In 2018 I applied for a solo show at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery in Melbourne, Florida.
I was thrill to be offered a solo show in April 2020. I am a full time college professor at a Florida college and time for artmaking is scarce. I planned to use my summer for artmaking. One of the perks of teaching is having use of the art studios when class are not held. I should have been able to do several prints and painting during that time.........However....
Have you ever had the feeling that Mother Nature was out to get you? I have..
On May, 3rd, 2019 I was doing an art festival with students of Seminole State College and artist members Of Seminole County Printmakers at the annual St Johns River Festival of the Arts. We had a wonderful day, carving our relief plates for the general public and having great time.
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| Seminole Printmaker |
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| the deluge, trying to hold down the tents. |
At about 3:00 a tremendous storm rolled through, blowing over tents and dumping a huge volume of water. Still, it isn't anything unusual in Florida.
On Monday when I went to school, I found a very large oak had partially blown over at the back of the art building, when I entered the building, I found large cracks in the walls and some doors would not open. Uh Oh!! Risk management gave is a day to collect a few things for our summer class, with the promise we will be back soon. Over the next few days a massive sinkhole, 30ft x 30ft x 80 ft deep, opened up in the theater department, and swallowed up, offices, storage, a script library, as well as valuable tools. We are now nomads on campus, evicted since May 2019. So needless to say, I could not do much new artwork for this solo show.
How can it get worse you may ask?
Enter Mother Nature again with Covid -19. My Show was scheduled for April 3rd 2020, just as the pandemic hit Florida hard. The show was pushed back until August 3. Surely everything would be over by then, right?
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| my garage / studio |
Well, the good news, I opted not to teach so that I could work on this show, I set up my garage as a studio, and spent three months painting. I managed to paint 6 new canvases. I had plenty of work for this show now, nine paintings and plenty of etchings. The bad news was the pandemic didn't "go away", it was still a threat. However areas Florida had fewer cases, as did Melbourne. So we decided to do the show. The Gallery was excellent, the people were incredible. I dropped of my paintings and they did a fantastic job hanging it. Normal opening at this gallery have music, food, and drinks. But we couldn't because of the virus. I live about 80 miles from the gallery so I wasn't expecting many people from home there. The turn out was light, as expected, but I had some unexpected visitors. One good friend from our Seminole printmakers showed up, as did my family. One of the surprises of the night was former colleague from University of Alaska showed up. I had not seen him in 20 years but as soon as he popped his head into the gallery I recognized him, mask and all. I was honored that he came. I have tremendous respect for him, as an artist as well as a person. I have always admired his incredible energy. His painting and printmaking have been a great influence on me. Then later in the evening things settled down and I thought about heading home. A large group arrived late,and there were two students, with parents and friends, who signed up for my fall drawing classes. I was very surprised. Both students are young but I noticed what they looked at, and what they found interesting in the paintings. Afterwards they had some very good questions. So despite Covid-19 I had a very memorable art opening.
I would like to thank everyone at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery for making me feel welcomed and for their professionalism in a difficult situation. Lets hope the pandemic ends soon so that we all can get back to doing the things we love,
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