A Grand Evening

Friday April 5,  I had the pleasure of opening my first solo show in a few years in a gallery setting at the baby grand Gallery at the Grand Opera house in Wilmington, Delaware. The Grand is a beautiful old Victorian era theater on Market Street and is host to a number of national music, comedy and theater acts throughout the year and enjoys a prestigious reputation in the area.

The Gallery that I got to exhibit in, the "baby grand" is a huge room which allotted me two 19 foot walls and two 6 foot walls for my paintings. Given this amount of space, I decided to mount the show as a "mini retrospective " of my work to showcase larger heavier, pieces painted on wood that I don't get to exhibit at my outdoor shows and paintings from the beginning and middle of my career as a painter. The room is beautiful and a wonderful venue to exhibit in. The hanging system was a bit tricky at first and due to the size and weight of most of the paintings and  I would have been lost in hanging it without the help of my friend Stacy from Storm Flight Designs.

Awesome Steve Sottung on guitar

 The opening was so much fun. My friend Steve Sottung played acoustic covers on his guitar much to the enjoyment of my guests and I got to talk with people about work that has been hidden and under appreciated in my studio. It was really wonderful to bring out some of the people paintings that I created from photos just because they were interesting to me. I gave them new frames and the respect they deserve.

 Looking around my show, I felt very proud, like a mom surveying her children and grandchildren and appreciating each one of them for their unique and special qualities. The part I always enjoy about these things is talking to people about the paintings. I love to hear their stories about what they think is going on in the painting or why they think I painted things a certain way.  That is the interaction that is so special and magical about creating art. What did the artist intend? What does the viewer perceive? I find that they are never wrong in whatever they bring to viewing the painting because that is THEIR experience with the work, so how can I say it's wrong?

I love being an artist. Creativity has saved me throughout my life. I am so blessed to get to do this. I am so blessed by the friends and family that support me, by the people that spend their hard earned money on my work. It humbles me. Thank you all :0) oh, the show is up until April 30 so stop by if you can!