T minus 57 days

I'm starting a new series here on DRAWER - a countdown to the opening of my first-ever solo show. I'll check in periodically and post about what I'm doing to get the show together and up and hopefully document how fun and frightening it'll be. The show opens November 4, 57 days from now (thus the post title) at Second Street Gallery here in Charlottesville.

Over the next few days or so I'll get you up to speed about what's happened so far, then I'll go day by day talking about what I'm up to.

First a little background. I moved to C'ville with my wife in June 2003. I set up a studio in my house and started scoping out the art scene here. Honestly, I didn't expect much - C'ville is small and known mostly for the University of Virginia. I was surprised at how much there is here though - a good University Museum, a city-run art center with studios and even an Austrailian Aborginal Art Museum. There are also quite a few smaller places to show, including a couple commercial galleries.

Second Street Gallery stood out to me - it's a very professional non-profit space showing regional, national and international artists. Leah Stoddard, the Director, has a great eye and great enthusiasm.

I sent a sheet of slides in the fall of 2003 to apply for a show, thinking I'd need to re-apply a few times and get to know folks around here before I had a shot at a show. At the time they had one larger room in the McGuffey Art Center.

I didnt hear back from them for a while - I figured no news was good news, and they had just moved to their current space, a larger place with a smaller back gallery. In the spring of 2004 I was thinking about calling them to see about my slides when Leah called me. She had held on to my slides, seen a drawing I had in an open group show at the McGuffey and wanted to have studio visit.

The visit went really well and Leah said she wanted to try to fit me in sometime in '04 or '05 - they had a lot more flexibility now that they had 2 galleries in their space. I was happy and freaked out - I had just seen a great Marcel Dzama show there, so showing there seeming like a really good move for me.

Through the rest of '04 I worked in the studio. This past spring Leah told me about where she fit me in the schedule - November 2005 in the back gallery.

More tomorrow...