Reflections on my first 10 years as a professional artist

I have recently reached the milestone of having been a professional artist for 10 years, which has made me feel very nostalgic and introspective.

When I was younger 10 years seemed like an eternity. People with 10 year careers seemed like they had it all figured out. But now that I am one of these people, 10 years seems like barely any time. I have done so much, yet I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Recently I had the task of putting together an exhibition of my work from these years, a little mid-career retrospective. This task brought with it the need to put a name to this chapter of my career. I wasn’t quite prepared for how difficult it would be to summarise a decade of my life in a title.

I couldn’t find it in myself to refer to these years as anything other than a beginning, a prelude or a genesis. In the end I settled on “Genesis”. The word comes from greek and means "origin," "source," or "beginning. And that’s exactly how it feels.

I still remember the first painting I ever sold. I was 18 and studying fine art in university at the time. The sale felt like it came completely out of nowhere. Although I had been posting my art online for some time, still I couldn’t believe it. After some furious googling on how to package a painting and how to ship an artwork, I was left with 1 less painting, some money on my bank account, and the realisation that maybe I did have what it takes to be an artist.

It was the first time in my life I felt like I knew what my path would be.

This was 10 years ago. Shockingly the month after it happened I opened my email to find another painting sold, the month after, another, and so on. Ever since I have been making sales more or less regularly. Which has allowed me to dedicate this decade completely to making art.

When you read interviews with artists they almost always say that they realised they wanted to be an artist already as a child. I was nothing like that, my entire teens my teachers pushed me to tell them what I wanted to be as an adult and I could never give them an answer. Funny how life is that way, people talk about how important it is to have dreams and to follow them. Well I never really had any dreams growing up and it still worked out just fine for me.

I made this painting as part of a series of 3 in my first few months at university. The other 2 sold fast so I never tried to sell this one. I just wasn’t ready to let it go yet, but I think it’s been enough time now. I really wanted to include it in the exhibition because it’s one of my oldest artworks and the exhibition wouldn’t have felt complete without at least one painting from my first year of being an artist.