Piling On

Never ceases to amaze me how things come up all at once, and then there's nothing for a while. Right now is one of those all at once times. Maybe it's the new normal.

There are two back to back - overlapping even - Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society shows. One opened last Sunday at the Mobile Museum of Art. It's the Shared Expressions exhibition and I found it quite good: http://www.mobilemuseumofart.com/index.php?sector=3&view=2 Go by and take a look.

Next Monday is the take-in for the WGAS exhibition at the Eastern Shore Arts Center in Fairhope. All I had to do was get two pieces scanned and framed. Calagaz let me down on the scans. They had trouble with the scanner, so they photographed them. If I wanted them photographed, I could have got Rich to do it. Not only that, but they looked really bad: distorted, crooked, and unevenly lit. They should have told me they were going to do that. When I asked for a do-over, they said their scanner wasn't meant for that kind of work. Maybe not but I have been having that done there for years, and except for an occasional line that needed to be Shopped out or some such, it had never been a problem. In the event, I did get Rich to photograph them, and that was much better than what they had done.

So then I framed the first of the drawings - colored pencil. Turns out that the mat I'd had cut was wrong - my fault - but happily it was too big, so I was able to fix that. The next day I started on the second one and broke the glass. This morning I went to the hardware store (Ace on Moffat Road, if you're following along in your program) and got them to cut a piece of Plexiglas for me. Fine. Except when I tried to put the frame together, it was about 1/8 of an inch too long!!! Another trip back to Ace, ("OK if I cut it a little shorter than 30 inches, just to be sure?" NOOOOOOO!!) a looooong wait whilst he tried to re-cut the first piece, then gave up and cut a new one. Finally they are both framed and ready. When I win the Lottery, I'm never framing anything myself again.

Now I am working on a scrapbook for WGAS, which I'd like to have presentable by the opening on August 5. How do I get into these things? Oh, right, I volunteered.

My own show(s) are coming up at Edward Jones on Dauphin Street in September and October (instead of October only, as I originally thought - but that's good, right?).

And I will be at the Gulf for 2 weeks right before that - barring hurricanes. I hope to relax there, stare at the water, draw, read, photograph, and relax. It deserves to be mentioned twice. Unfortunately I will be gone for the first 2 weeks of classes at the College of Medicine, where I work. So I would expect there to be a load of work for me upon return.

On the other hand, two quail sauntered by our window this afternoon, so that makes up for most everything.