Lessons in Organization

Last week I received a text from a good friend of mine - Call Chad @ #, he needs a show hung in his wine bar this week. So I called Chad and left a message. I still had not heard from him by the time I got home late that evening, I figured he had found someone else to hang a show. They sounded desperate so I thought he had several feelers out for artists. Nope.

At 9:30, after I was tucked away in bed, the phone rings. "This is Chad." cmae the voice through the phone. "Can you get me some framed images tomorrow mid-day?" Not knowing how I'd do that, I said "Sure, no problem."

I spent the next 2 hours combing through prints, mats, and frames looking for something, anything to hang in his shop. In the end, I had 10 images ready to hang and went back to bed for a fitful night of sleep. The worries had started.

What if he hates the images?
What if someone else hates the images?
What if I don't have enough?
Can you tell if the show was slapped together?
And if so, will they think I'm a hack?

While hanging my images the next day, I had to restrain myself from pointing out every flaw to the employee helping me. Oh this was horrifying, my show was going to go over like a lead balloon. As I related my horror to my co-workers the next day, several of them artists themselves, they shared that they too had those fears and obsessions.

And this brought up the question - why is it artists who are supposed to be free and breezy and adventurous so uptight, stale and fearful?

I'm sure the answer is different for everyone. As I started looking at my fears, I realized that I begin to exchange the words "my art" with the word "me". So as I asked these questions I was really asking, deep down, what if they hate me? And there's nothing I can really do about their thought on my images, but I can remember that my images will be liked or not and it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the viewer and their personal tastes.

Oh, and as I was hanging my images, the one posted above got a couple of exclamations of "wicked!" from my assistant. The opening went well. If you're interested in seeing the show yourself, it is going through April 7th at In the Red Wine Bar in Seattle.