Remember to dream and take a chance!

It's been a long few months since I shipped my art journals off to California on a journey of their own. It was something that I never thought I'd do... send my original art work somewhere to be considered for publishing. But I did it. Because I was asked to. And several months later, here I am holding a copy of Art Journaling magazine, in my local Chapters store, and it has my art work in it. Wow! Never thought I'd see this happen.

Now, since seeing my magazine article, side by side with some highly esteemed artists, I got to thinking "What if I had never uploaded my work in galleries, and never opened myself up for praise, or heaven forbid, critique?" What if I never took that risk? Well for one, I would likely have missed out on a dream come true.

Using Scrapbooking from the Inside Out's February Risk kit

I always wanted to know what it would feel like to open a magazine and see your work there, spread out on the pages. And to be truthful, given my own self doubt when it comes to art, I always figured that if my art was published in a magazine I could finally honestly call myself an artist. And I wasn't published because I took a risk by submitting my work to a magazine because of a call. Are you kidding me? I wasn't willing to stick my neck out there - to take that risk. So I took the risk down a notch and went about it in baby steps. I posted my work online, in a public gallery. And then when I got a bit braver, I added it to groups, where peers could critique it or admire it (always hoping for the latter of course). And that little risk led to a big dream happening for me. I was asked to submit my work for consideration, and write an article. Wow! All from just taking one chance, one risk. Now I know that not everyone would consider posting their work online a risk. But as a new artist, exposing myself to criticism was something I felt I wasn't completely comfortable with. But I did it anyhow.

They say that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Isn't that the truth! I guess the way I look at things is if the shot is too risky, see if you can take baby steps to get there. And watch your dreams come true!