The Party!!
The Show is hung!! Everything is ready for opening night! Now the fun begins! … I’m extremely happy with the presentation of the paintings. About 70 personal invitations have been sent out along with local advertisements, and at the Joy Bistro every customer has been given a show card with his bill!
The food is beautifully laid out, the bartender is set up in the Grotto, a musician plays the dulcimer in the window and flowers had been sent. The gallery glows! … The pictures in this slide show were mostly taken in the beginning of the evening. When the gallery became too crowded, we lost track of picture-taking!
(Click on any picture to stop the slide show.)
The Result
Out of 25 pieces, 16 were sold on opening night! This is a wonderful feeling that these many people want to live with something I created! Is selling the ultimate goal? I’m not completely sure, but the ultimate validation is that someone wants to live with your work. And, realistically, the creative is process is unfortunately expensive. I use the finest materials I can. All the 100% pure cotton watercolor paper is from the French company, Arches, founded in 1492. For matting I use also acid-free museum quality mat boards, double hinged with linen tape. As a result, one does need to sell works!
Why do people buy these things? First of all owning original art is a lovely thing, something that is unique to itself. Secondly, it’s satisfying to live with an image which is meaningful, which relates in some way to you personally, in your experience or in your imagination. … My sister Jane owns “Just Bananas”. She is the chef at the University of Massachusetts Faculty Club. She loves and appreciates food. I’m so happy she lives with this painting.
The rest of the paintings were either sold at subsequent shows or given to charity auctions for fundraisers. They are all gone and they live somewhere else; I hope happily and appreciated. (And, even those people who might have purchased something because they might have felt obliged … Arrgh!... I hope they have learned to love the piece!)
she paints; she is a painter 