T plus 27 days

heap, signs, where we live (for Z. and C.) ; Photo by Stacey Evans

Last night pal/playwright/collector Gwydion Suilebhan posted a review of my show here (scoll down the the second post).

The show is over, so here's my post-mortem of how it went. I'll do a self-review in the next and final post in this series.

This post will be a little scattered, just random thoughts about the show.

The biggest success was getting the work done and up and looking good for the opening. We had ton of people there an I got a lot of feedback. I also got a great free meal after the opening. I met other artists, including Ju-Yeon Kim who was in the main gallery, and I got to know the people at Second Street better.

My biggest problem was not having things done more in advance, and this is a lesson I'll really be trying to learn with the shows I have lined up for next year. Overall I think the show went well and I know I worked as hard as I could getting it together, pushing my work in a few different directions, but one thing I didn't prepare for enough was how much time a new baby takes up. I didn't want to compromise my commitments to her or her mom which left less time for show prep than I originally figured. That said, I did get everything done I meant to: the big drawing, the sculptures and lots of little works.

Ahead of time I could have done more with the street poster thing - I did a couple but couldn't continue because of lack of time. They would have been cool to do, but I don't think they would have affected the turnout for the opening, so no real harm done. I also should have done some framing earlier - a few were rushed and looked it.

I got very little press for the show - only a review on Thinking About Art and another one on a friend's blog. These reviews are certainly more thoughtful and helpful to me than any tiny newspaper mention would be, but I would have liked some kind of print recognition. I know that there's a lot of shows here in C'ville, and that Ju-Yeon Kim's show in the main gallery was big and good (she got a few reviews), so I had long odds to start with. I made sure all the local writers got materials from me and the gallery, but it didn't help. One local writer attended the opening, heard me talk, said to a gallery-worker "I don't get it" but then didn't even bother walking over to speak to me. I would have thought being local might have gotten me some mileage with the local press - even a bad review is something! This is a lesson I should have learned much earlier in my career...

As for sales, I knew this would be a long shot too. Second Street is a non-profit space, not a commercial gallery with salespeople and collector lists. All the staff was enthusiastic about my work, but I didn't expect many sales. I sold some books and, on the last day, a few smaller pieces. One problem may have been that it looked like the wall of small works were sold as one piece instead of individually. Financially, the sales I did have added to the stipend for the show and the outreach programs almost matched my outlays for frames. What I didn't make in cash I got in glory.

The gallery itself was really supportive and great. Working with the staff Allie and Alice and the interns (and, via telephone, new mom Leah) turned out to be one of the best parts of the show. The outreach program was fun and in doing all the gallery talks I really honed my artist statement - I'm a lot better about talking about my work now. I also got to see behind-the-scenes of the gallery and see all the work that goes in to keeping it going.

So the good I take from the show - Glory, new pals, lots of work and a really good line on my resume. The bad parts I try to learn a lesson from - Get the work done early, no get it done earlier than you think, be even more weaseley and smooth-jivey with press people and GET THE WORK DONE EARLY.

Next and final post - a self-review of the actual work.

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This is a post in series counting down to my solo show True Defenders of the Craft at Second Street Gallery. See previous posts: T plus 25 days, T plus 7 days, T plus 3 days, T minus 0 days, T minus 1 day, T minus 2 days,T minus 3 days, T minus 4 days, T minus 7 days, T minus 8 days, T minus 9 days, T minus 10 days, T minus 11 days, T minus 14 days, T minus 15 days, T minus 16 days, T minus 17 days, T minus 18 days, T minus 21 days, T minus 23 days, T minus 25 days, T minus 28 days, T minus 29 days, T minus 30 days, T minus 32 days, T minus 35 days, T minus 37 days, T minus 38 days, T minus 43 days, T minus 44 days, T minus 46 days, T minus 49 days, T minus 51 days, T minus 54 days,T minus 55 days,T minus 56 days, T minus 57 days.