Friday, December 27, 2013

One Wish Come True


"Dreams come with wings. It is up to you to give them legs." -Saiisha

https://www.etsy.com/listing/130632837
I'm one of those folks who doesn't like to make New Year resolutions because it's too much trouble to keep up with them. But I did make a wish list this year - on the 1st day of 2013. And then promptly forgot about it.

I remembered it again in October, almost when the year was ending. The reason I remembered it was that one of my wishes had come true! I went back and looked at my list, because I really didn't remember what else I had put on it, and I was shocked and amazed to see that all my wishes had come true - yes, even the big ones! It was like magic out of thin air - but in reality, it was simply a material manifestation of my wishes. It was a vision into how energy becomes matter.

I won't talk about all my wishes, but one, here - to show my art work at a gallery this year. I didn't do anything to pursue that dream, however in October, I chanced to receive a mass email invitation to local artists to display their art at the CC Arts gallery for the upcoming months. I applied, not really expecting to be picked, but I was picked promptly for the current month, and I worked late nights for a week to mat and frame 15 pieces of my art to show at the Corridor 410 gallery at CC Arts. I titled my collection, 'Vanaprastha', showing fall colors, since I like to think fall is nature's transitional season after the innocence of spring and the abundance of summer - nature then seems to transition into ripeness or wisdom of fall (before letting go in winter); just like Vanaprastha [Sanskrit: gone to the forest] is a transitional phase in man's life to start letting go of the accumulations and possessions of his earlier life and instead gaining wisdom and maturity of his older years. Vanaprastha is also the phase of my life that I'm currently transitioning into, and so it all seemed to fit perfectly.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/172582460


The show went well, and then I was invited to show at a local café in November, where they like to support artists by giving them one of their walls to hang art. And then someone who happened to see my online shop at Etsy invited me to attend their arts and crafts fair (that was another of my wishes) one weekend in November, which was a lot of work, but a great success and good experience for me. Someone else who saw my work at the café signed me up to show my winter photography at yet another coffee shop for January. And all these coincidences gave me confidence to approach an art gallery to see if the proprietor would be interested in showing my work, and he promptly agreed and gave me February.

And so I made bold to add a new column on my blog to list my upcoming shows, hoping that these coincidences weren't merely coincidences, but a start to something bigger. Because my ultimate wish is to someday be able to earn a living from my writing and art, and let go of my day job at the bank. I can wish!