New Postcards and A Voice

My new postcards came in the mail yesterday.  I left the front almost the same as it was before, just with my blog address instead of myspace.  ( I think myspace is just about dead)  I added newer images onto the back, just keeping one from before.  I wanted the new cards to feel a little brighter and more colorful.

Here's the new postcard back:

The front:

The old back:

We had our first critique in Silkscreen class yesterday.  I would post my most recent print, but the series is with my teacher for a week.  Nothing has showed me how much I have changed in just a few short years  more than this class.  When I was in college (at the Maryland Institute College of Art) I was painfully shy.  I wasn't very confident.  During a critique I would try to achieve invisibility so that nobody would ask me to speak.  Of course, speaking during critiques was part of the grade.  This means near the end of the semester I would know that I needed to try to say some things if I wanted a good grade.  While everyone was saying their critiques I would sit there toiling over what I wanted to say.  I would decide on what to say, and then work up the guts to actually say it.  Then, of course, I needed a pause to actually speak, which hardly ever happened as everyone talked on top of one another.  By the time I was so close and just about to say my piece, someone else would say something similar right before me.  Ugh, back to square one.

Now, not even four years after graduation, the situation is completely different.  If I have a thought, I simply say it without hesitation.  Easily.  To me, that's amazing because I remember how much I struggled with such a simple task.  I owe my new-found confidence to the Gallery Above.  Once I knew I was to own and run an art gallery I knew I just had to get over being shy.  End of story.  And then I did it.  Through the Gallery Above I gained a voice and confidence.  Thanks, Gallery Above.  Thanks, self.