I finished painting Friday afternoon, went back to the hotel to meet up with my family just as they got into town, and then returned to the gallery later in the evening for something really special!
I didn't sign an NDA for it, but I'm also not sure if I can blab about it much.
But while I waited for things to get set up, Eric was walking me through his sketchbook that he started keeping.
He lets other artists draw in it, and I totally took him up on the offer to scribble in it to help give my nervous energy an outlet LOL
Hopefully I can share more about that project soon!

And here are some pictures of the day of the show!!
After the instagram live tour (if you missed it, I have them pinned on my IG profile: https://www.instagram.com/lioninthetrees/ ), my family and I toured the gallery along with the dogs!

And here are some pictures from the opening reception!!

The last photos I took of the night. You can kind of see how tired I am LMAOO
I spoke literally non-stop the entire time I was there—4 hours. And by the end, my voice was so hoarse LOL

I think this picture's my favourite out of them all 🙂

Some of the folks at the gallery actually bought me pastries which I thought was the sweetest thing ever. It genuinely touched my heart and reminded me of when my family and I visited Korea, and my cousins had brought over some vegetarian mandu for me to eat when we landed.
I have spent so much of my life chasing the love the comes from a romantic partner, but the past few years I've been trying to notice and embrace more of the love that comes from family, friends, and community. It's not the same as what you can get from a romantic partner, but it is equally special and important.

Here's a look at the adorable box:

It was such a beautiful and magical night! It almost feels like a dream.
I'm so proud of myself and I love that it turned out exactly how I wanted.

---

Here's a look at the very beginning—the birth of this show—in my sketchbook:

The white board I put up in my garage to keep track of things before I moved everything over to a spreadsheet—

Some more pictures from my sketchbook—

A look at the beginning of the Polaris Totem—

These are sketches from me literally standing in my backyard, in the dark, sketching the Big Dipper constellation and the Polaris star over and over again as I saw it in the night sky to better understand it's shape/their relationship. Much like those who have come before me in ancient times—

And the sketch pages from when I got the "__, United" series idea with my Korean and Black American symbol—

It honestly feels a little bittersweet that the show is over now, because I worked so hard for an entire year for this show.
I also took an extra couple of days to paint on the walls of the gallery before the opening reception!
But I suppose—much like the seasons and life itself—it was a beautiful thing that was meant to exist for a brief window of time.

It was such a joy and blessing to put it all together and experience.
It's felt so good and validating to see others experience my work, in-person, on this level and have them react so positively to it all.
It's a different—and more fulfilling—feeling compared to "likes".

Now that the show has been birthed into the world, I've been asking myself—
Where do I go from here?

And honestly, I'm not quite sure.
The well of inspiration I've been drawing from feels temporarily closed, but I'm getting the feeling that I just need to explore and experiment. And through those experiments and time I'll discover a new ocean of inspiration.