Making Room for the New

One of my current paintings I am working on. She is mostly done.
I have to add the veil to her hat still, which should be pretty interesting
 to see how I manage a see-through veil on her.

Every year I go through my closet and dresser and pull out the clothes that no longer fit, are no longer my style, or are too worn out to wear. Occasionally I find something that I love but I can't wear anymore for one reason or another. I know I should just get rid of it, but I always have a debate in my head as to whether I should keep it. I could wear it to bed or to the studio, right? Surely it's okay to wear then? But alas, I know that it's good for me to purge the item and just get rid of it. I know that I am making room for something new in my closet, perhaps a new favorite item, and without this purge, I wouldn't have enough space for this.

I think this is a good metaphor for life. Just like cleaning out your closet, you sometimes have to purge the old/ stale in order to make room for the new and more appropriate things to enter our lives. I was contemplating this yesterday in my studio as I was getting ready to ship two paintings to a new gallery that had approached me this weekend about possibly representing my work in their Hampton's gallery.

Another work in progress...

Some of you may recall my somewhat recent post "When it's Time to Jump Ship", about my leaving a gallery because of some shady dealings. Truthfully, I was hesitant to leave this gallery. In my head I tried justifying why I should stay. It wasn't that the gallery was a favorite or even made a lot of sales for me, and we know from that blog post that they weren't exactly treating me the way I should have been treated. So why was I hesitant to leave this gallery? I guess I was afraid that if I left, I wouldn't find some place else to show my work. I was afraid that no one else would want to represent my work and sell it in their gallery. I started thinking "this gallery is better than nothing, at least my work is showing somewhere", which is probably the kind of thinking they were counting on. It was silly thinking on my part, to be sure, and ultimately I decided that I just couldn't let this gallery get away with what they were doing to me. I left the gallery, and just like cleaning out my closet, I opened myself up for something new to enter it.

In the time that I left this gallery, which was at the end of May, I have gotten two galleries to represent me, one in Aspen, Colorado and one in Laguna Beach, California. I also now have a new (to me) San Francisco gallery showing my work and today I will be shipping my work to the Hampton's to another gallery. In addition, my Laguna Beach gallery will be taking my work to the San Diego art fair in September and I have a featured artist show with them in October. Not bad considering it's the beginning of August!

One more... All three are 10"x10", which is A LOT
smaller than my usual size. 

By getting rid of a gallery that was causing me stress and emotional turmoil, I opened myself up to four new galleries finding and showing my work. I got rid of the negative and now have some pretty terrific galleries that believe in what I do. Sometimes, even if you don't want to, it's good to evaluate what is and is not working for you and purge the things in life that no longer are. It's not an easy thing to do, but usually it is worth it!