Through Me: A Solo Art Exhibition in Virginia at VECCA
- Aug 4
- 8 min read
Have you ever looked at a task on your to-do list and felt certain it was laughing at you?
That was me standing in my studio last week, surrounded by twenty-three original paintings that needed to be wrapped, protected, organized, and delivered to my upcoming solo art exhibition in Virginia. Several of the paintings are enormous, and every one of them required careful attention before it could begin the journey from my Northern Virginia studio to the Valley Educational Center for the Creative Arts, better known as VECCA, in Woodstock.
For months, these paintings existed in the private world of my studio. They developed one layer, mark, question, and discovery at a time. Suddenly, they were no longer waiting quietly against my painting wall. They were ready to leave home.
That transition always brings a mixture of excitement, vulnerability, and wonder. A painting begins as an intimate conversation between the artist and the canvas. Once it enters an exhibition, the conversation expands. Viewers bring their own memories, emotions, experiences, and interpretations to the work.
That is when the paintings truly begin to live beyond me.
Preparing 23 Paintings for Their Journey to VECCA
Preparing artwork for an exhibition involves far more than placing paintings into a vehicle and driving toward the gallery.
Each piece must be inspected, documented, labeled, protected, and wrapped. Corners need special attention. Large canvases need to be moved carefully. Glassine, plastic, tape, labels, blankets, and more tape begin taking over the studio.
With twenty-three paintings waiting for me, including several mammoth canvases, I quickly realized this was not a job I should attempt alone.
I needed backup.
When Friendship Becomes Part of the Exhibition Story
I had originally planned to meet my dear friend Beth for a relaxing lunch. Instead, I asked whether she might be willing to exchange that peaceful afternoon for a hard-labor session inside my studio.
She did not hesitate.
Together, we wrapped paintings, wrestled with sheets of glassine, protected corners, solved packing puzzles, caught up on life, and laughed until our ribs hurt.
People often see the finished parts of an artist’s journey: the paintings hanging beneath gallery lights, the opening reception, the artist talk, and the photographs taken after everything is beautifully installed. What they do not always see are the people working quietly behind the scenes to help make those moments possible.
The older I become, the more deeply I understand that none of us creates a meaningful life entirely on our own. We need people who will celebrate our dreams, steady the largest canvases, hand us another roll of tape, and remind us to laugh when the task feels overwhelming.
Friendship is not measured by the number of names in our contact lists. It is revealed through the people who consistently show up with their full hearts and helping hands.
I could not do all of this alone, and I am profoundly grateful that I do not have to.
A New Solo Art Exhibition in Virginia
Those twenty-three paintings have now arrived safely at VECCA, where my solo exhibition, Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way, will open on Saturday, August 8, 2026.
This exhibition represents an important new chapter in my creative journey. It follows Illuminate the World, a collection that explored light through words and ideas gathered from cultures around the world. That series asked viewers to discover their light, nurture it, carry it through difficult seasons, and ultimately become a source of light for others.
As that journey reached its conclusion, a new question began forming in my studio:
If I am becoming the light, where is that light coming from?
That question became the doorway into Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way.
What Inspired Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way?
I do not paint to illustrate ideas I have already fully understood. I paint to discover what I could not have imagined before I began.
Every painting in this collection started with play. I approached each surface with curiosity rather than a fixed outcome, allowing color, collage, texture, line, and movement to suggest where I might go next.
A mark invited another mark. A shape created a question. A layer concealed one possibility while revealing another. Rather than forcing the paintings toward a predetermined conclusion, I practiced listening and responding.
Somewhere within that process, I began to sense that the paintings were not simply coming from me. They were moving through me.
That realization changed my understanding of creativity.
Creating became less about controlling every decision and more about making myself available to what wanted to emerge. My role was not to know every answer in advance. My role was to remain curious, attentive, playful, and open enough to receive the next invitation.
The resulting contemporary mixed media paintings are filled with luminous color, expressive marks, layered collage, glazing, texture, and movement. Each one holds evidence of the conversation that created it.
Rather than offering viewers one fixed interpretation, the paintings invite them to bring their own stories into the experience.
Why I Am Keeping the Paintings Secret Until Opening Day
In a world where we are encouraged to document and share everything immediately, keeping twenty-three paintings mostly hidden has not been easy.
I have felt like a child waiting for Christmas morning.
I have wanted to show the colors, the surprising details, the scale, and the ways these paintings speak to one another when they share a room. Yet I made a deliberate decision to allow visitors at the VECCA opening reception to experience the collection first.
Artwork feels different in person.
You can see how the layers catch the light. You can move closer to study delicate marks and then step back to experience the full composition. You can notice textures that cannot be translated completely through a screen. Most importantly, you can sense how your own emotional response changes as you spend time with the work.
The first public encounter with Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way deserves that kind of presence.
The full collection will be shared online after the opening, but for one afternoon, the gallery will hold the first chapter.
Join the Artist Talk at VECCA
I am especially excited to share that I will give an artist talk at 2:00 p.m. during the opening reception.
Although it is called a talk, anyone who knows me understands that I will not simply stand in front of the room and lecture. After thirty years as an elementary art educator, I believe meaningful learning begins with curiosity, participation, and conversation.
We will look closely at the artwork and explore questions such as:
What might this painting be saying?
What emotion do you experience when you look at it?
Why can several people stand in front of the same painting and have completely different responses?
Those questions lead us into a broader conversation about perspective, intuition, play, human connection, and the many ways art helps us see ourselves and one another more clearly.
I will also share stories from behind the collection, explain how my intuitive painting process unfolds, and discuss what I discovered when I stopped trying to control every outcome.
My hope is not to tell visitors what the paintings mean. My hope is to offer a doorway and invite them to notice what the work awakens within them.
What Visitors Can Expect at the Opening Reception
The VECCA opening reception will offer visitors the first opportunity to experience the complete series together.
Twenty-three original contemporary mixed media paintings will fill the gallery with movement, color, texture, and possibility. Visitors will be able to meet me, ask questions about the artwork and process, hear the stories behind the collection during the artist talk, and connect with others through a shared experience of curiosity and wonder.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
Whether you are an experienced collector, a practicing artist, someone who enjoys visiting galleries, or a person who has never felt certain that contemporary abstract art was “for you,” you are welcome.
You do not need special knowledge to experience art.
You only need to arrive willing to look, feel, question, and wonder.
Planning Your Visit to VECCA
Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a WaySolo Exhibition Opening Reception and Artist Talk
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2026
Reception: 1:00–3:00 p.m.
Artist Talk: 2:00 p.m.
Location:Valley Educational Center for the Creative Arts123 South Main StreetWoodstock, Virginia 22664
The opening reception and artist talk are free and open to the public.
I would love to see familiar faces, meet new visitors, and share this important new body of work with you. Bring your curiosity, your questions, and your willingness to experience what happens when wonder is given room to find its way.
Showing Up as the Bold Red
As I prepared for this exhibition, I also found myself reflecting on how much my relationship with visibility has changed.
For many years, I tried too hard to be everyone’s cup of tea. I softened parts of myself, quieted my joy, and adjusted my personality to fit whatever room I entered.
At fifty-three, I understand something I wish I had known much earlier: I do not need to be everyone’s preferred varietal.
Perhaps one person prefers a delicate white. Another may not drink wine at all. But I am becoming increasingly comfortable being a bold Tannat or a rich Norton—distinctive, full-bodied, and unapologetically myself.
That same freedom lives within Through Me.
These paintings do not ask permission to exist. They do not apologize for their movement, color, energy, complexity, or joy. They arrived through a process of listening, and my responsibility was to allow them to become what they needed to become.
The right viewers will pull up a chair.
The right collectors will recognize something of themselves within the layers.
The right conversations will begin.
More Ways to Create and Connect This Fall
The opening of Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way is part of a larger season of creativity, connection, and possibility.
My co-host Bonnie and I are also preparing for the Joyful Journey Retreat, an intimate three-night experience for women taking place October 25–28 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The retreat brings together creativity, meaningful conversation, beautiful surroundings, wine country, and the freedom to create without pressure or perfection.
For those who would like to learn more, we are hosting both an in-person gathering in Fairfax and a virtual conversation this week. Visit the Joyful Journey Retreat page for details and registration information.
Registration is also open for Layers of Possibility, my six-week online painting course offered through Falls Church Arts beginning in September. During the course, participants will explore intuitive mark-making, rich color relationships, mixed media layering, and the process of developing a finished painting step by step.
Each of these experiences offers a different doorway into the same belief that guides my studio practice: creativity grows when we become curious, loosen our grip on perfection, and allow ourselves to play.
Where Wonder Finds a Way
A few days ago, twenty-three paintings were leaning against the walls of my studio, waiting to be wrapped. Today, they are hanging together inside a gallery, ready to enter conversations I cannot predict or control.
That feels fitting.
Through Me: Where Wonder Finds a Way was created through trust in the unknown. Now the work is leaving my hands and becoming available to everyone who enters the room.
This is the beautiful vulnerability of being an artist. We create privately, then release the work into the world and allow it to form relationships that no longer belong entirely to us.
I hope you will join me at this solo art exhibition in Virginia and become part of the story.
On Saturday, August 8, the doors will open.
The paintings will be waiting.
And at 2:00 p.m., we will begin the conversation together. 🩵
With Gratitude and Joy,
Precious Burger
Contemporary Mixed Media Artist
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