So you all know that I didn't get into the Smithsonian this year,which, of course, hurt, but I got over it.
National exposure would have been nice,but something much better happened. I was able to make a connection that every artist hopes to make with someone. I came in contact with  people who when they saw the painting of Mathew's Grandmother, simply put, cried. "You have captured a generation that is slowly leaving us," is an exact quote from said person.
Before they saw that painting they had no idea who I was, no idea what my work was about, no idea what I went through to make that painting. And yet I was able to take them to a place where they did not expect to go and expose them to emotions they had not yet fully dealt with. It has only happened twice in my life,but the fact that it happened at all was extraordinary to me.