieces myself, creating the marketing collateral materials, mailing postcards, hanging fliers and sending emails. One opening hung for four months and I sold six pieces from that show over the course of those four months. It felt good.

So this year, my goal was to show every month, except January. I was unemployed, I figured I could do it. But I couldn’t get a show in February, March came and went with nothing, and I started to lose momentum by April. Then I remembered that my first show last year was in January, but I didn’t have another show again until June, so I didn’t sweat it.

I was talking about this with a friend of mine, and told him that I needed to get my work out there again and keep the momentum from last year rolling. People were walking up to me in the street and asking me when my next show was going to be. I needed some exposure. John said, Well, as a friend of mine in Helena once said, “you can die from exposure”

What? I thought to myself. And as we talked, I realized what he was saying. An over-ambitious goal such as showing 11 months in a row could lead to shoddy quality of work, half-assed openings and in general a lesser respect for me and my work.

So again, I stopped stressing out. Even so, I was eager to show some work. The weather was getting to be nice and there was a good vibe in the air, which is why I decided to do the show in the alley that was so warmly received. Out of that show has come an opportunity for me to be the first artist to show at a business in town that wants to become part of the First Friday scene. I’ll write more about that later, but it’s definitely an exciting opportunity for me and for the business. That show will open in August.

Meanwhile, in July, I’ll be doing two alley shows, I think. If memory serves me right, last year in July there was confusion as to when “First Friday” actually occurred, so that there were actually two “First” Fridays. I’ll be in an alley somewhere with all of my art on both of those Fridays. Watch this space for more news on that front.

And I don’t expect that I’ll die from that exposure!