Last weekend took place the only international art fair in Vancouver: Art! Vancouver, media covered event which is affiliated with the famous Art! Basil and Art! Miami. Despite my promise that I won't do group shows anymore, I was part of it. Here is why.
With my beautiful client Janeta. A true angel. I've been blessed with very "aware" people in my life.
Honestly, I don't do group shows anymore. I am in my 6th year of full time artist career (12 years if I count part time) and I am lucky enough to have big enough following on social media and direct clients and fans from my past exhibitions that I do not need to do group shows anymore.
People come to me these days, I don't chase them anymore. Dream of every artist I guess, and not an obvious one to attain. I feel super lucky to be able to live comfortably off my art without busting my ass with 5 shows a year as I used to. Obviously success is not about the former (luck) but about the latter (busting the ass). As a matter of fact, success is not about money or fame at all. It's about the level of joy in present moment regardless of outside circumstances, as Osho would affirm.
That does not mean I don't work 12 hours a day 7 days a week anymore. Art is a demanding lover. It requires daily sacrifice.
Art!Vancover in Convention Center.
I used to do lots of shows, and not just group shows, where somebody organizes everything and I just pay the participation fee and show up with my art. Oh no, that's easy. I was never about the easy way though, I always preferred to follow my own path, guided solely by my intuition. And that gut feeling told me- organize your own shows, do it in your own style, without anybody telling me what I can or can't do. And that's exactly how I did it. Back in 2013 I organized my first solo exhibition in my studio.
Poster of my first solo show. How exiting times those were!
Back then I decided that all of my shows will support a charitable cause. And so my first show was supporting local elementary school and another charity. I was able to get in over 50 people to my first show (one night event), which wasn't bad at all considering that not many knew me back then. I donated 2 paintings to the charity raffle (for which I managed to get about 10 more prizes from different businesses) and sold tickets for 5 bucks. Out of that, I was able to give big enough cheque to the Strathcona elementary school to buy computers for a class of children with special needs. Hearing that from vice-principal was absolutely amazing. Plus few hundreds still went to cancer foundation Callanish Society.
And that's how I got the ball rolling. After “Walking with Magic” (name of my first event), my shows only got bigger, and eventually I had to rent a larger venue, where hundreds of Vancoverites walked through in one day. It became habit of mine to give public talk, which eventually got me into public speaking too, since people seemed to like my genuine unprepared style, addressing spirituality in the context of modern world (I was one of the speakers at Man Talks last September as well as Vancouver Real podcast guest in November).
If this sounds easy, I invite you to try and pull of a successful art event. Design of prints, posters, hunting for venue, marketing, media, logistics etc. All of it one man team.
"For the Love of Vancouver, for the love of Surreal", was the best solo show I did in 2014.
It's surprisingly hard to get people come to an art show, especially in Vancouver. If the weather is nice, everybody is chilling at the beach or sipping cocktails at the patios. Vancouver is not the best place to be an artist, or so I use to hear all the time. But I don't believe in good place or good fortune. I believe in good mindset. The bulletproof mindset that never thinks about option B, if the “art thing” does not work out. Not even at my brokest (and God was I broke back in 2013!) I did not let myself doubt that I will make it as an artist. I burned my entire savings but I still did not pick up a part time job. I gues that's why, in the latest possible moment, God stopped testing me and sales started to stream in.
"Awakening", my biggest show to the date. If I wasn't smiling too much it's because I was exhausted.
What I learned is this: make a clear vision and give it your best. And your best is definitely not in your comfort zone. And it's not what you imagine either. It's sweaty, it's bloody and it's desperate, sad and painful. But the outcome will save your life. It will make you a human being that stands out of the rat race crowd. It will make you jump out of the bed in the morning like it's sunny Saturday every day, with itchy hands to continue the unfinished work from yesterday.
When I see this expression in beautiful human faces, I know I made my job.
Wow, looking what I wrote, I got quite sidetracked here, from what I wanted to write about originally. But at least it came from the heart, without second thought.
So back to Art! Vancouver art fair. I told you I don't do group shows anymore. In 2014-16 I did at least 3, sometimes up to 5 shows a year. It build my following and set me apart from less committed semi-professionals. Those crazy years are gone though.
Nevertheless when the organizer offered me a 25 feet booth as an appreciation for my art, I was flattered and accepted. Art!Vancouver takes place in the super modern Vancouver Convention Center, quite a place to show at. The organizer, familiar with my art, asked for my larger paintings, which I welcomed, but I could not find a big enough truck to transport them from where they were exhibited. Luckily enough, the largest one- Gaia Reborn, is hanging in Floathouse in Gastown, only 6 blocks from Convention Center. And so we did it the old school way. The good ol' manual way.
Carrying "Gaia Reborn" through Gastown. Stop at the Vapor clock:)
We carried Gaia through the packed Water Street, by filled patios (one of them started to applause as we passed by :) and we took a break right by the famous Vapour clock and in front of Waterfront station, making quite a few people snap photos and cameras. It was just so much fun.
Stop at Waterfront station.
Show itself was a success, I got tremendous amount of feedback and new connections. You know, I don't care about praise just as I don't care about negative feedback. I am my own biggest critique. I am not crazy about my art nor am I super proud of it. I know that I can do better, and I see myself as eternal student on a long path of improvement. But when people are so deeply touched by my art that they open their hearts to me, I can't help but feel good.
Part of my booth in Art!Vancouver.
Main booth featuring 5 of my large paintings.
After all, that is the main reason why I started to paint- to feel good. And slowly I extended that goal upon everyone else. I paint to make people feel good. It's as simple as that.
Because one moment of relinquishing the control of worry-filled mind to the joy of your heart can change your whole life. One moment of remembering who you really are.
Thank you for reading,
With Love and Gratitude,
Jan
Follow @jankasparec
Handing over cheques to charities (Yoga Outreach in this case) is one of the best parts of my job.
