FSU Art BFA ‘15 Stella Guillen Spring Exotica Gallery Internship

Being involved in the art community of Tallahassee and specifically Railroad Square has presented an abundance of opportunities. Through networking and friends, I became good friends with Teddy Towlett, the owner of the gallery Exotica in Railroad Square. Of all the galleries and studios amongst Railroad Square his taste in life and art seems to parallel with mine, offering me a mentor and necessary experience. When I proposed the idea of an internship to Teddy, he told me it was perfect timing, and that they had just decided to renovate the gallery and develop it into a metaphysical store/gallery. This means not only will they be selling art but they will be selling crystals, homemade essential oils, handmade original clothing (by local artists) (clothing that you can’t find in town, only at festivals), and little totems of all sorts.

My personal goals began with experiencing a gallery/store life and how art is sold and the process involved with that. I also have been painting a whole lot the past year and a half, and I’ve been a bit rusty on digital art. Once I graduate, having the skills such as being able to create on adobe photoshop and illustrator can be key things that get me jobs and networking. So another goal of mine when going into this was to brush up on my digital art skills, as I knew they needed a lot of different things designed. So far I’ve completely renovated the logo (which they did not have a digital file of- so I created the first digital file for them), I’ve also made a poster for the store with the new store hours, location, and contact info (on the left)

The last major goal was to experience hosting a First Friday event, which I had my first experience in February. It was an amazing experience, as I really got to connect with many great people. There was some work involved, with showing merchandise to customers, however I found myself having a ton of fun meeting people and talking art. It taught me how important making connections and networking with people is, and the amount people that are in our community seeking out others to create with. We need to set ourselves up with these platforms, such as First Friday.

I would say that the challenge I’ve experienced so far was staring at the computer for over 10 hours to create the logo. It was pretty challenging because it had been a while and it’s hard to build up to that kind of attention, but I broke through that and ended up making something pretty cool. Designing the poster was a bit challenging as well, as designing layout isn’t what I’m best at. But practicing is extremely important so I can try and be as versatile as I can when I graduate and move back home to Miami. Right now Miami is booming in the art world. The more things I do and the more people I meet, will take me closer to becoming the artist I strive to be.