LOL part 4

Pretty standard procedure in Belmar is for the show intakes to be Friday afternoon and Saturday late morning/early afternoon.  Saturday would have given me more time for the last step- framing the entry, but all the forecasts called for heavy rains on Saturday, possibly all day, and transporting artwork made with paper and colored with watercolor in a rain storm can be quite risky.

Luckily I was able to get it done by Friday afternoon.  After some measuring, I decided that my piece would fit into a mat and frame from my saint series, with no further cutting of the mat needed.  The only complication was that the saints are vertical, and this substituted piece is horizontal, so the wire would have to be attached to the other two frame chops, and the wire that was there was too short. However, I do have framing wire in my supplies, so I cut a new piece and got it all together.  Brought it to the Boatworks during the allotted time.

I was curious as to how many artists were in the show and was told the number was in the 20's, so not many more than had signed up when I did.  A deadline so soon after the holidays probably didn't help.  If I didn't have a suitable block already cut, there's no way I would have had time to create something new this week, what with all the other deadlines in my life right now.  Maybe we will eventually learn the reason for the odd date schedule of this show.  Another thing I learned was that most of the pieces are on the small side, a surprise to the curator.  I hadn't thought about it ahead of time, but it makes sense to me.  Over the history of fine art, humor and satire are not that common, perhaps because of the time and effort needed to create major works.  Where it is more common, is in the world of printmaking, especially the northern renaissance.  Large expensive works were usually the goal of artists, things sold to churches, kings, etc. (museums didn't exist yet), while humor and satire were considered more suitable for small mass produced and inexpensive prints sold to more common people.  Actually anything with an alternate point of view was more likely to be a print, or perhaps a small drawing.

The show opens to the public during the week, and then the Salon event (where artists are encouraged to discuss why they did what they did) will happen next Saturday.  I won't get into nearly as much detail as I did on this blog, but I'll answer any questions I get, and if someone wants to talk about it afterwards, I'll be there.

While I was out yesterday, I put another card in the mail.  Just a few more to go out.  Since so many of the people who used to send me cards have given up the practice, I have many fewer to send myself. Just as letter writing is much in decline, so is the tradition of mailing cards.

Late last night a heavy rain did come in, which I could easily hear from inside my apartment.  This morning there were some sprinkly showers, but nothing serious, so I probably could have packed my piece for delivery.  But I didn't have to.