JAS8 Reception

It's been a long road getting ready for this show.  I'm not talking about the prints in my piece, cut and printed 19 years ago, but about the process of organizing the show.  I did a count last night and found one of my inboxes had 72 e-mails over the past 5 weeks dealing with aspects of this show.  Didn't do a count on outgoing, but probably at least two dozen.  We got the postcards done, brought the work in to the gallery on schedule and got it on the walls, a long process in my case.  I produced a press release and a gallery handout with the list of works.  I endured snowstorms and threats of snowstorms.  I volunteered some loaves of homemade focaccia as part of my food contribution, which meant shopping for ingredients this past week and four hours today of dough mixing, rising, shaping, and baking.  But it all got done.  I got to the gallery today about 20 minutes before it was to begin, with an armful of bread.  At the official start time, 4 of the 5 artists were there (the fifth never showed), and some of the people in charge of the BAC, but no visitors.  However people started walking in the door a few minutes later, one or two at a time, and before long we had a crowd.

Above, a few people looking at some digital abstracts in the front room.  Below, my back room space was shared by Beverly Hertler's quilt based fiber art, both of us featuring grid structures.  Photos of some of the other art can be seen here.

At most BAC shows a crowd tends to gather in the back, between that being where the food and the cafe tables are.  Those people had my piece to look at.  I was asked a lot of questions about individual panels, but I know the stories very well, so I can always explain them.

Despite the threats of snow, we ended up with a pretty good crowd, several dozen passing through over the two hours.  We even had a few of our critique group regulars- Molly and Katie.  The show will remain up through March 8th, then make way for the next big juried show.  It will come down a lot faster than it went up.  And maybe I can get started on some new art.