Wow!
I am sooooo thankful and grateful to my wonderful boyfriend and Diane Johnson-Mendes, the gallery owner & curator, for promoting my show, which opened on Thursday night, June 3, for Art Hop. So many people gave me positive feedback on my artwork -- and participated on the wall installation I created as a way for the community to provide their own fun and quirky self-portraits within the space.
There
were a few people who were confused by the foam board on nails with simple statements and statuses; the yarn resting on the table with the Lewis Carrol-esque directives (
this one/that one) were vague. But after some trepidation, many gallery goers "got it" over the course of the evening, and had lots of fun stringing patterns to match their likes and dislikes upon the wall. In fact, Diane said that people were still streaming in
long after the wine and food had run dry just to visit my side room, and play with the installation until almost 11 o'clock!
"They've never really seen something like this here before," Diane said. "I think many people assume that galleries are like museums where everything is sterile, and someone is always standing by and watching and waiting to yell out, 'Don't Touch the Artwork!' But your exhibit -- they can, and
do eventually understand that it's okay to touch it. I think that's what makes it so much fun, and very exciting.
Art needs to be relatable. It's always about ownership," she said.
Considering that I was still in my exhibit hammering in nails at 4:45 PM (and the show began at 5 PM), I was definitely short on time! Standing there in my flip-flops and jeans, my hair in a messy chignon and sweat beading on the tip of my nose, I wondered whether people would understand what I was trying to achieve here: a community portrait. I held a nail somewhat level, and slammed the hammer down. Thankfully, the show has been extended until
June 26, so anyone can walk in to the gallery during opening hours to view artwork AND contribute to the installation.
It's looking pretty awesome following Art Hop, I can assure you that! (Pictures of the art panels coming soon . . . )
In my view, there is art that is purely decorative -- flat, formulaic, and mass-produced -- the sort of artwork you can find at any retail center that doesn't have a particular voice or message, and does not come from a particular person at all. Decorative art is the sort of white noise you need in the background when there is nothing else left to say at a party. Then, there is nakedness.
The nakedness of the artist lay bare upon surface, all colors or none, awash with abstracted intention and convoluted purpose -- but full of personality. The sort of artwork that does not require a distinctive brush stroke, color palette, or recurring theme, but is still indicative of
exactly who the artist is, or was, when it was being made.
Decorative art is self-conscious, the needle of the compass always pointing northward no matter how you turn. It is self-correcting, refining, and harumphing and clearing the throat.
Pure art, not necessarily always beautiful, requires either grand insecurity or a huge ego.
It is a shout, jumping to test sturdy legs, and the arms thrown back to scoop the air.
Since I worked with raw wood, graphite, charcoal, and
acrylic sealer sprays for the past few weeks the skin on my hands has been chapped raw. My knuckles started to split! That was nuts: I could clearly picture my skin peeling back at certain moments, imagining the white, spit-foam of tendon upon yellow fat on each finger. Of course, I would later read the
caveat on the back of the sealant spray: ". . . may
defat skin. Wear gloves. Non-toxic when dry."
Of course.
I had never even heard of the word "
defat" -- though logic provides the literal definition, and process.
So today we spent much of the morning roaming about
Bath & Body Works, where I gave myself a sugar scrub manicure and tried their new line of shea butter hand creams. I loved their
Shea Cashmere line -- it's smooth, emollient, non-greasy, and it smells just a hint of butterscotch. Just enough to get you hungry, but not overpowering or naively sugary and chemical.
I've obviously haven't been much of a shopper or "mall rat" since 2008. Living in San Francisco until recently meant that I got all of my cosmetics either at
Sephora, or
Walgreens.
As for this weekend:
The New England Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League's Youth in Leadership Awards Gala is TONIGHT at Benjamin Franklin Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. They're holding a grand ball -- and I've been told that many A-listers are attending -- including one of the producers of the NYC-run of "American Idiot" & the owners of the Boston Celtics. That's ridiculously awesome!
HERE'S a link to one of their parties in November 2009, just to give you an idea of what they're like -- and who comes.
I was invited, in May, to contribute some artwork in-kind for this event . . . and I'm so happy to have been able to participate this year. Valerie Basnight is an incredible woman, and has always been a smart gal -- I'm happy to see that she's in a good place, and with good people, back over in Boston. I
cannot wait to see photos from the event.
Although I was given tickets to go, I have to tend to my gallery show here in California and make sure that I meet my deadlines to my book publishers, plus I just picked up two trade partnerships with
Urban Outfitters AND
Threadless (just saw their handy-dandy designs for iPhone skins at the Mac Store) so I should get back to crafting some new templates; drawing and designing more comic strips, characters, and fine prints for that account; gearing up for my next show, which will most likely be in retaliation to
BP's's huge debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. I can already here the
tic-tic-ticking of the clock, so I should go now ----
Have a wonderful weekend!
Wear sunblock, not sunscreen. It's damn hot out there.
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