Winter Festival Opens

Tonight was the official opening of the 2016 Winter Arts Festival at the Jersey Shore Arts Center, home of my Studio.  Last year a combination of Friday night drawing class in Ocean County and snow caused me to miss the opening, which I heard was fairly well attended.  Tonight was chilly, but it is expected that we'll be free of snow this weekend.  I got to the building about 6:30, allowing me to grab one of the last remaining parking spaces in the lot.  I made a quick tour of the first floor- my pieces were now with labels, Molly's installation was finished.  Dropped off my bag and coat downstairs in my space, then back up to the show.

We ended up with a decent crowd.  An e-mail from this morning had mentioned wine and cheese, but we also ended up with quite a bit of catered hot food, including coconut shrimp and a fried artichoke dish, both suitable for a Lenten Friday.  Molly actually showed up, and one of our critique group members.  Plenty of people to talk to.  My show got a good reaction- the supermarket prints always do.  A couple of people thought that the art was hung too high- my pieces were about 7 feet off the floor.  Thanks to my bold graphic style at least people could see what they were about, even if they lost a few details.  One suggested I should have the full stories posted on the wall.  I  don't mind telling them, but I'd rather have viewers look at them and think about the narratives for themselves.  Perhaps I should bring more of the unframed prints on Sunday for the open studio session.

People started drifting out around 9 pm, but I am sure we had 50 or 60 pass through.  And no snow, so a successful evening.