I really enjoyed the opening last night. The two works look good and attracted attention – especially Nocturne which sparkled and twinkled magnificently. I am coming around to the idea that it would have been detrimental to have also shown the other pieces that were originally requested. There is a strong and simple elegance to the two works that would have been lost had there been more glittered pieces in the vicinity … or even elsewhere in the show. While I am usually a follower of Mae West’s philosophy: too much of a good thing can be wonderful!, in this case they simply wouldn’t have been.
On Saturday the annual visual artists’ award exhibition opens in the gallery adjacent to our show. We should certainly benefit from that and I am glad that my glittery placard Mot is opposite the connecting doors. So from Saturday each of my works will be in the direct sight line from the preceding rooms – I am going to assume that this was a conscious decision on the part of Sara (the curator) and that it speaks of the allure of glitter and the power of what are essentially two quite simple pieces.
I will also admit that I enjoyed attracting and receiving a good amount of attention last night! I wore a silver sequin baseball jacket – a bit of ’method dressing’ – and was reminded of Elena’s response to one of the posts from Riga about not making distinctions between one’s practice and one’s life. It was the first time I had seen some studio friends and colleagues since returning from the residency and it was exciting to talk about my experience(s) of it. Again it reinforced that focussing on my practice is where I want to spend my time and energy. Earlier in the day at the studio I wrote down things that I want to do in the coming year … some of which, given a little more thought, could be expressed as ’projects’ … projects that I could possibly get support of funding for. This is both exciting and scary – it feels, dare I say it, necessary.
