Today is "hunter-gatherer" day. I will be spending hours making piles and trying to remember every little thing each pile really needs. One, small pile will contain the things needed to successfully pick up The Cocoon from ArtField in Lake City. That will happen tomorrow morning. Then, Steve and I will drive it home, unload it, and start reloading the cargo van with the other piles. Everything will be packed so that I can leave for Pickens ... that late afternoon! I'm due that night!
So, today I gather piles! One pile will be everything needed for Last Words, my solo show that will be installed at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee on Wednesday. Grave rubbing art quilts, sheer chiffon epitaph banners, framed Angels in Mourning, and extra large bags of artificial flowers salvaged from cemetery dumpsters will be in this pile ... along with the "little things" like a staple gun, monofilament, beading/sequin pins, a hammer, an exhibition list, etc. Putting up a solo show is work. I hope I don't forget anything!
A small pile will be my suitcase with enough inside to last two weeks at the Rensing Center, an art residency program outside Pickens, South Carolina. Alongside it will be a few groceries, my laptop, and the external hard drive. Another pile will contain two tubs of yarn, a box of thread, and my sewing machine. During the evenings, I intend to make cording for more fiber vessels.
Another pile will be The Clothesline, an installation started over a year ago. It has grown since the days spent at the Enos Park Art Residency with Springfield Arts Association in Illinois. I don't know how many yards of altered "laundry" have been created. I've never had the opportunity to mount the work properly. I haven't quite figured out how I can install a temporary clothesline from which to hang all these household linens on which I've zigzag stitched found fabric hand prints. I have faith that the staff at Bivens Hardware in Pickens, an independent hardware store with incredibly helpful people, can assist with the plans I have. They probably have clothespins too ... if I don't have enough of them. In the coming two weeks, I hope to install, photograph, and measure this installation. Fingers are crossed.
The last pile will be everything needed for a solo show at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History. This show is called The Big Day. I have nearly forty wedding dresses, three full length mirrors, a collection of altered anonymous wedding pictures, a series of printed selfies to be hung on doll clothes hangers with clips, altered photo albums, and also this wedding portrait of Steve and me. It was taken on September 12, 1981 ... forty years ago. Steve and I have only ever had an 8" x 10" wedding picture. We never wanted anything else. It has faded over the years ... sort of like us! LOL! Yet, an anniversary inspired exhibit really ought to have a picture of the celebrating couple! The image was scanned and digitally manipulated. It was printed in order to fit inside this rather pretty, antique frame. Between the antique frame, the fading, and the fact that neither of us really look like our former selves ... I think it perfect. I also found a copy of our original wedding invitation. It finally got framed too. Not bad for two, professional picture framers who have owned their own shop since 1987!
The Big Day gets installed on Monday and Tuesday. Steve won't be there then. On Monday, he will be picking up my Triptych of Attributes and Oswald Home Laundry from another show in Charleston. It is called Palmetto Hands. Oswald Home Laundry won a $500 merit award! He'll be in a borrowed vehicle as we only own the cargo van. Thankfully, a friend is allowing him to also drive her car to Pickens on Tuesday ... so that he can go with me to Tennessee.
Being a working artist is so much more than just going into the studio! There are so many other tasks. I couldn't do it without help! Many have helped but none as constantly and with more support than Steve. I guess that's why it is important to mark our big anniversaries. Life is an adventure and I've got the best person to share it with!
2 comments:
Safe travels, you two! What a wonderful life to be able to live it together!
just reading your post and I'm in awe that you have so much on, away from home, that requires logistics that big corporations employ a 100 employees to take care of things!
looking forward to hearing about the art residency and some of the logistics that rely on the "hardware store" and so forth....
And I agree totally with Margaret
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