Hanging the Art Show

I've spent the past two days hanging my art show, Everyday Objects, at Rare Device and now it is up and complete (see above)!

Here's the little story of the install --

What should greet me when I first arrived Wednesday afternoon but this lovely sign in the window? Just one of the many moments when I had that "wow, this is really happening!" feeling.

Wednesday was painting day. True story: I was once, many many years ago, a professional house painter for about two months, so I pulled out my old skills, opened my can of paint in a bright green called "Mermaid Tail," and started cutting the edges of the wall with a brush.

Next, poured it into the tray...

...and started rollering the wall...

...and here's the first coat about a third completed.

While I waited for the first coat to dry I went and got coffee at the Mill and was pleased with how the little hand on the cup seemed to be high-fiving my paint-splattered hand.

By the end of that day, with two coats on, it looked like this and I thought the painting was done.

The next morning it was raining, so I wrapped the pictures - each already individually wrapped in kitchen rags held on with galaxy-printed duct-tape - in three big plastic bundles, and put each bundle into the tote-bag of one of my spiritual guides (Susan O'Malley, Marimekko, and Professional Enthusiast, respectively), then put them all in a cab and zipped back over the Rare Device.

When I got there, much to my dismay, the paint had dried somewhat streaky, so I quickly put on a third coat - using every. last. drop. of paint in the paint can. The result looked good, but with the picture hanging needing to happen and the weather wet, we deployed a space heater (just visible in photo above) to help the paint dry asap.

That crisis averted, I unpacked the pictures from their various wrappings, and started moving them around on the floor.

It probably took me about 50 image moves and swaps - walking back and forth between the two groups of ten, picking up a picture here and moving it over there - to arrive at the final arrangement, laid out on the floor like this.

The trick was to get both colors and subject matter balanced, both between the two sides, and within the group (I didn't want two pink pictures next to each other, for example, nor two pictures of food). So it was tricky.

At this point my pal, the very lovely Tiffanie Turner arrived to help. In addition to being an amazing artist, Tiffanie also had a long former career as an architect and, I suspect, may be a mathematical genius.

Tiffanie was able to measure and calculate where to put the nails to hang the pictures on to achieve the grid I wanted in perhaps five percent of the time it would have taken me to do that same task.

Then, almost before I knew it, all the pictures were hung and it was done!

The end result looks like this.

Here's a close-up of the left side.

And a close-up of the right side.

So, the show is there right now if you're around and want to go see it! And the "Artist Reception" party is next Friday evening, January 26th, from 6-9 pm. I do hope you can join us!