So for years I have wanted to submit a painting to the Re- magine Exhibition held by the Hornsby Council but every year I have missed the submission date. I love this exhibition as it is specifically for artist who use recycled materials to create their work. Well, I finally did it!
Late Thursday afternoon last week I was doing some stuff on my computer and it occurred to me to check when the exhibition was. Guess what, I hadn't missed it. The submission date hadn't passed. But guess when it was - Sunday 5pm. I had three days to produce something from scratch and something I was proud of.
I was faced with a dilemma. Did I not try, because the deadline would mean significant effort and sacrifice of time? Or did I give it my best and see what happened?
Like many, I have battled disillusionment and disappointment along this journey to chase my creative dreams. It really would have been easy for me to just shrug and say oh well it wasn't meant to be, I just can't produce anything in that time. And this situation would have been just another occasion when things didn't work out the way I had hoped. I would have added another tally mark of disappointment to the wall of my heart.
But I didn't do that. Something in me rose up and said you know what I am going to give it a go. What have I got to lose.
You have to understand I really haven't painted very much over the last few years. The desire never disappears and I think about it nearly daily. But I really haven't produced much for a while. What was I going to paint. I had no idea what I would do as the submission required photographs to be taken during the process of creating the piece- so it had to be something new as I don't take photos of my creative process.
What is funny is, only days before I had sat down and sketched up a few thoughts and ideas that I had plans to experiment with. It was going to have to be one of those - as they were all I had. So I picked one idea that I felt I might be able to deliver on a canvas that I had, and I sat down worked out a plan of how to tackle it. And guess what....
I finished.
I got it submitted on time - just.
I was even happy with how it turned out.
And to top it all off I got selected to be part of the exhibition - stoked!
Here it is - Pocket Garden.
Pocket Garden, Mixed Medium - Work of Amanda McSeveny, 2016
