The 2016 ETA Awards!

Last Friday, October 21st I attended and exhibited at the 2016 Emerging Toronto Artists Awards! I’ve been preparing for this event all of October and on the morning of, I was both excited and nervous. Preparation started early morning by packaging all my work and getting myself ready. There was a superhero theme to the event and without a costume on hand, I decided to create a Spiderman eye makeup. (Fun fact: I wanted to study special effects makeup a few years ago, even took a tour of Toronto’s College of Makeup Art & Design) It was a slightly visible makeup but with my eyes closed you were able to see the web design on my eyelids. I had a few people comment on it throughout the night! For setup, I arrived at the District 28 at around 4pm, found my spot and started the hour long process of organizing everything together in my little spot. Earlier this month I gave myself a deadline for new acrylic paintings and I was pleased I was able to follow through and exhibit my two new acrylic paintings, “Lovers” and “In Your Arms”. But the main focus of my booth was not the new paintings, or the prints, drawings or even the watercolours I had laid out, it was my acrylic painting, “Adoration”. I selected this 2 year old painting to giveaway in a raffle for the night. Tickets were sold for $2 a ticket or 3 for $5. I was anticipating I would give away the painting for $2 but throughout the night, with more incoming traffic, I received several raffle ticket sales. By the end of the night I sold 35 tickets! Towards the end of the night the winners were announced and although I didn’t win an award, I was happy for my friends who won awards. My personal winning moment happened after the awards ceremony, when I drew the winning raffle ticket and announced the winner on the mic. It was a young couple who won “Adoration” by only buying one single ticket (one person bought 12)! They were so excited they won and I’m so grateful my painting is in a loving new home. Overall, I had an amazing time at the ETA Awards, I met so many wonderful people and I’m thankful to have been a part of it with incredibly talented artists. Congrats to all the other artists! See you next year!