Maggie Quinn Art – Spring Garden of Artists on Chaleur Bay

Thursday May 16 2024. Well my May Day Exhibit period is over for this year. I had begun working on it January 5 according to my notes. The first rough drawings materialized on that day and by January 10 I was fully immersed. I was also learning a brand new skill during that time.

As I mentioned previously, the work I did during those first three months were to have been presented as my May exhibit. I’m not sure exactly when I forced myself to answer the question,

“Why bother?”

Memories of what I had previously gone through came gushing in, the empty promises of help and support, the people who never showed up to meetings, the exclusion I experienced as a result of not joining a certain art group, the demand that I purchase over a million dollars worth of insurance before being permitted to rent an exhibit space, the theft and/or destruction of my art work. Begging for and being denied some modest space to exhibit my work. No, this was not a matter of personal feelings that I should conquer with a more positive mental attitude. These were real things that happened.

Then there were the subtler points, like being criticized for not ‘growing a business’ out of my art, being told I should try harder to sell my art or to use my various skills copying and mass-producing popular crafts that are in fashion. I realize such comments are prompted by lack of understanding of what my art is and why I’ve seemingly wasted years on a frivolous ‘hobby’. I’m usually able to bounce back and that is what I did this time when I saw the irony in it all.

Realizing that there was no interest in my art wasn’t a revelation. We are living in strange times. I once had a friend tell me that I should do drugs to produce better art. I don’t do drugs. I do art.