Being a senior in college, I have been thinking a lot about my future and where I want to be in a year. I know where I want to live, but I have no idea what my future plans are. I know I have a family business that I will work at, but what else? I Think I would like to work at a company called iD3, but they are downtown, and this family business is more important to me than that. As an artist, I don't want to lose that aspect of my life either. I know I want to keep creating, but right now I guess I don't really know how.
I have been stressing since last April about our Senior Exhibition that I will be participating in this coming April. The artists that were exhibiting their work were all students, but there was one in particular that stressed me out. Donté was a fantastic artist who has now gone on to The University of Iowa to complete graduate school. His portfolio of work and his resume was so intense that I didn't think I was good enough. He has exhibited at so many galleries, and had so many experiences that I did not have yet. I was stressed because I knew I needed to get my work out there, and apply for these exhibitions, but I really didn't know where to start.
I talked to Donte and a few teachers to figure out what I should be doing, and they just pointed me to a few websites that have calls for artwork. They basically told me to just build my portfolio of work by making things that I am proud of. Make things for the sake of being an artist and wanting to make things, not just because a teacher tells me to. If I am not proud of the work myself, then no gallery is going to want to display it either.
I immediately got online and started searching for calls. I applied to 2 calls with cheap admission fees. I got rejected from both. It was definitely saddening to get rejected, so I did not apply to any more for the rest of the summer.
I had to sit think to myself about what I am doing. I am a senior art student, and I need to be putting myself out there in order to get the recognition I want, and to get eyes on my work that I need.  I realized how many successful people started out by getting rejected or fired. I realized my starting place will probably not immediately push me into success. There are very few artists who became famous or dependent on their work overnight.
All of a sudden about 2 weeks ago, I started coming across these calls again, and found two that looked like I would have a good chance at. I decided it was worth the application fee just to try. One call was for a cup show that I stumbled upon through Instagram. I submitted 5 mugs I created this spring, and I am hopeful that at least 1 will be included in the exhibition. Another call was for a Small Works show that I submitted my Tipping Point coral necklace. I will hear back from that one in 3 days, so I am crossing my fingers. As a few days passed, 2 more opportunities came out of nowhere. There is no possible chance for me to be included if I don't try. So I did.  I have now applied for 4 calls. It has taken a while to get the courage, but I have started to put myself out there for my own benefit. For any other artist reading this, I highly encourage you to put yourself out there as well, no matter the skill level. We have to start somewhere, and there is no time like the present. It is never too early to try.

Below I have added a few pictures of the pieces I submitted.