SO MUCH has been happening in my life lately that I'm needing the moment to just sit back and "chill" a minute!
To start things off, on Sunday while my husband was still home, we went and talked to a guy named Brian about me getting a wall in his gallery. I was super excited to have a whole wall. When we got there it was not what I had expected at all. It's not a "art council" type of gallery. It's a "real world" type of gallery. Does that make sense??? It's basically a small apartment that has been turned into a gallery. I was a bit skeptical at first, I mean, who really does that to an apartment? BUT, he doesn't live there, just rents/owns the space for this gallery. His first show was a solo show of his work. He does some really awesome paintings on canvas. He had three hanging in the room when we walked in, the Jack Daniels sign, some dance steps and the gang from the foxtrot cartoon. It didn't take me long to figure it out that the three went together as "Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot" or in people terms "What The F***". It was actually quite neat.
Brain told me I would be the first actual Photographer to be in any of his shows. That most of them are local artists from the Southern Pines are and most just do cell phone pics, canvas painting, wood drawing, or even sticky note drawings! But I guess it's been a great turn out for him so far. We were talking about my favorite images of his and his all time favorite was the Lightning strike one (duh LOL). Brandon said something about me getting that image as a large one and Brian said that would be great. Then all of a sudden Brian says, "wait, you know what. Your pictures are just so amazing and different then what I've done in here before, I'd love to start the new year with you doing a SOLO show!"
WHAT!!!!! A SOLO SHOW!!!!! How in the world could I pull that off in such little time???? GAH!
But low and behold, my husband came home that night and sat me down and we made it work! I ordered every framed print I needed from my website and also ordered a bunch of 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10s for little back up pictures.
The prices for my work I think has turned out good too, not too high, not too low.
The 4x6's will be $15, 5x7's will be $30, 8x10's $50, 9x14's $150, 20x30's $400 and the big 48x32 metal print of the lightning will be $550.
I often ask myself if someone would buy these prints at that price.....honestly, I have NO idea! The 20x30 that I already did at the gallery downtown was $400 and it sold so......possibly LOL
Should I make then a little lower in price though???? *sigh*
Anyways.....The stress of all this was deciding what pictures to put where, what size those pictures need to be, how many to put on each wall......Here's a small run down of what we came up with.
There are 4 main walls that I will be getting. I'm just now thinking about it and I might ask him to put some more up through-out the little apartment so there is more room....hum, a need to ask question for sure. Then I don't have to have the "door wall" so cluttered with prints. AND I have 20 more prints ordered that aren't accounted for in these diagrams so yeah :) I'm SO EXCITED! What do you think? Does this look like enough? Too much? Should I change some around a bit? See how this could be so stressful? LOL
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In other news, there has been a little bit of chatter on my part about going to Australia next spring with my MOM! Yup, I've always promised her that I would take her to the wonderful land of OZ and I'm not going to disappoint! We both are getting older as the days go by and I want to make sure that we are able to still have an amazing time while we are there! So, plans are being made as of right now, to go in April of 2016! What does a trip like this cost? Well, an estimate I came up with is about $12,000. But the cost is totally going to be all about how long we stay and how many amazing trips we want to do while we are there! I even saw they had a hot air balloon ride along the Great Beerier Reef! How amazing would that be. And could you imagine the pictures I'm going to get while I'm there! EEK! So much to think, plan and do.
Because of this new adventure that's in the works, I'm doing a bit of babysitting on the side while the kids are in school. I'm also going to be pushing my photography a lot more :) Who knows, if these prints don't sell at the Gallery Night I might just sell them from my Facebook page and lots of people who really love me and my work can buy them from me! Wouldn't that be great. (Jeanne and Marnie, if you are reading this, I've got the perfect ones for you ladies LOL).
So if there's anything anyone of you need from me, or pictures you'd like to see me take, please don't hesitate to ask! I've got 12 grand I need to make in a YEAR! hehehehe
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OH! And I've done more weeks with my 52 week photography challenge. Remember me telling you all about that a few weeks ago? Well, here's what I've done so far.....
WEEK 2 - TIME
This pocket watch belonged to my husband's grandfather. He was an amazing man! From the moment I met him (and Granny) I knew they were going to love me like I was blood family. I would do anything for them (and did when I was needed). Paw-Paw was our Santa Clause. He was the closest resemblance I have ever seen with the white hair and beard. He even had his very own Santa suit! He always made me smile and loved listening to my stories. He passed away in 2009 and I miss him so very much. I know he's keeping an eye on us though. While we lived in Italy, every 6 months or so, we would see a guy who looked just like Paw-Paw. He would always smile at us with a twinkle in his eye. Every time I saw him I would be sure to stop and ask how he was and that I hope he had a great day. I would leave him with a tear in my eye. I had seen him twice before my husband saw him for the first time. When Brandon saw him he couldn't hardly believe his eyes. I told him it was Paw-Paw checking in on us and from then on every time Brandon saw him he would shake his hand. Since we've moved to the states it's only been once a year or so that we see someone resembling Paw-Paw. It's only been while Brandon and I are together and every time I squeeze Brandon's arm or hand, smile, make it a point to at least say hi and walk away with a tear in my eye. I've never missed anyone so much after they've passed *sigh*
WEEK 3 - NATURE
I'm sure you remember this picture from the frozen fountains post but it's really been brown and a whole lot of nothing lately so I haven't taken the camera outside much at all. So Ta-Da! Nature LOL
And there you have it, my few days in one (kinda long) blog. Next post will be MY PRINTS ARE HERE! Hopefully LOL Stay tuned!
~Till Next Time
