Declaring yourself an artist and handing the piece over are two different things entirely

Update on the "I am an artist" first experience: Yesterday, I entered the Mid-Cities Fine Arts Juried Exhibition with my self-designed piece of embroidery that I had matted and framed. I'll attach a picture of it to this blog. If I've done an attachment before, well, too bad, I'm really proud of this piece. Back to the story............

Gulp. Now this show isn’t exactly the MOMA in New York City. For pete’s sake, it’s in the Hurst Recreation Center. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen. Well, actually, I did. I'd had daymares as well as nightmares of what submitting a piece was going to be like. I was sure that I would be laughed at, or even worse, sneered at and told to take my "craft" home.

After all, St. Paul people like my pre-designed kits and flowers, and admire my technique, but no one there has been too receptive to my own designs. Well, I took the picture over to the Hurst Rec Center, and the first thing that happened was some midget middle-aged helmet haired woman wearing what looked to me like a housecoat said, “What’s this supposed to be?” “What’s it made out of?” Where are we supposed to put this?” I just wanted to vanish like a wisp of smoke and take my picture with me. My worst fears were unrolling right in front of my eyes in real time.

Fortunately, a couple of angelic savior women working the show came over and said, “Wow. That’s amazing.” “You designed this yourself and did all the work?” “Of course, we’ll put it in ‘mixed media’; it’s spectacular.” So I started breathing again, and smiled for real instead of continuting this sort of rictus grin – you know the kind you see in a Halloween fright movie of the insane killer? The roaring in my ears stopped enough to hear that I’m supposed to be there Sunday afternoon at 3:30 for the reception and the awards, I guess. There are prizes which are probably the equivalent of state fair ribbons. I don’t care. My picture is hanging on the wall WITH OTHER ARTISTS. I’ll let you know what happens. To be continued.....................