The opening last night was great fun and a smashing success. Thank you so much to everyone I know who turned up, my apologies if I didn't get a chance to speak to you, but for the second half of the evening I was entertaining my VIP guest who had just gotten off the plane after an overnight journey (my father!). Thank you also to all the people who sent good wishes and support. If you missed the opening but are in the area, the show will still be up for the next two weeks, Mondays to Fridays 9 am - 5 pm (including Bank Holiday Monday).
Many people have asked me (especially tutors) whether I am pleased with how my installation came together. The answer is yes!
22 May - Friday
My installation is finished!
21 May - Thursday
Hung the pictures, with a little help getting some of them settled properly in their frames (it is amazing what can be done with the proper tools, like a sort of gun that fires triangular bits of metal into the wood of the frame), and a little more help when my hook system failed and several pictures came crashing down - breaking one of the frames. I don't mean come apart at the corners, I mean an oval frame snapped completely in two. After uttering an obligatory swear word, mainly because I was startled by the noise, I was surprisingly sanguine - I have a huge amount of work to select from, and the one in the frame that broke wasn't one of the best.
Tutor came round to check on progress, frowned, and said, 'You are going to fill in those holes where the light is coming in?' 'Of course!' I beamed. And indeed, I am, with a good system, though it was tempting to leave one crack to see if I could create a camera obscura projected on the opposite wall. Now that would have been a coup for historic photographic processes!
20 May - Wednesday
In a bizarre start to the day, neither myself not the guy at the DIY shop (home hardware store, for North American readers) noticed that I'd asked for one litre of paint mixed, and that he was following the recipe for that amount of my colour put into a 2.5 litre can of mixer. Oops! Grey not mocha! What do you do with the stuff? I asked as he mixed another. Oh, we'll probably throw it out, he said. But when I offered to buy it cheap, the manager decreed only a 30% discount... so I came away without the grey. I was not the first School of Arter to buy paint there this morning...
I feel much better now that my space is complete, with ceiling installed after some heroic gymnastics by one of the technicians. A bronze statue of said, with staple gun raised triumphant, will in due course be installed to commemorate this event.
19 May - Tuesday
I have painted all the boards in my space, except the ceiling which will go up tomorrow, and a few bits of trim. Then hanging the pictures can begin!
I have also got some interviews 'in the can' for the audio gallery guide.
Now if I can just get my portfolio in shape, everything will be coming together!
It is very exciting seeing other people's work arrive and start to go up on the walls.
Room plan for one of the upstairs rooms (including me). Click on the picture to enlarge.
Plan for the other upstairs rooms (this is all provisional!) Click to enlarge.
Before: my work space, as was. Around Wednesday 6 May
A last look at my wonderful view
The room cleared: where did all the stuff go? Monday 11 May
My work space, windows boarded over, ready to become my exhibition space!
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