Day Six and Day 7

Spent the last two days working feverishly. Monday from 10am to 8pm. There were a few breaks but I managed to finish two large ones and start a medium sized one.

Today I managed to finish the medium and start another. To date that includes two portraits with landscapes, two large landscapes, a small, and two mediums. That leaves me with one last large landscape and two small ones.

There are also alcoves in between the boards and they are suggesting very temporary sculptures made from the materials that I used during the show. I'm not sure if this will be too “confusing” for the public but little notes might be a good idea so that people looking at it will understand. It will also give me the chance to work on something a little less finished or commercial. The space is essentially mine to do what I want with. I wonder how far they will let me go to do this.

I have come up with the idea for making small memorials. I'm not too sure if this is something that will work out but the materials that I made the work will could be manipulated to make this happen. I have images of these individuals and I can make it work with some careful construction.

Of course all this is just a thought.

There are only a few things left to do. A guest book, labels and a small didactic.

I also hung the first piece today. It looks a little rough but is quite nice on the wall. There were fears that perhaps the pieces would not stay on the wall or would curl too much but the smallest most problematic piece is hanging well with only a small amount of tweaking.

I have three days left and a few things to do but all in all I am on track. I will work on Wednesday for five or six hours and then again on Thursday. By then end of Thursday I should be completely done minus labels/didactic and guestbook.

Response from the public has been favourable. The common reaction to what I am trying to do is raising eyebrows or a smile. I like both reactions. There have been a few people who are fairly sceptical but I have invited them to come back and look on my progress. I will be hanging a couple of pieces tomorrow morning so that there is something to view.

I had one gentlemen walk out of the gallery this evening after everything closed, he seemed to be dissatisfied with the amount of interaction the “performance” promised. Normally I would explain that it is not customary for the artist to be available for discussions or to see the work in progress, but he left way before I got a chance to discuss this. It was an unfortunate event that I hope is not repeated. I have done quite a bit of work in public spaces spaces and it seems that every time I put myself in that position there is at least one person who is not satisfied with my project/work. I will accept this as my status quo.