The soul wants what the soul wants.
My soul wants to be an artist. I knew this as a child, but somewhere between the ages of 13 and 30 I stopped listening. I still knew this to be true, but I didn’t act on it.
Now. In my 40th year, I can say I am following my soul’s path. This weekend I had my first art show. I showed up. I stood in front of my work, and I shared it with the world.
…and it was awesome!
Of course there was the art.
It took 365 days to create and 5 months to frame.
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There was my mother’s Framing Gallery which turned 40 years old and has never looked prettier.
But 100% for me, the day was all about the people.
Oh man the amazing amount of people who came out to root me on! I paused an extra 15 seconds to soak up each and every hug. I have never felt as much love as I did when I looked around that room. There were people who love art, people who love The Framing Gallery, and people who love me.
I felt it with all my heart.
That was my biggest wish, that people would come, and they did. Thank you, I am so eternally grateful!
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But there’s more…
I ACTUALLY SOLD ART!!! WAHOO!!!
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If you don’t mind, I just wanted to take this moment to thank my mother (and my Aunt Mary and Aunt Judy – they are all woven from the same cloth!)
She always believes in me unconditionally.
She is my biggest cheerleader.
She buys the first ticket to whatever cockamamie adventure I have dreamt up (and signs her two sisters up too!)
She will be honest with me when I really need to hear the truth.
and she does everything with a smile.
Thank you Mom.
Spending the last couple weeks with you, working our tails off, laughing and enjoying this entire venture made this experience absolutely worthwhile.
I am so thankful to have such an amazing force in my life. truly.
Thank you again everyone, for reading, following, showing up, supporting and pushing me forward. It took many hands to make this dream come true!
Thank you.
Be Creative Mary
Be Creative Mary 
Congratulations, Mary, I wish I could have been there to share in your joy.
It was an amazing show. No stuffiness just fun and love! Amazing to see how big some of the work actually was in person. Even some that I did not care for on the computer were AMAZING in real life-in a frame,on a wall. Congratulations! You deserve it!
Congrats Mary on a wonderful day! See, you really are an artist in every sense of the word now AND following your dream!… and it is brilliant you reaped rewards too, you totally deserve it, YAY!. Where would we be without our mothers?!? I am so pleased you had a brilliant time — Have you got the next one planned yet, or are you still recovering from last year? :-)
I am taking this 365 show on the road… One more stop July 19th in Rhode Island. Now that the framing is done, I hope to get back to painting. I sure miss it! Thank you blogging community, I feel like I have friends around the world!