Redtree Times

Serene Gratitude— At West End Gallery

I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expect everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate good…. If we will take the good we find,… we shall have heaping measures….

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Experience

Today is the last day to see this year’s edition of my annual solo show, Persistent Rhythm, at the West End Gallery. 

It’s always a little bittersweet at the end of any show, seeing the work come off the walls. You wish it could stay up longer, of course. Or that certain pieces had garnered more attention. Or that you could have changed one thing or another or said something different at some time in the gallery. 

But it’s also a time to look back on the show with a sense of pride and gratitude. Pride in the sense that I feel that I have done my very best and that each piece in the show well represents what I hope shows through in my work. 

The gratitude is for the opportunity to do what I do. Gratitude for those who follow my work and support me. Gratitude for the gallery owners, such as Jesse Gardner at the West End Gallery, who have graciously given me the opportunity to showcase my work. Gratitude for the opportunity to express myself in the way I want.

Yeah, it feels a little sad when a show ends but it also highlights how fortunate I have been to even have a show in the first place.

And that is, in the words of Emerson, one of those small mercies.

And thank you for reading along. Much appreciated.

Now get out of here before I poke you with a stick…