The opening reception of my first solo art exhibition—simply titled “The Art of Sharon Samples—went amazingly well. I did not know quite what to expect or what the crowd would be like. But people came out in drives on that exceptionally chilly January night. I am ever grateful for the support of family, friends, and complete strangers.

My art will remain on display at the Mobile Arts Council through this Friday, January 27.

I haven’t talked about my natural hair journey in a while. It’s still going. I’m still learning what works best for my hair and what doesn’t. I will decide that I’m not going to straighten my hair for a while only to get bored of my ‘fro and resort to the flatiron a few weeks later. For now, I resolve to not straighten my hair for most of the summer.

Last Saturday, I attend a natural hair meet up for the first time. It was held that afternoon at a popular restaurant, The Spot of Tea (everything is good there). I initially found out about the group while browsing Meetup.com. There I came across the group for naturals in my area, founded by Tanene Jackson, a local hair stylist. Thing is, when I first went to my old hair dresser, asking her for tips on caring for my newly natural teeny weeny afro (TWA), she gave me Tanene’s number. That was almost two years ago, and I never followed up.

A few months ago, I picked up a flyer featuring community activities held at my old high school, and there was a class called Natural Hair 101, taught by none other than this same Tanene. I couldn’t arrange my schedule to attend that class either, but still, I thought it was pretty cool that this person’s name kept popping up, particularly in association with natural hair.

So, I signed up for the local natural hair group on Meetup and waited for notification of the next get-together. The first one I missed, but I had signed up my older sister and hair-inspiration to attend with me. The next meetup that came around, Crystal was the one that signed me and my mom up as her +2.

Saturday rolled around, and I had forgotten all about the meet until Crystal reminded me a few hours before. So, I drag up the will to get ready and go. My hair was currently flat-ironed, and I had really wanted to rock a nice twist-out for my first meet, but whatever. As I we approached the restaurant, we saw a girl walking down the street with her hair pulled back in a puffed. My mom wondered out loud if maybe the girl was going to the meetup, and my sister and I were like, “Nah.” Of course, we get to the restaurant, and the same girl is sitting at the table. I found out she’s from St. Kitts, here attending university because the University of South Alabama (my alma mater) has this amazing meteorology program that no one ever talks about.

Long story a little shorter, I got to meet some really nice naturalistas, including the elusive Tanene. She was very warm and personable and I would really like to visit her salon soon. (I usually like to take pictures at this sort of thing, but I felt wasn’t comfortable taking photos of complete strangers in such an intimate setting. Next time though…) Tanene told us about the Natural Hair and Wellness Expo that she was hosting next month on June 18. I will definitely try to attend. However, I literally just signed up for Art as Business: Using Social Media to Promote the Arts which happens to be the same day, but the times overlap so I will be able to attend the Natural Hair Expo later in the day.

I’m going to have to get some pieces together to bring to the seminar. I just ordered a new set of Moo cards that will be in next week. They’re regular size this time rather than the mini cards that I usually order. I can’t wait to see them. I just received the card holder in the mail today and it’s so great. I was delighted simply by the way it was packaged, not to mention what was actually inside.

Another year has begun. I’m starting out with a lot of goals and aspirations. With the help of my big sis, I hope to have most of these accomplished. The main thing will be moving towards being a full-time illustrator. With that in mine, my main portfolio website (artgyrl.com) is in need of a major redesign. The galleries need to be updated and rearranged, primarily. I plan to launch the new site in at the end of this month.

I created a facebook fan page a while ago, but I’ve only recently begun to utilize it. Today, I uploaded 18 newer pieces to the photo albums there. Take a gander at what I created in 2010. I’ve added a link to the sidebar on the blog, also.

Today is the third of a four-day break from work for the second time in as many weeks. It’s a little disconcerting to be off for this long. There’s so much work to do, but with the muggy, winter weather, it’s easy to just succumb to the laziness and bum around the house. However, being a full-time artist means that I’ll have to be drawing even more and complete tasks in a timely manner.

So. I guess I’ll get on that.

—Regards.

It’s been a very dreary day (cold, overcast, raining), but I’m not feeling down, which is great, because last week was probably the worst week of my life in the past five years, which featured employment disappointment, a compromised immune system and—as the icing on the wrecktacular cake—the untimely death of my beloved feline friend Pascal.

Yeah. It was rough.

Last night I set up a store front on Etsy (artgyrlshop.etsy.com) to sell off some of the fan art that I did this past summer. I put up four pieces initially and one has already sold, so that is very encouraging. The funny thing is that it costs money to make money, initially, at least. Once I made the sale, the reality of shipping the item in a timely matter quickly set in. I had planned on mailing it off today, but, because of the weather and the fragile quality of the paper, I did not want to risk taking it outdoors, exposing it to humidity that could cause the paper to curl and wrinkle.

I did go to Alabama Art Supply and purchase some clear plastic sleeves at 35 cents a piece—I bought 10.  So, the art is all sealed up and waiting to be mailed. Now is the task of getting a study cardboard envelope in which to mail it. I don’t have any lying around, unfortunately. Still, I consider all this as a business investment. That feels so weird to say, but it means that I’m getting serious about my craft and publicizing the services I have to offer.

I’ve been thinking about this seriously for the past few weeks, and I will be creating some art pieces specifically for cards and prints. My mother gave me some encouragement when I spoke with her today about my plans. She was helpful in pointing out that I already had a few old graphics that I could easily put on notecards. Hopefully I can start producing these in the next week.

It’s good to get these things sorted out as the new year approaches.

You may also notice some slight changes to the layout of the blog. The new header is the most obvious thing. The old one has been up for about a year now, so I figured it was due for a change. After fighting with WordPress for the better part of 2 hours I finally got the upgrade installed and every thing working properly. There were several moments when I came a hair’s breadth away from taking my frustrations out on my poor MacBook *pets*, but I’m glad it didn’t come to that.

…and then there’s that novel that needs to be finished.

Hey guys. I’m writing from Brampton, which is a suburb of Toronto. Been here since Thursday and it’s been lots of fun. Visiting friends, speaking French to a petulant 2-year-old (“Non, Isaiah. Arretes!”) and taking lots of pics. It has snowed every day I’ve been here. Awesome, right?

Saturday, November 29, 2008 . CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario, CA.

I’m 26 now. Yay for being old(er).

In other news – I finished my novel, or rather, I reached 50K, so after a breather, I’ll start on the revision process. Basically, I ended up with a few really good scenes, but the plot needs a lot of work. It feels really good to have “won” NaNo my first year, though.