Putting on an exhibition, even one without any particular theme or restrictions as to medium, size of work or number of participants, still requires a great deal of planning and attention to detail. To the casual observer it may seem haphazard, random or even chaotic.
To me it is a clear and natural process, though a bit difficult to articulate. I think a good analogy might be the lead bird during migration. My gut tells me to head in a certain direction and I just keep flying until I get there.
Yesterday was the day when all the artwork got dropped off for the next Treasure Valley Artists’ Alliance (TVAA) exhibition, Foray III.
As the work arrived I started arranging it in the space, moving pieces around and seeing how they interacted with each other.
For me it’s like a conversation between the pieces. They must communicate well with each other and that in turn helps the work express itself more fully to you the viewer.
When I was in High School at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) we used to play a game our teacher Frank Gross called “Hot Eye.” He would project two seemingly unrelated images and then have us compare and contrast them in every way.
Composition, palette, content, political overtones, skill level, provenance — anything we could think of — with the end result inevitably being our seeing how the work was more related than not.
Arranging a show like this is essentially one big game of Hot Eye. It is exhilarating, and exhausting. I’m very glad to have flown with my mom yesterday. She made the perfect “wing-woman.”
In two days Sue Latta and I will get the show hung and then it will be clear to everyone where we were headed all along.
Getting warm…Warmer…Warmer! Hot Eye!
