[Chris Saper]

Julianne,

What a very good topic! It's hard to say how a person can become comfortable painting in public...but maybe speaking in public is a way to start.

When I was a young graduate student, I really wanted to be able to speak publicly, but absolutely could not, no matter how well prepared I was. I made myself take a Toastmaster's class, and it's a very effective way to overcome that sense of panic, certain to be followed by doom, humiliation, yadayada... After just attending for only about 8 weeks, I really found that I not only could begin speaking in public, but a hint that it might actually be enjoyable.

Still, I would not show my work to anyone, no matter how unqualified they might be to venture an opinion, until somewhere in my mid-thirties. No reason to wait that long!

In those intervening years, I found myself (more often that I wished) as the only administrator facing a room filled with angry doctors...after that, everything else is a walk in the park. Now I am such a ham that people need a stage hook to get me off stage.

Painting in public is something that I love to do, and am fortunate that someone can interrupt me, and I can get right back to work. I know that people who think my work is awful will generally try to get out of earshot before the derision starts, and everybody else talks to you because they something nice to say.