Little Art Show Talk

It’s typical that I draw outside the lines and also forget them at times. Something I used to be ashamed of and now I accept the fact that I’m no longer the perfectionist I was raised to be and I love myself enough to keep showing up authentically.

I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in a local art show that ended this week. This was my first time participating as an artist in an exhibition. It was held at the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum 734 Marin Street Vallejo, CA. The curators of Little Art Show in Vallejo, CA do an excellent work supporting and celebrating the artists and their craft. It was a fun, easy and delightful experience. I got to experience the marvelous glow of participating with a bunch of awesomely creative people in my community - I even got a super cute sticker for participating and was offered an opportunity to give a five minute speech at the reception.

The assignment for the talk was to share about the artwork and how it relates to the show, Reframed: An Exhibition of Art Beyond Barriers. I understood the assignment, however made it my own. I’m a writer first and foremost and the morning before the reception I was struck with glorious creative energy and allowed the following to flow from my heart. I was the last presenter of the evening and I’m grateful it was well received:

Hello beautiful people.
Thank you for choosing to show up in spaces where creativity and healing are allowed to meet and become culture.

Hi, I’m Julie Voice and regardless of what my name implies, I’ve lived through many experiences that tried to silence me. For years, I gave my time, energy, and heart to people who didn’t know how to value it. I lived on resilience and denial because that was familiar. But something shifts the moment you become tired of your own erasure.

For me, that shift didn’t come all at once. It wasn’t a lightning bolt or an instant awakening. It came sentence by sentence. Moment by moment. Through each creation. The first time I told my journal the truth. The first time I said “I’m upset because that was rude and you’re being mean” without apologizing. The first time I realized I didn’t need permission to exist.

I know now that healing doesn’t happen when we hide our wounds. Healing happens when we express them. Not perfectly, just honestly. That the words we speak, write, sing, paint, or dance are not decorations - they are declarations: I am here. I am real. I am allowed to feel and be free.

When we tell our stories - even softly, even awkwardly, even shakily - we stop carrying them alone. And when someone else hears their own truth reflected in our voice, we create connection. We create relief. We create something reframed, beyond barriers.

Healing is not becoming someone new. Healing is remembering who we were before we were told to be small.

I invite you to drop perfection and embrace presence. Write for your freedom, not for approval. Create for clarity, not for performance. Speak to be real, not to be impressive.

Every time you create from a place of truth, you make the world a little safer for someone else to do the same. Thank you.

Maybe you’ve never considered yourself to be an artist, writer, photographer, cook, director, healer, comedian, dancer, curator, you name it right? Ultimately you get to be whatever you believe yourself to be, and as long as you accept that and surrender to the truth in your heart, authenticity follows. Thank you Liberty Pierson and Espy Marie for co-creating a safe, transparent, empowering, welcoming and inclusive environment for artists in our community to join together and expand. Thank you.