Road Trip

Today was the scheduled day to deliver our works to Rahway for next week's Preemptive Strike show. All the artwork was ready by last night, so the only thing I did this morning was look over the map one more time to remind myself of the landmarks along the way.  I left late morning from home, made excellent time getting up to Union County, and found plenty of empty spaces in the lot behind the Arts Guild building.  Doug Ferrari was inside to greet the arriving artists, and a few others were around while I was there today.  He dispersed my four pieces among 3 piles of artwork, reflecting which of the three locations each is intended for.  I have at least one going to each place.

Before getting back in the car, I decided to walk down the street and check out the other locations.  The bulk of the work in this 30 person group show will be there in the main building at 1670 Irving.  I'm scheduled to have two pieces there- my boardwalk wheel game and St Benno.  The other art will be further into the Rahway Arts District.  Two blocks south is a theater, and next to that the Art District Office, 1591 Irving.  My History of Art print will be there.  This piece had been in the show Molly and I were in several years ago, so I'm kind of glad it ended up in a different building.  Starting on the next corner, at least a bunch of the next block is empty storefronts.  Relatively modern building, spaces look clean and maintained, just no current tenants.  My fourth piece, the smoking portrait will be going in one of the empty windows.  Seems like a perfect location, since my subject is a woman leaning up against the brick exterior of a building.  Some might even think that it was created specifically to be shown there.  Don't know the specific address yet, but they are across from the YMCA, which I think was in the 1560's.

And speaking of the YMCA, Doug mentioned that there was some kind of art flea market going on there and suggested that I check it out.  There were tables in a center cluster and around the perimeter of the room, maybe around two dozen.  Most of it not particularly exciting.  I did find one thing worth buying- one table had a bunch of mini posters, reproductions of WPA produced posters.  The largest one (see above) is about 9" x 12", all printed on glossy heavy stock.  Only a quarter each, or 5 for a buck, so I got five.  Wish I had them a couple of weeks ago when my Visual Thinking class was starting their poster project, but I'll still bring them to school and show them to the students.

After that, I headed home.   There are two official receptions for this show.  The first is Sunday, April 28th, from 1 to 4 pm.  Then on Thursday, May 2nd, there's a First Thursday art event, with the galleries open 6 to 8:30 pm, and live music as various locations from 8 to 10:30 pm.  I can't make either one, but will find a day to check it out soon, and probably get some photos of the installations.