Day Seven - She Made Her Mark

Good Sunday Afternoon,

It's cold, raining, and the wind is blowing here in Sonora. I closed the blinds that look out on the garden to cut the heat loss. Beware, I'm on a rant.

I'm very frustrated today. I am in the process of reducing every image submitted to She Made Her Mark to the scale of one inch equals one foot.

I have provided one of my own very crappy keystoned images rather than disclose any images from SMHM. I have spent about two hours working on the first third of the image deck. The bad news is that photoshop work gets priced out at $35 per hour.

I've been closely cropping and sizing images. Many too many of the images are keystoned. I could use photoshop to correct all the keystoning as represented by the sample. That process distorts the image; it is an improper way to get a good image. That is not the curator's job; it's the artist's job.

If you are going to take your own digital images you need to carefully look in the image display on the back of your camera. Unless you intentionally built a trapezoid you better be able to see that each edge of the quilt is parallel with the window. If you don't have a tripod invest in one.

You need to learn how to closely crop an image and size it properly. File names are of necessity consistent. They should have your last name, height x width, (which is my fault, not in the prospectus), and resolution. Even if that is perfect I still have to rename the file to add your entrant's number; today I'm adding a notation that tells scale.

I am looking at a lot of work that would lose all consideration if a panel of three jurors were evaluating the images. One of the most exquisite works is nicely, closely cropped. However, the artist did not remove the vestiges of the garden in the background.

Anne Copeland and the FiberArts Connection of Southern California have worked very hard to create openings for beginning and emerging artists. Anne has proven time and again that the work of artists with unknown names is equal to or of greater quality than the work of names we know.

Now it's time for all of you to do your work on Google and find the online places that offer classes in everything from photography to photoshop elements. The information is out there; in many cases it costs nothing except self discipline to teach oneself. Quit depending on your children to do your computer work. If you are smart enough to create the quilts I'm looking at you are smart enough to teach yourself about your own computer.

The other issue that is really bothering me is one of scale. As you saw yesterday, The Quilters' Hall of Fame is a huge old house. The ceilings downstairs are ten feet high. Upstairs the ceilings are nine feet.

As I work my way through and scale these images so that each may be considered equally according to their size, image, and merit, I am concerned. I have already cut ten inch strips of foam core to mock up the walls. When I compare the scaled image on my monitor and the foam core I worry.

Many of these lovely works are very small scale. How do I arrange the exhibition so that the intimacy of these works is not lost in a huge space?

As artists do you ever consider how and where your work will be hung? Have you ever thought about scale? If not, it's time to put those issues into your thinking caps.

Sorry to be so harsh today. I set out to give you a good look at the curatorial process. Now you've seen the darker side. So, we need to charge up four hours today, two to photoshop. The woman hours are adding up. If you are a non profit there is no way you can fund an exhibition if you have to hire help.

Now, before anyone has a nervous breakdown, all these issues are mine to work out. This is going to be a knock out of an exhibition.

She Made Her Mark -- Day Six

Well, day six is sort of squirmy. Maybe it's me that's squirmy. I'm heartily sick of the back brace that allows me to sit upright in what a doctor considers comfort.

I've been through this image deck again and again. I've sorted it six ways from sunday. Sorting is about useless when it comes to setting the sequencing of an exhibition. The Marie Webster House, The Quilters' Hall of Fame is an Edwardian mansion built in early in the first decade of the twentieth century.






This image is the floor plan of the entry and main area in the building. It shows the architectural vestiges of the Victorian era. Note the main staircase in the very large entry hall. On back you see the servant's stairs.

From two thousand miles away it's a bit difficult to envision the traffic flow. An exhibition has to grab a visitor and pull them along in a predetermined path. It's particularly important in a space such as this. As 80%+ of the population is right handed and everyone in America drives to the right of the center line of the road, it is normal and natural to live one's life in the continuous right turn sequence. It avoids all sorts of problems in life.

So, looking at this floor plan, the reception area opens directly on the staircase proceeding up. It is the most "drawing" architectural element. So, with right hand preerence, the keynote and first major exhibition area is just past the double pocket doors leading into the grand parlor. It's counter intuitive because the huge space of the pocket doors wants you to turn right. However, if you want the viewer to enter the grand parlor a bit farther back in the house, the enticement must be strong enough to be placed between the front door, the stair, and the entrance to the gift shop.

That done, the visitor can choose whether to work their way around the grand parlor in the continuous right turn of clock wise. So, the works selected for the grand hall~reception area and the grand parlor all have to speak to each other. It's like selecting voices for a large choir; each has it's own range yet each must be a comfortable and capable part of a congenial whole.



This image gives you the wall space of the interior of the grand parlor, the wall containing the pocket doors.

I had thought about doing the arithmetical acrobatics to scale color xerox images to match the scale of these drawings. Then, hum, you do call yourself an artist? Don't you? Eight inches to represent a ten foot high room doesn't seem quite sufficient.

Why not draw each wall in a one inch equals one foot? That will make, eventually a mock up of each room. You will be able to sort and try and fuss and fidget. The works will finally tell you where they belong. So, I'm thinking of searching out the B size quad pad. What? You have a T-square and the ability. Why not just re-draw each wall on foam core?

So, that is where my squirmy mind is taking me today. Choosing the works for an exhibition is the very least of the work. Creating the sequence, rhythm, balance, and cadence of the works is what excites the viewer and draws them through an exhibitin.

Bleght ! I've a lot of work to do.