Ocean Grove is Hopping

As we move through November, I had a lot of Studio related business today.  When I turned on my phone this morning I had a voice mail from Molly.  Was she backing out of coming to tonight's critique group?  Yes and no.  Suddenly realized that she couldn't come tonight, but thought she could do tomorrow.  Also, wondered if anyone had expressed plans to come tonight.  I had sent out e-mails almost a week ago, and only had one reply- a no.  Molly had no confirmed plans from her text messages.  After a quick phone conversation, we decided to push it to tomorrow, and I sent out e-mails to my list with the changes.

Last week while at the Studio I noticed piles of Christmas wreathes in the lobby and figured I should get some info about the plans to reclaim the first floor walls.  Back in 2015, the first year of WinterFest, in early November, without warning, we found our art that had been on the first floor dumped in our Studio space, so I figured that would happen soon this year.  I was told I could wait until this week to take it down.  Then a few days ago we received e-mails saying that we had to remove the art from the walls this week, so I expected to come in a few days for that purpose.  My display this year was 6 supermarket prints, and I have most of the framed ones stored in custom boxes I had used to ship them to Iowa for a show several years ago, so early today I stopped down in Manasquan and picked up one of those boxes.

Got an e-mail a few days ago from the organizer of the Scene at the Shore show at OCC next month.  A reminder of dates, etc.  I had purchased the framing materials for one more piece a few weeks ago, but hadn't touched it since.  This is one of the least busy weeks between now and the installation, so I planned to get that going soon.  Being that the critique change was happening with short notice, I decided to go there tonight in case anyone didn't get the word, so I could tell them what happened.  And I'd use the time and my big table to take on the framing project.

I arrived at the Studio building around 5 pm and found that the wall that a few days ago held 6 of my framed supermarket prints, which we had been told we had till the end of this week to take down, now just held a wreath.  And the prints were not in the Studio either, though I found Molly's stuff there from her upstairs show.  I found Ian in the office and asked him, and he showed me storage area (see below) where my pieces were stashed.

So a slight change of plans.  My print storage box that I picked up this morning was still out in my car, so I brought that in, packed the 6 framed prints, and carried it back out to my car.  Now that task was done.  I still wanted to deal with the frame, and I had plenty of time before the scheduled start of the critique (when confused people might show up), so I moved on to that.  Before coming to the Studio I had grabbed the frame parts and the foam core and mat board I bought for this purpose.  Everything else I would need I store in the Studio.  So I got out my homemade mat cutting machine, set it up on my large studio table, and began that process.  I haven't had an occasion to cut a mat for a while, but the procedure came back to me quickly, and by 7 pm I had assembled the frame, cut a backing board, and created the window mat for the front of the frame.

Got everything put away and loaded up the car by 7:30 pm.  No one had showed. so I guess they all got the message about the change.  Still need to get some plexiglass, so I should stop at the place soon and order it.  Mounting the print and wiring it for hanging won't take long.