Tuesday 3 June 2008

Exhibition inhibitions

The road to the blue trees
The road to the blue trees, 64x45cm
Acrylic and paper on board

This will be the most recent piece for the exhibition. I finished it last Saturday, and will drop it off at the framer tomorrow morning. I'm just waiting on a friend to drop all the small paintings off at my house tonight after she picked them up from the framer earlier today. All this coming and going... it's a nice set of tasks to prepare for the exhibition: quite clearly circumscribed, ticking off items on the list.

All the time I'm getting rather giddy. Giddy at the thought of what it'll be like to look at all these things that I did over the past months. They are usually stashed away in different places, happy to be pulled out into daylight once in a while. But all of them up against a white wall?? That'll be exciting, a bit scary, and rather exhibitionist. Well: it's called exhibition after all, isn't it? Hadn't thought of that one before.

Somebody had asked whether I was scared or anxious. That I'm most definitely not. It's a funny one: for my job I do a fair bit of public speaking, and if someone had told 17-year old Gesa that she would have to talk in public regularly for her job, she would have surely hidden behind the sofa (any sofa) and never surfaced again. So, that kind of publicity took me a long time to get used to (and it still scares me from time to time). But this one feels very different.

Maybe that's because it's about something that is finished, done. It's ready. Whereas public speaking is always in the making, there and then. But maybe, more simply, it's not something I have to worry about as my livelihood depends on it? I don't know. It definitely feels like a lot of fun. And that's good enough, I s'pose.

BTW, I think this is a painting I'm not quite finished with: still feels too precious to let go off, and I doubt that will have receded by next week... so it'll possible have a Not for sale sticker on it.

And just to clarify any confusions over dates and times for the exhibition which have kept changing (to do with changing messages over opening times after everything seemed clear for a long time)

The Opening will be on Friday 13 June 4-6pm

From then onwards, the exhibition will be
open Monday to Friday 10-5pm (last entry at 5);
It will not be open at any point during the weekend.


The exhibition will close on Friday 27 June 5pm

The location is St Andrew's Gallery, Level 5, St Andrew's Building, University of Glasgow,
11 Eldon St, Glasgow, G3 6NH (off Woodlands Roundabout)

The website http://eldongroup.ghelms.com is being kept uptodate.


6 comments:

Chris Bellinger said...

Hi!
i know how you feel!
i have done three exhibitions, one with a fellow student and two solos, it is all pretty nerve racking. but then you are putting yourself on display!, There is always something extra you can do right to the last minuet, alsoI think it a good idea to have a sticker on a painting that means its a bit pssocological You may even attract more sales!
chris

daviddrawsandpaints said...

An exciting time for you Gesa. I have held two solo exhibitions and both were "a blast"! I love it, but it is exhausting. At least you have other artists exhibiting with you.
Is the Preview open to anyone?
I would like very much to come along and meet you.
Also I have an artist friend
(http://dukaduka.blogspot.com/)coming all the way from Australia to attend a wedding in Dunoon and I will be meeting her (for the first time) tomorrow to show her round the artworks in Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Could I extend the invite to her too?

Gesa said...

Hi David,
yes - please, come along. I actually just posted an invite to you - the other way round than the Moley exchange and this would be a great opportunity to meet up! Oh, Kelvingrove... so close, (just down the hill from work) but still I'm there so rarely. Yes, please bring her along too. I'm glad once it's next Friday... so many things to see to :)

daviddrawsandpaints said...

Tomorrow, 12:30 in the main hall. I'll be wearing my kilt, so you won't want to miss that!

You are welcome to join us.

Gesa said...

Cheers for the invite, David. But I'm struggling with time during work hours at the moment... and today has plenty of things to be ticked off. Well... I'll see how the morning goes...

Gesa said...

Chris - thanks! Now, that's a good point, and I hadn't thought of that. I think that may resolve my dilemma with the Blue Trees. Thanks for suggesting the sticker!