Plan(s) B

Example 1: Christian took a stab at my American Craft ad yesterday. He has much more extensive training and practice with this kind of thing, let alone convincing opinions, and I was more than happy to let him work his magic on my self-taught graphic design skills. I wasn't that unhappy with my early ad, but can see what a difference a little TLC makes when it comes to organization and fonts. I also found out Friday that the previously scheduled small show, also in September, at the nearby Museum of Contemporary Craft was moved to October. This is huge load of my work schedule in the next 3.5 months, but also off my ad, which needed a little "less is more" action. Not to mention the fact that Velvet da Vinci is the only gallery who represents the same kind of work that I will be showing in Natural Selection, so I am happy to direct any and all retail traffic their way.


Example 2: I had a little epiphany last night about my Exhibitionist piece. It had to be bigger. Bigger than my original design and bigger than the sort of similar piece I made a few months ago. So today I started making the little elements and the basic structure. My new piece will be over 20" tall, which will be great in the overall body of work.

My studio is sooooo packed with tools and inspirational images and sculptures and my big window taking up all of the wall space that it's really hard to see my work sometimes. I do have one blank wall that I reserve for "installations-in-progress," but it's geared towards wall work, and I'm learning that I have to be inventive to get a little breathing room for the sculptural work. My photography area works pretty well, but at the moment it's kinda full of sculptures. It's funny--my last studio was literally 24 square feet and when I upgraded to 400 square feet, I thought I was set. I've almost outgrown this studio, but also feel the need to work with what I've got because if I don't, it could lead to a never-consummated, ever-voracious appetite for studio space. My solution today was to prop up a large white backdrop behind the sculpture I was working on so I cold see it. Please keep in mind that this is still a work in progress. I know some of the pieces are sagging, but they will eventually be glued in to make the satisfying horizontal and vertical planes that make me giddy. I have an additional dozen small elements to add onto this sculpture once this much has been glued into place.

I want to also toss in a scan of one of my vinyl pieces from Costa Rica because those cutout "sketches" were so unexpectedly influential for this body of work. So much so that I'm actually thinking of having a small grouping of framed pieces in another part of the gallery at Ogle. Kind of like when a museum shows the preliminary sketches. I go back and forth on that decision, and it will also depend on how much time I have and funds to have things framed properly.

So many things to consider when mounting a big show like this.