It's not hard to enter an art show; you upload your images, pay your money, and cross your fingers. 

If you get in, you feel validated as an artist. If you can go to the reception, you can admire your work out of your studio, where it is hung nicely on a white wall with your name as artist somewhere in it's vicinity. You can talk to other artists and if you're lucky, a prospective buyer or two. You congratulate your acquaintances for also getting in, share a glass of wine with them and go home feeling good.

Seeing your work out of your studio puts it in a whole new perspective. It's fresh. It's not cramped in a dark storage bin or leaned against the wall somewhere in your crowded studio. Seeing it fresh and bright, rubbing shoulders with other artists' magnificent pieces somehow elevates it to its own importance. We knew in our heart it was good, and of course, that's why it was accepted. Yes, we like that a lot.

We especially like those red dots, should one show up. Never mind that after commissions, entry fees, shipping charges, our take home pay isn't as much nearly nearly as much as we would have liked it to be. Regardless, a sale is a sale, and it inspires us to keep painting and keep entering shows. 

And if we don't get juried in to a show? Ah...that is a whole other story.