Art for sale ..
The occasion - the annual holiday art show. The venue - Chastain arts center where I learn chinese brush painting. The reason it has special significance - two of my paintings are on display there along with a myriad of other great art work.

I was a bundle of mixed emotions today when I saw them hanging at the gallery next to art work from other students. I felt thrilled that I had created something that was actually worth displaying yet on the other hand, felt saddened too at the thought that if they actually sold, I would never see them again. Parting is such sweet sorrow wrote Shakespeare and I totally agree. There is also this tiny little voice in my head whispering that the paintings might not sell. Not to worry I tell myself, if that happens, I will gift them away to friends or hang them up on the walls at home.

At another art show earlier this year, I had displayed only one painting at my teacher's behest but had no idea that someone would actually buy it. So I was quite pleasantly surprised when I walked into the art director's office thinking I would pick up my painting and he said - no, you cant. When I asked why he said - you cant pick up your painting but you can pick up a check! My elation knew no bounds since this was the first time I had actually sold a painting. The coolest part was someone actually appreciated what I had painted and my painting is hanging in someone's kitchen or living room now. Didnt hurt that I got a nice check I promptly deposited and of course I called my family and friends to know that I had sold my first piece of art.

I dont know if my paintings will catch someone's eyes this time as well or if they will buy it but the high I felt seeing my art on display was enough to make my day today. For the duration of time I work on a painting, I am lost to all problems and stress that are part of everyday life. I savor those moments of creativity, my mind empties itself of all thoughts, focusing solely on what I am trying to portray on the paper. The intensity of the colors, the shades and shapes I am trying to achieve is such a rush. The creative process is therapeautic indeed. Each of my paintings is a labor of love to me and creating something others can appreciate is definitely worth striving for.

"Art is a way of saying what it means to be alive, and the most salient feature of existence is the unthinkable odds against it. For every way that there is of being here, there are an infinity of ways of not being here. Historical accident snuffs out whole universes with every clock tick. Statistics declare us ridiculous. Thermodynamics prohibits us. Life, by any reasonable measure, is impossible, and my life—this, here, now—infinitely more so. Art is a way of saying, in the face of all that impossibility, just how worth celebrating it is to be able to say anything at all."
- Richard Powers