This week I say farewell to twenty-one of my artworks as they make their way to new homes. April has been a busy and extremely rewarding month. How fortunate I have been. My UnCommon Ground exhibition was a success in every sense of the word. Over the past two weeks I’ve met so many incredible artists and art lovers who connected with the works in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I feel humbled that they admired my work and were so enthusiastic.
UnCommon Ground exhibition 2017
Like the work, 'Fishing for Answers' which was bought as a gift for a husband who, with his two mates, loves to fish. Whether the trio catch fish or not, they manage to solve the world’s problems and return home feeling all the better for the experience. I’ll miss the jovial faces of the clay figures in their teabag jackets, but no doubt they'll be bringing smiles to others now.
Fishing for Answers
Print-makers, photographers, collage & assemblage artists, pastel and water-colour artists, those who work with textiles or are paper-makers have shared a love of collecting everything from beach detritus or dolls’ heads, to rusty objects and bones. One visitor returned to the gallery on the weekend to gift me a flattened dead mouse for a future artwork. We laughed at how something as simple as a mouse can be so highly prized! What art fodder abounds!
The wall with four red dots, though bare, reminds me of the moon series that hung there only hours before. Their new owner was keen to rush home and hang them on his wall as a reflection of the beautiful moons he sees from his window on those cloudless evenings.
A review in the weekend newspaper encouraged a large number of visitors over the final two days, and it all felt a bit surreal to have so many people in the gallery at one time asking questions, taking photographs, and intently listening as I shared how some of the objects came to be included in the works. School children who visited last week brought home to me that magical feeling of discovery and allowing our imagination to just run free. I’m looking forward to doing an artist-in-residence with them in the coming weeks so together we can create more stories - based on both fact and fiction.
