Last week I gave a talk at The University of Chester about my art career since graduating from there in 2012. It gave me a chance to look back at what I’ve been doing, particularly in the last two years since I last gave a talk.
After graduating I got off to a slow start, particularly because of personal problems and a part time job which dominated my time, meaning I was unable to commit to anything. Once I had a studio and new part time job in place I found myself in a much better position to start to build myself an art career.

There have been a few turning points for me. Firstly, putting on my first solo exhibition at KIAC in early 2014, after postponing it a couple of times. Attendance at the exhibition was low but that didn’t bother me. Just being able to say I had done it, and to get photographs of my work in a gallery setting, was more than enough. It was after that point when people started to change their attitude towards me and treat me as though I was a professional artist, when all I had done was put some work up in a free venue!

Sharon Mossbeck: Selected Works. Gage Gallery. April 2014

The second turning point was putting on PLAY! with Michael Borkowsky. It was an Open Call exhibition on the theme of computer games. Although it was more Michael’s area of interest than mine, I wanted the experience of putting on an Open Call. It was really successful and popular, and got us both a lot of interest. I think this is when I started to feel “proper”.

PLAY! Access Space. October 2014

Since 2014 I feel like my career has got going, and it’s certainly fuelled by doing things for myself, and putting myself out there. I will continue in my next blog with more reflections on past projects, looking at 2015 to 2016.