Recently, my husband gifted me the greatest of presents… time alone, on the water.
The best part is it wasn’t to celebrate a milestone, an anniversary or birthday, but just to give me some space to think in the midst of a challenging time (cue the collective AWWWWW).
I brought my computer, my sketchbook & a bunch of snacks (gotta be prepared).
I also brought with me a print out of the gallery layout and teeny tiny little color copies of each of my framed pieces, quilts & OoAKies.
First things first: I needed a big table. Luckily, my hotel room came equipped with a giant desk (shout out to the general manager who called me about having overbooked the basic room I’d originally reserved & offered me an upgrade to a suite instead. Yes, please. I ended up with the perfect space to work in AND the loveliest view). Secondly— I needed coffee. Lots of coffee. Once I had my workspace and caffeine sorted, it was time to dig in. I basically began by laying all the little pieces out on the table and then shuffling them around.
What I was looking for I didn’t initially know. I think that’s been the biggest mental hurdle of this whole thing— I didn’t have trouble producing the work, but as you know from previous posts, I’ve been really worried about a “through line”. Obviously, all the work is mine and there will be similarities from one piece to another, even if they aren’t all collectively similar to each other, because I made them and have certain aesthetic tastes… but is that enough to hold a show together? Seeing them all laid out before me really made so much of this so much clearer. I could easily group things by color, by pattern, by medium, size and shape. I tried a few different layouts until I found one I felt most attached to:
When I got myself to this point I felt like I’d hit on something not only doable, but “right”. The flow from piece to piece made sense to me, as did the “conversations” happening across the gallery from one another. Seeing my big quilt perpendicular to the wall of OoAKies (shown here in a verrrrrry limited capacity because I ran out of wall space when taking the photo. There’s so many more of them!), and the improv quilt pieces across from it was joy inducing (my favorite!)
Next step now is to take these same images and plug them into photoshop documents I can print out and give to the Exhibitions team to aid in hanging the show. That’ll take some time to do and get all my measurements right, but I’m so much further ahead now that I did the bulk of the work the analog way!
Not shown here is the “community coloring” area where guests will be invited to sit down and color their own Happy Reminders or draw their own Glimmers to contribute to the show. I still need to come up with a name for that area and a succinct way to explain what to do there. That part is a work in progress.
Speaking of works in progress… I didn’t JUST work on show planning though!
I also did some sketching!
I look forward to bringing these guys to final sometime soon(ish). First things first… naming this show and getting the layout finalized. Maybe time for another retreat…
Love you guys!
This is so cool! I've never thought about all the work that goes into setting up an art show. Thanks again for showing us the process!
I love the teeny layout! And I'm so excited to see it all in person *next month*!!