Here's What Happened When We Shot for the Stars

We all dream big. But if we’re honest, our big dreams don’t always seem realistic. Illustrator Derek started this year with a goal to get accepted into the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts for 2024, which is one of the most competitive juried art shows in the country.  The thing is, Derek had never applied to a juried art show before, or any art show for that matter. 

Art shows come with major barriers to entry, one of them being financial. And with us starting our book business, we didn’t have an extra $3,000 available to buy gallery panel walls that were required for our booth display. So for the last two years, our hands have been tied.  It’s honestly been disheartening.  Because I knew Derek's art was the best of the best, and it deserved to be in the show.

But this year, I put my foot down.

I said, “Derek I don’t know how this is going to happen but it NEEDS to happen and we have to get those panels so you can at least apply.”  I KNEW his art was worth it.  I knew there was huge opportunity in elevating him into the fine art show space. I couldn't stand to see him not get an opportunity because we couldn't afford it. 

By the grace of God, after two years of watching the Gasparilla show pass us by, someone believed in us enough and loaned us the $3,000 to buy the panels.  We were over the moon.  We got the panels. 

But this guaranteed us nothing.  Just that we owed someone $3k, and we weren't even sure if Derek would actually get accepted into a show. Gulp.

It was a major gamble, but we were going for it.

Derek got to work painting the best pieces he could come up with….in between the two books he was illustrating, art classes he was teaching, and us selling our books on the weekends to keep our business afloat.  It was a very intense couple of months…but he got the paintings done.

We dedicated a weekend to setting up the booth on our driveway to take pictures. And finally, after eight hours of working outside to get the booth “just right,” we breathed a sigh of relief that we were finished.

 And that’s where we got crushed. 

I happened to come across an artist who was way more experienced than us. He did professional juried shows for 20+ years across the country. So I asked if he could give us some advice.  He was super nice, very generous with his time. But when I proudly sent him our booth photos for his feedback, he responded as gently as he could with, "I mean…that might work in some of the smaller shows but not something like Gasparilla.  If I were you, I'd start small and work your way up, otherwise you'll just be wasting your money with Gasparilla." 

Ouch. Talk about a letdown.

"Start small and work your way up." 

I kept hearing it in my head, but this advice just wasn’t sitting right with me. In fact, if we started small and worked our way up, we never would've published Brudders’ Books! 

The man did say it as lovingly as possible though, but we still felt SO crushed.  As a way to help, the man invited me into this Facebook group that did mock jury reviews on people's booth and art submission photos.  There were hours and hours of Youtube videos that people could listen in on to hear juror comments about each artist's submissions.

So what did we do?

We went through every mock jury review we could find in that Facebook group the man sent us to. We skipped to all of the watercolor painting submissions and listened to all of the judges' comments.  I made notes and took them back to Derek to make adjustments on the booth display.  We reconsidered the three best pieces he was going to apply with. These would be his only shot at applying to the show.  For weeks and weeks, Derek worked until at least 3am after his illustration jobs to get his paintings in the absolute best condition possible.  I KNEW Derek’s art deserved to be at Gasparilla. Yes it was a longshot, but we had to try.

Between that, teaching art classes, and selling our books, we were absolutely exhausted.  I continued to read the majority of artists' defeat statements and vent fests in the Facebook group and thought to myself man, if THESE guys are having trouble getting into shows, then this is really going to be a longshot for us. 

If anything, I'll at least give Derek a pat on the back for pushing himself and trying.

 The deadline came, and we applied. 

The application said we'd be notified at the end of October.  Here we are in late October, and I didn't want to ask Derek if he had heard anything. I didn't want to make him any more stressed.  We felt some big defeats this year. Sometimes they can really be hard to handle….where you wonder if you are as good as you really thought you were, and how much more can your body (and bank account) physically, mentally, and emotionally take? 

I again thought to myself…try to think realistically, these artists in this show are like mega professionals, this very well might not happen.  Just be happy with whatever the outcome is. But darn it, I KNOW if anyone’s art deserves to be in this show, it’s Derek’s!

To put it into context, over 1,000 artists from all over the country apply to the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts and less than 200 are accepted.  A chunk of those are grandfathered into the show from prior years, so really, way less than 200 artists are accepted. 

I prayed, if anything, that maybe Derek will at least get on a waitlist or something.

 And then the email came in…

Derek did not get on the B list waitlist.  He got on the A list.  Derek was accepted into the show!!  We were beside ourselves. I was in Costco when Derek called me, and I had to finish shopping with my sunglasses on because I couldn’t stop crying.

Derek is now going to be a featured artist amongst the best in the country in the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts on March 2nd-3rd, 2024!!

So no, we didn't start small and work our way up. 

We shot for the stars.  And we worked our butts off until we could produce the absolute best that we could possibly produce. 

And we might not have gotten in, but we at least knew that no matter what the outcome would be, we did something far beyond what we had ever done before. And because of that, we grew.  Fast. And in this case, we earned the extra reward of getting in too. 

When you really, really want something, stretch yourself to give it your absolute best.  Listen to those who are more experienced than you. Learn from them and apply where you can. But remember to let the voice inside of you always be the last one that you hear. 

-K.A. Leigh