When I attended Brooke Shaden’s workshop last november, she asked us to write down three things we would like to do or accomplish in 2014. I wrote:
1. Shoot once per month (at least)
2. Get my work exhibited by the end of the year
3. Sell a picture to a publishing house

I’ve managed to do the first one since then. I went through my files and saw that I have at least 5 shoots per month. The third one, not yet. But the second is what I want to tell you about! I had my first exhibition and it still feels unreal. I exhibited 5 pieces with The Art Beat during Art Night/Art Week at DIFC. It was a blast, I got to meet so many interesting people. I got amazing feedback and I couldn’t be happier. It wasn’t all good though, some said my work is too dark, too violent, too depressing. Which I’m totally okay with because my work is a part of me. And I appreciated the fact that they took the time to tell me what they think.

The exhibition was up from the 17th of March till the 20th, and by the third day, even though it was an amazing event, I did get a little discouraged. I felt like it might be far-fetched but I really wanted to sell my prints. So on the third day, an Emirati woman came up to me with her friend and we kept talking for a long time about art in general, about my art, and about what she does. She fell in love with Bidding Farewell and said that if it was bigger (it was 90×90 cm), and on canvas, she would’ve bought it. Before leaving she said she’d give me a call if she changed her mind. So the next day (last day), I saw her walking around so I said hi. She came back to look at Bidding Farewell, and told me she’s taking it! I got SO excited!! She told me she’d send someone to pick it up. A few hours later she calls me and says that she saw my website and she also wants to buy The Redeemed Soul (which wasn’t exhibited). I had to contain my excitement over the phone and tried to act super cool and all, but when I hung up I hugged the first person I saw – which, luckily, was a friend of mine.

I posted that picture on Facebook with the caption “I bid farewell to Bidding Farewell”, which sounds a little lame now but I have to admit I thought it was funny (I have the worst sense of humor).

So now that I have one thing remaining from that list, I feel the need to set more challenges for myself. It’s crazy, and for the longest time I thought it was some kind of myth. It took me the longest time to believe that good things do happen; that when you truly believe you can achieve something, you do. All it takes is belief. And with belief comes the determination and drive to make things happen.

Honestly, I can’t wait to to add more things to my checklist. Also, I think the three goals I wrote are things I’ll always keep trying to do. I’ll always try to get into exhibitions, always try to shoot more than 5 times a month, and always try to sell or keep selling images to book publishers.

One of the people I met during GPP2014, who’s now a friend (yay!), wrote a blog post about Art Night and mentioned me, what a sweetheart! Thank you so much Karien ❤
check out her post here: Illusions In Space

2014-2017 Events