As I pointed out in an earlier post, I am currently prepping work for a show that opens next Saturday, October 4th, in Erie, PA at the KADA Gallery. It’s called “The Time Has Come” and is about my 20th solo show. Seems like I should be an old hand by now but I still feel the same anxieties about showing my work as I did the first time I showed my work at the West End Gallery.
At that point, I had never shown my work to anyone outside family and a few friends and wasn’t sure if there was anything in the work that would touch anyone but myself. I saw qualities in the work but I worried that it was my vanity that made me see these things. So when Linda Gardner asked for 10 or 12 pieces for her next show at the West End, I was torn between the elation of acceptance and the terror of possible rejection by the audience. I saw a new window of possibility ahead of me and I was fearful that it could close just as quickly as it had opened. I somehow framed and matted the several pieces chosen to show and nervously awaited for the opening.
When the opening finally arrived I came into the gallery, a large open space with high ceilings, and spotted a few of my pieces grouped together in a near corner. My work at that point was very small in size and they seemed even smaller in the vast space of the gallery. I grabbed a drink and hovered, hoping for some feedback from the crowd. I heard a lot of very good things that night, encouraging and exciting, but the part of that night that struck me the most were the people who walked by my work and didn’t even give more than a quick glance. Their indifference hit me as hard as if they had stopped in front of my work and had said out loud, “This is crap.”
I realized at that point that my work didn’t announce itself enough. By that I mean they were quiet statements but in order to capture the imagination of the viewer needed to be bolder, stronger proclamations. I knew that the work had to grow stronger and more assertive so that like it or not, my work would stand out.
That was the lesson of that first show in February of 1995 and I am grateful for the indifference of those few people at that opening.
Redtree Times 
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