Foray III

Dec 12 2013

TVAA’s Third Annual Foray Exhibition + Opening Update

By melissasasichambers Exhibitions

The show is hung and it looks great. The staff at Boise State Public Radio are happy to have art back on the walls, and it always feels wonderful to have them tell us things like “I know I say this every time, but this is the best show yet!”

Sue Latta and I spent an entire day getting it up on the walls. No surprise there, 67 pieces is the biggest show we’ve hung so far.

Sue is great to work with because she brings that fresh perspective I was talking about on the 11th to the process.

She’ll tweak what I’ve laid out just enough to tighten things up. She’s like that pinch of salt or splash of lemon juice that you didn’t know you needed in the soup, but once it’s added it makes all the difference. Plus she can do ridiculous math. In her head.

Mike’s and my pieces ended up side by side. I had not placed them together being wary of the “Mike and Melissa Show” accusations, but Sue didn’t give a rip about that, and I agree that wall is better for her rearrangement.

Next up, the Opening on the 13th. It should be quite the crowd with 67 artists and their entourages. Oh, and it’s supposed to snow!

December 14, 2013

It did NOT snow fortunately, and we had a great turnout. As often happens, I totally forgot to take pictures at the Opening itself, but luckily Mike took a few and here are two including one of me with my new haircut. Yes, it’s true. I couldn’t stand it any longer.

Pun intended.

Dec 10 2013

Hot Eye!

By melissasasichambers Exhibitions

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.”