February came to an end with me being caught between the old and the new exhibitions. I had been so busy during the last two weeks of February that I found it difficult to prepare for the opening of the March 5th show. The two women I chose to exhibit for Women’s History Month were Sydnei SmithJordan and Nicole Pritchett.
SmithJordan had already dropped off her paintings mid February but I was now starting to become a little bit anxious to really spend some time looking over the works in my preparation for hanging them.
BY GRACE… THE ATONEMENT
Sydnei SmithJordan
Pritchett on the other hand usually delivers her work in pieces until we really are down to the wire. This showing proved to be no different. The first pieces arrived on the deadline February 28. I was a bit surprised because in the preparational talks, we had both agreed that this show would have smaller pieces then the last exhibit. Not only were the new pieces big, some of them were actually larger than her previous works.
Unfortunately, when an artist is working so closely with their pieces, they will often times not realize the full scale of a piece until it is mounted, at which time it is usually to late to do anything about. After her last exhibit, Pritchett had talked about having wished she’d of included more smaller works (I often have to remind artists to never forget that for the most part, people purchase art as a pleasure purchase). I wasn’t too worried about the pieces being large. They were simply gorgeous. The problem arises from the stand point of size vs space when purchasing. The reality is that size often limits the number of people who can actually acquire the pieces. I thought, if she’s really interested in wanting to sell we were skating on a bit thin ice.
Something also felt out of place. When I looked at all the work it seemed to me as if something were missing. Pritchett mentioned that there were some other pieces that she had not been able to complete. I told her if she thought she could get them to me by Wednesday April 3rd, I would break my rule of not wanting to be rushed into curating an exhibit. She agreed. The small pieces arrived and were indeed the missing pieces to the puzzle.
ORGANIC MIND CULTIVATION II
Nicole Pritchett
From Wednesday afternoon to Thursday I worked like a madman into the wee hours. Mediating and talking with each piece of art to better understand how they worked individually and as a whole. Every exhibit has its challenges but with a little patience, secrets slowly start to reveal what on the surface more often than not seems to be just a bunch of random images someone has called an exhibition. Once all the work was hung and I was able to slowly walk through, as if I were seeing these pieces for the very first time, it felt right.
The harmany one looks for as a curator was there. It truly felt as if each piece were gently and ever so politely introduced you to the next piece. The exhibits flowed. In spite of my feeling exhausted and my emotions spent, both of exhibitions leaved me with a proud feeling of having helped something become complete and it would be with that earnest feeling that I would push myself eagerly forward towards what would prove to be an exquisite opening night artist reception.
