I don't give myself nearly enough credit. Ever. I'd love to say that just admitting that helps make me better at accepting credit for my achievements, but in all honesty, I still have a hard time receiving accolades, comments, and positive feedback. I don't know why it has been challenging for me to believe, but it's just how I am sometimes. I'm working on that, though, slowly.

A big help came in two forms in the past few weeks, and both revolve around my book that has finally been released, A Southern Verse. The first was a trip to Venice to present the book at the end of the exhibition I was part of there. The other was getting to finally show the book to some people, outside of close friends and family, for the first time.

First off, just about any excuse to go to Italy works for me. Having my work in the European Cultural Centre's (ECC) "Time, Space, Existence" exhibition would have been good enough. However, after working with them for almost two years (thanks Covid), they felt it would be nice to have me present the book at the final ceremonies for the exhibition. The work that I displayed was all either from the book or from the making of it, so it was fitting. 

I can't express how nervous I was doing this presentation, but my wife assures me that I did very well. There were some technical difficulties, but luckily none of them were on my end. I think the one thing I know I did well at the moment was not to acknowledge that it was also being live-streamed around the world. 

Unfortunately for us, this was the first time we could make it to the exhibition. Don't get me wrong, we're more than fortunate to have been able to go at all. This was, however, the last day the exhibition was open. It was amazing, though. I can't express how impressive all the work's design and artistry was. The shock of being a part of the exhibition, though, has worn off and left me just humbled and proud and maybe a little excited. My work was associated with the Venice Architectural Biennale. That will never change. I have that to hold onto now. I don't want to sound boastful, but it made me feel validated in a way that has offered confidence I have lacked.

I will try to go into detail about Venice and everything a little later, but the experience as a whole was fantastic and only made me want to do more.

Now the other part! A few days ago, completely out of the blue, I got a call from a trucking company asking me if I could be available the next day for them to deliver a palette of books. I knew they would be coming sometime in November but had been given no date. Well, December 1st brought all my copies of A Southern Verse to the carport of our house!

I had been expecting this day to come, but I really had no idea what would come of it. Of course, my biggest concern was finding a place to store all the books once they got to the house. Luckily, we have storage, so I got that covered. However, the unexpected positive that came from the day was getting to share the book with people as I took it to places to either sell or consign. It isn't very often that you get to see people you hardly know have their first reaction to your work, but putting a book in their hand and watching them enjoy it brought me some needed happiness and feelings of accomplishment that I hadn't allowed myself. This was so enjoyable that I really wish I could hand-deliver each of the pre-ordered copies.

Again, I'm in no way trying to make myself seem any more amazing than I actually am, but for once, I'm both proud and excited about my work. Obviously, I wouldn't keep doing it if I didn't love it, but there are definitely times when you aren't sure if what you're doing is really hitting the mark. I hope that no matter what it is that you, the one reading this, do, that you can find the positive things that keep you going. If you're an artist, I hope you find your audience, but mainly, your belief in yourself and your work.