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Six Years That Started with a Gift


As I celebrate my sixth year of being a working, exhibiting artist, it seems like I started just yesterday. Yet it also feels like I've been doing this fine art thing for a lifetime.


Perhaps for good reason. Being a creative is not new to me from the time my third grade teacher entered one of my hand paintings in a statewide competition, to my lengthy career as an independent designer and art hobbyist.


But this new journey started with a gift. In March of 2018, I was given a digital sketch pad and pen. It wasn't a special occasion or gift-giving holiday, it was just a simple gift given by a dear friend.


A bit about this friend who gave such a fundamental gift in the context of this story; he was a homeless veteran who hardly had two sticks to rub together. At the time, I was also struggling to make a living in an industry that was shrinking for independents like myself. I, too, had lost things along the way—my home, my car, other things of value—and was feeling somewhat washed up, used up.


And there I might have stayed if not for the gift of the pen and pad, along with God's grace, that has made all the difference.


With this gift I started doodling and sketching and becoming immersed once again in this thing called art. I was having a good time, indulging in what I called 'Sketch Sessions' and posting them on social media. I started collecting admirers of my sketches, a few here, a few more there.


In December of 2018, I came across an open call for a summer art festival in Laguna Beach. I felt led to apply with zero expectations. Imagine the chutzpah of someone who had been digitally doodling for a only few months thinking she could pass muster with a jury of accomplished career artists and be invited into a well-known and established festival?


In February of 2019 I received notification that I was juried into the festival. To say I was thrilled is an understatement. To say I was overwhelmed when I received the information outlining preparation (and cost) of participation is also an understatement. I almost backed out of the whole deal, thinking: 'there's no way I can pull this off.'


As a neophyte in the realm of exhibiting and selling art, I had intimidating hurdles to jump. But I jumped them cleanly and put together my first public art display.


2019 was the year art ceased to be a pastime and became actual 'work'. Six years later and I'm enjoying a look back, charting the progress. I've grown up, gotten better in my technique, and, most importantly, learned how not to do things.


For the first time on this journey, I have art hanging in three different galleries at the same time—the Ontario Museum of History and Art, the Chaffey Community Museum of Art and Covet Gallery. This may not be a big deal to some artists, but it is to me. I'm still a bit of a newbie, you see, who wants to keep that wide-eyed, childish wonder throughout.


Will I continue to expand or is this the best it's going to get? I truly don't know. I continue to create art and answer art calls and opportunities. That's all.


My one regret amidst all this—after my friend gave me that gift, he disappeared into the ether and I have not seen him since. I regret he has not been able to see what good things I had accomplished with his good gift.


That gift stopped working two years ago and I've moved on to more advanced implements since. But I've kept that original pen as a reminder of what a little kernel of hope and a prayer can accomplish in a dark and uncertain time.

 
 
 

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© 2019 by Victoria Caro Johnson / The Sketchie Beast

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