My Inspiring First Exhibition!

This month has been an extremely exciting, and emotional one!

As a surprise, and to boost my confidence, my mum contacted a local art gallery (ArtismUK), and arranged to have some of my art displayed in an upcoming open exhibition. The exhibition was going to be filled with art of different mediums, from artists with varying skill levels, from all over North Wales and beyond.

While it was intended as a surprise, she’s never great at keeping them. Her intention was to get my art printed, framed and sent to the gallery without my knowledge, however because my art is done digitally, and because it’s all on my laptop, it would have been incredibly difficult for her to do it secretly. Mum has a history of being too excited to keep surprises hidden anyway. She gets very excited at the thought of seeing us happy, so the cat was out of the bag sooner than she intended

When she first told me, I was incredibly excited. I was also incredibly nervous and terrified that my art wouldn’t be at the same level as all of the other incredible artists I was sure would be shown. It was difficult, but I did my best to focus on the excitement, rather than letting panic set in.

So, I set to work finding a printing company. With my Mum’s help (she’s a graphic designer, so she has experience with printers), we found a printer that looked to be reliable, with decent quality paper, and at reasonable prices/speed. We ordered two A3 prints, and two frames they’d look good in, and eagerly awaited their arrival.

When they turned up a week or so later, I was blown away. They looked incredible! We merrily sorted them out into a frame each, and hung them up on a wall quickly to get a feel for how they’d look in the gallery. We were stunned – it’s such a different experience seeing digital art in print. I was floored with how they looked. It’s rare for me to see my art face to face, and I was blown away with how good they looked. I had tiny gripes with them that I’m sure nobody else will notice or care about, but I suppose that’s normal for any artist.

We wrapped them up in some protective fabric, and drove them to the gallery they’d be shown in. We handed over the art to the gallery director, and he was very happy with them; saying, “Oh, yes. These will look lovely!” I have to admit, I was slightly stunned that he liked them. I’d prepared for the worst.

We had a lovely chat, and he told us his ideas for the gallery, which used to be a school. He detailed how he had plans to turn the garden into a beautiful sculpture garden for more artists to include their work. The gallery is non-profit, and he doesn’t charge artists an inclusion fee for our work to be shown. ArtismUK is an amazing place filled with beautiful art pieces made by incredible artists. All he wanted to do was show as many artists off as possible, while encouraging them to see the potential in their work, and in turn, themselves.

We returned about a week later when we were notified that the exhibition was up and ready to be viewed by the public. We went as soon as we could, turning up a few days after the exhibition opened. We walked in and sure enough, my art was there on the wall, being shown among some truly beautiful works of art. In the overwhelming wave of it all, I felt inadequate. My art looked mediocre next to all of the other works of art sat there right next to mine.

Despite feeling awful, I admitted to myself that my art did look good, and I was (and still am) incredibly proud and thankful for the opportunity to see my art in a proper gallery. We took some photos, and had another lovely chat with the gallery owner/director. He noted that my art was the only work in the open exhibition that was done digitally, and how amazing he thought they looked. He said that he’d seen many people that had come to see the exhibit, do one grand, slow sweep of the room, and then circle back to mine.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. My mental health has never truly been great, and I’ve always tried to be open about that. My art always has, and always will be, incredibly personal to me. For a few years I stopped doing art altogether because of how inadequate I felt to everyone else, and to their work, believing that nobody could ever truly be interested in mine. Any compliment of my art (or me) would be discarded as purely polite small talk; things that people are socially inclined to say, regardless of what they truly think. To a degree, I still believe that. My confidence has been shattered by previous events, and it’s been difficult to try and rebuild.

I am trying to get better at all this, and with my family’s help, I’m trying to see myself and my work in a more positive light. Seeing my art up in the gallery was inspiring, regardless of how terrifying it was, and how nervous I still am of the secret judgement it might receive. To push myself out of my own boundaries and comfort zone, I also agreed to to my own solo exhibition, which should hopefully happen sometime in 2023.

There are still separate blogs about mental health that I want to write, but I am so happy that this step was taken. It has given me a new-found push and excitement towards my art that I haven’t felt for a long time.

As for the exhibition: it has concluded now (as I was silly and forgot to press publish on this blog several weeks ago because Mum was very poorly – oops). I truly do recommend going and seeing the gallery when they re-open in March. I wasn’t kidding when I said there was incredible art in there, including a few I fell in love with (I’m a sucker for sea-scapes).

Thank you ArtismUK for being so brilliant, and thank you to Mum. You know why.

Cerys, out!