At the start of this year, in the goals section of my calendar book, I wrote the words “solo show.” That meant that back in January 2025, I wasn’t just dreaming about it—I believed it was something I could actually make happen.
It wasn’t until April that I took the first step: reaching out to Robyn Feehan, gallery owner at The Gallery 8680. Robyn and her husband have been pillars of support for the Frisco arts community for over 16 years, giving many artists their first real start. I knew this was where I wanted my debut to be. We discussed the idea of me holding a show there later in the year, since I still needed time to figure out exactly what the show would be and make sure I had enough work to fill the space.
In the meantime, I kept creating—exploring directions like a mosaic portraiture series of women from around the world (using random blocks of image inversion), my “glow” themed works, and the decades-long “dream” series I’ve been building over time. It became clear that I had a three-series show on my hands. By May, Robyn and I set August as the official month.
The reality didn’t fully hit me until June, when I paid the fee. Suddenly, panic set in as I realized how much was left to do. I got the wall dimensions from Robyn and mapped them to scale in Adobe Illustrator, gridding everything out. I plugged in the dimensions of the works I had finished and quickly saw what space was still empty.
Then came the marathon work sessions: 12–14 hour days, up at 6 or 6:30 a.m., painting until 8:30 or 9 at night for weeks. (Yes, I took lunch breaks, and yes, we squeezed in a family vacation to New Mexico.) I pushed to finish the mosaic series—ten 24”x24” and three 36”x36” pieces—plus works from the dream series that has been evolving for over two decades.
Of course, the show wasn’t just about the artwork. I also had to finalize the price list and QR codes, write the overall artist statement plus series statements (especially for the dream series), and prepare my speech. On top of that came promotion through newsletters and social media, which I batched and scheduled in advance.
When the final evening arrived, I got to the gallery early to set up: tables, tablecloths, signs, printouts, QR codes—and of course, food and drink. For the opening reception, I picked up snack trays from Kroger (not my best choice). For the closing, I ordered party charcuterie trays from Market Street, and the quality was night and day. Lesson learned: order from Market Street next time!
Takeaways: For future shows, I’ll give myself more lead time for planning and production—and I’ll definitely order better food trays. I already have my next venue booked: the Community Gallery at the Frisco Discovery Center in May 2026. That second show will focus on my dream series, which is deeply personal and profoundly meaningful to me. The best part? I have an almost unlimited supply of references and ideas to pull from.