The end of a show

...
So Saturday the 31st was the last day of the show. I spent the day at the gallery and met a lot of people who couldn't make the opening or any other time during the week. It was lovely to see so many people.

The gallery closes technically at 4pm, after which I could take down the works. Unfortunately they had a theater performance at 5pm downstairs so I only had a one hour window of opportunity to get all the paintings out and clean up the place, i.e. putty up the walls and sweep the floor a bit. I could have come in on Sunday morning, but I had the bad timing of having that Sunday be the first Sunday of the month and thus had my stand at Sunday Arts at the Convent that day, so Saturday night it was!

I had to take all the works down and bubble wrap them for transportation. The sold works that were being picked up at the gallery I was able to leave in the store room out the back... but they had to be labeled and wrapped extra carefully.

I had to take all the numbers off the walls, take the nails out of the walls and then push some putty into the holes they left.

It was a bit sad and empty, but also felt quite satisfying to have a gallery of empty walls and only the spotlights to show where the paintings had been. A definite sense of completion and accomplishment. The show is over and I think a success! Yay!

Opening Night

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The opening night was FUN!



I had my name up, not in lights, but in the visual art world's equivalent... up in black.




It was an awesome night. A great crowd and, though it may seem kind of obvious when you think about it, I was surprised at the fact that I knew everyone... It was kind of like having a birthday party, unlike other people's parties where you know one or two people, when it is your party - you know everyone! Very fun.



Got a few red dots up on the wall, which is very encouraging!




I made a speech. I didn't plan it much, but I knew I wanted to dedicate the show to my grandmother who passed away around this time last year. She was definitely the matriarch of our family and always my best patron and supporter. I think I have been blessed by a super supportive family, and Granny especially was always so positive and affirming.



I had a few 'thanks you's to make as well. Firstly to the wonderful, wonderful women who run fortyfive downstairs, the gallery. Their advice and support and generosity really got me through in far greater style than I would have managed on my own. And also to St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. Last year I had the absolute luxury to spend a year on the tenth floor of the old nurses quarters looking out over an amazing view of Carlton Gardens with all of the northern suburbs of Melbourne stretched out below - especially beautiful at night. St Vincent's Hospital have an artist in residence program where you can apply for a free studio for a set amount of time and in return you give them an art work. The curator of the residency program was at my opening, demonstrating how much genuine care and interest they take in you.


A beautiful bunch of flowers from some friends


Philippa and Alix who work at fortyfive downstairs




Overall a really fantastic night. (Aside from the red wine spilled all over my dress right at the start by my grasping handed baby nephew, that'll learn me for putting a glass of wine in baby reaching distance! But then that is why you wear black to an opening!)


And... the benefit of an early opening is that it was finished by 7pm, so even though we went out for some food and drinks after, I was home and snug in bed before midnight!

Behind the Scenes 3

Hanging the show...

My friend Benjamin 'The Art God'* Webb installed my show for me last night at the gallery. He is a professional art installer, yay for friends with benefits! (not like that!!!) He charged me the grand sum of a six pack and dinner at the Shanghai Dumpling House.

I had dropped all the works off the night before and placed them around the walls in the order I wanted them hung. We met at 5.30pm and were done by 8ish. This is what it all looked like...


First you measure,




then you hammer,



Then you use the dodgy $3.99 spirit level from the Two Dollar shop on Sydney Rd to make sure it is all straight,




And hey presto, you have a show! Yay!

Now all I have to do is create labels for the walls, type out and print the price list, artist statement, and CV, get all the food and wine, make sure I have invited everyone, brainstorm for the speech...





*Ben is a shy retiring flower, he would never admit he is an Art God, and he would certainly never tell me to write that... but I do what I can to promote my friends!

Behind the Scenes 2

I thought I'd give a little glimpse of the work and chaos that goes on behind the scenes. This is my studio space...



As you can see it is very full of STUFF. I have all of my stock for the markets stored there, I have all of the art materials I have ever purchased stored there (I work in an art shop - enough said)Sometimes I find it hard to move, and a few weeks ago I decided to take control, clean it up, find places for things to live so the the table and floor were not totally consumed by these important but generally unused objects.

I had just got it into a certain amount of order when we had that rain a week or so ago... and I discovered the place leaks! So I had to move all items that were stacked against the back wall into the middle of the space. Never try to escape chaos... it will find you.

I was a bit stressed about the show and had found an afternoon to be in the studio. And it was lucky I was in my studio when it happened, so I could move it all and track where the drips were coming in, but it meant that instead of having a productive afternoon I had a damage control afternoon, and all of my attempted order was reversed in a matter of half an hour.

I still have a bucket propped up against the window and it catches those drips that hit the window sill and then splatter out, then there is also the leak that slides sneakily down the wall. Luckily it was never enough water to form a puddle or a stream. But I will take not chances and will have to devise a way to lift all my folios - full of paper - off the ground.



Studios and flooding seem to go hand in hand for me. I've had two others that flooded much worse than this in the past, so it is ok, but still nerve wracking, to have a little leak. Every time it rains I am now worried in case this is the day the roof decided to fall in and soak everything in muddy water.

that has happened before...

Behind the Scenes 1

So the show is only a week away. Most things are ready, I have got some prints in the shop getting framed, they should be ready on Monday. I have helped fortyfive downstairs with the mailout, sticking address labels on envelopes and stuffing mine and another invitation into them. The gallery has also sent out a media release, so with any luck I will get a little bit of media attention, hopefully good! I have mostly finished all the paintings, some I am still not sure about, so there may be some work to do there. Then of course they all have to be signed and have hanging wire put on the back. I have organised a friend of mine, who runs a gallery and regularly hangs shows, to help hang the show on Monday the 26th. I have got my secret team (mum) on the case to help me with food for the opening night. I am investigating the possibility of getting some nice organic red wine for the opening... it is all rolling along. Oh yeah, I still have to type up the price list and artist statement.

So that is the nuts and bolts of getting this thing happening. I am feeling reasonably confident, but have had my moments of blind panic this month, don't worry about that! I think it has been really wonderful to work with a gallery like fortyfive downstairs. Their expertise and the fact that they put on so many shows means that they have a time frame and system for getting things done. For example the invitations would have been pushed aside and put off till the opening night itself if it had been left to me. But because they needed them done I had to get it together! So I had to make the hard decisions, like which image to use, what words to put with it, what to call it... all that stuff that I resist, procrastinate about and try really hard to avoid. They were also really supportive and offered some good advice in the midst of all of those decisions. Alix, who works there, said a couple of time 'I think that's good' and that was all I needed to settle that raging bull of insecurity, thus allowing a decision to be made. They really are a great team; Mary Lou, Philippa and Alix.