Art Party In Belmar

Last week Molly brought up the idea of holding an art reception in place of our usual monthly critique, so that people could go see her latest batch of new work , which was currently hanging in an art friendly restaurant in Belmar.  Fine by me.  Scheduling was the main trick.  The art space was scheduled to turn over to another artist this week, and she had commitments on Monday and Tuesday, so it had to be tonight.  She sent texts to her list, and I sent word out to my e-mail list that it would be Wednesday at 7 pm.  Then last night she remembered something else, and decided she couldn't make it until 8:15 tonight.  So I got that out to everyone as well.  With no real idea what was going to happen, I showed up 7:45 at Stay Gold Cafe.

Arriving, I saw several familiar faces at tables toward the back of the restaurant and a big jug of sangria, which she had promised us.  Food started to show up as well.

And then Molly came in at 8:12 on my watch, just ahead of her promised time.  By then there were at least a dozen people there for the event- some critique group regulars, some guests of theirs, and some friends of Molly with no connection to our group.  Above, Molly is in the center, holding court.

This restaurant is generally a noisy place, so there was no way we were going to hold a regular group critique.  If anyone had brought any work to show, it did not get brought out.

Molly did circulate around, so anyone who did want to talk to her about this batch of work had the opportunity to do so.  I've been part of at least two other critiques of this work, and have discussed it with her in the Studio, so tonight I was just there for food and drink and to party with some art friends.

Molly's wall of work should be down some time tomorrow.   The big pieces had been part of her display on the 1st floor of our building in Ocean Grove, so maybe they'll be going back there.