Lady Luck

How much has luck contributed to your life?

Or were you ready to run with it when it passed nearby?

I remember when I first put brush to canvas.

Although I had been involved in ceramic sculpture for many years, the idea that I could really paint was not one I believe in, until an artist with whom I worked for a short time, told me that this was not so.

This is when I decided to do a large portrait of him, and also a large triptych.

No studio then, used the carport floor to line the canvases side by side to keep the colours flowing together...

I was thinking of entering the portrait for a prize, but before I did went to ask an artist/gallery owner if it was good enough.

She loved it, and the triptych, and asked me to mount a solo exhibition that same year, which I did,

Subsequently different galleries have asked me to mount a solo exhibition each year since.

I call this incredible luck.

When my (semi- abstract) portrait was being unpacked for the exhibition, it was the one chosen by the news teams to be shown on the ABC and SBS news that evening.

Only two people knew that it was my work, who then phoned to tell me.

I was able to access the link for the news and share it with other friends.

Another piece of incredible luck.

My only contribution was that I continued to work non-stop all through the year, so that I would have enough works to exhibit IN CASE I was invited to do so again.

The thing I learnt from this is that luck is sometimes creeping around, but one has to be ready to invite her in.

Irena