So...
Last Friday was the reception for my exhibit. The exhibit itself looks great, and I'll have pictures up soon - but the reception itself...that was a huge disappointment.
First and foremost, that event I created on Facebook? 28 people RSVP'd saying they'd come (about 100 said no), but of those 28, one showed up. I shouldn't be exaggerating, actually. It wasn't really 28, since both my brothers said they'd come but then had other plans (I already knew that...) The one person who showed up was boyfriend, since he was there to help me set up anyway.
All in all, it was a fiasco.
I originally got the gallery for March back in December, when the curator of the gallery offered it to me - usually, the space is rented by professional (or semi-professional) artists who are looking for a local venue so they can get more exposure. They're almost always adults with lots of experience, but I'm not - I'm a student at the school, not an adult, have a couple years experience, and certainly want/need local exposure. I was thrilled to be offered the space for an exhibit all my own. Students and teachers at my school would finally see my work, and people from outside the school would as well! Being in the lobby of a large and frequently-used auditorium, the gallery lends itself very well to helping local artists get their names out there.
It took months of preparation and a lot of effort for me to get everything together. Practically from that day on I organized photos on the computer, edited them, tweaked stuff, did budgeting, organized frames and prints I already had, thought critically about print sizes, did some more budgeting, and finally made a last push to gather all my materials together. You may remember several past posts in which I expressed how difficult it was to narrow my larger prints down to only 17 (from over 40). At least I saved some money. And take my word for it, I'm glad I didn't print so many - originally, I thought I'd have too many photos...then thought I'd have too few...turns out I had just enough! The setup looks great, it really does, and I'm thrilled it got off the ground and happy with all the positive comments I've gotten so far. It's the reception that still bothers me.
I called the curator of the exhibit about fifteen minutes before opening to ask where he was and what the situation was with food for the reception. He had said that there would be food, after all - it's an art opening reception, and the first Friday of every month is full of them around here (it's an official Philadelphia-area event). When I called, though, he said "Oh...hi Jimmy. Actually, I'm in the city right now..." and I freaked out (inside). There was another art reception that apparently took precedence. All but one of the art teachers were there instead of at mine (and believe me, I'd asked if they were going to show up), and the one who wasn't there was visiting his daughter, so I excused that. At any rate, after the call to the curator, I had to go to Acme (luckily a minute down the road) and buy food for my reception. Upon arriving back at school, having just essentially poured $55 more of my own money into the exhibit, I found all the doors to the gallery locked. My boyfriend was in there and let me in, but when I called Security to ask if they could open the doors, "because I'm having an art reception you see", the guy said "I wasn't aware of any art reception tonight." According to him, they "don't tell [Security] these things." He came and unlocked the doors so people could get in.
Well, they could have gotten in, that is, if they'd shown up. My grandmother came, at least, which was a pleasant surprise. My only living grandparent, who hates driving in the dark (hates it!) drove about 50 minutes (maybe 90 minutes, round trip, with the traffic at that hour) just to see my photos hanging in a gallery...but the curator of the gallery couldn't even be bothered to let me know, in advance, that he wouldn't be at the reception and I'd have to provide food and such. No other teachers showed up. None of my other friends showed up. I made allowances for the ones who don't live in Pennsylvania, of course, and the ones in the musical who had rehearsal, but the others...nope. Over 20 of them said they'd at least drop by, and I didn't see them at all that night.
Initially, I felt worried, then anxious, then somewhat offended, and then just plain hurt. I'm over it now, of course, but still. I've never been one to take things personally - I may jump to conclusions and do that on occasion, but not this time. No one would actually get my hopes up and then not follow through, just to spite me...right? Right?
The thing is, communication just didn't exist. It's not like there was some unexpected event, or a lapse in publicity effectiveness - simply put, no one took it seriously. I only have about 100 "fans" on Facebook, but I invited most of my friend list, including everyone at school...I'm not offended that people said "no" to the invite, or that some said "maybe" and never showed. I am, however, offended that 20 of the people whose RSVPs still say "yes" at this moment just didn't come at all, and gave no explanation!*
Moving on. Really.
I've taken up an interest in astronomy lately - deep-space astronomy especially. This is an interest spawned from my second-semester science course - Astronomy - which is more basic and introductory than I might like, but it's gotten me off on my own path to the cosmos.
For stargazing, I use binoculars (roughly 7x50, my sister's bird-watching ones) and my camera. Naturally, it didn't take long for me to mix this newfound hobby with my well-established hobby of photography - Nikon D60 + 300mm zoom lens + tripod pointed up + 30 second shutter and 10 sec self-timer = good pictures of stars and such.
Unfortunately, there's this thing called rotation that the Earth does, and as the Earth moves, the positions of celestial objects appear to change. To a camera on a tripod on the surface of the Earth, everything in the sky (except airplanes) is essentially equidistant, meaning that Mars (a little closer to us than the Sun) appears to move just as much as Rigel (775 light years away). It's only an arcsecond (max), or perhaps a fraction of an arcsecond even, in that 10-second exposure, but that's enough for the stationary 62mm objective at a 300mm (18º) FOV to take in its minimal movement and register it as a diagonal line. That means I need a "clock mount" for the tripod - a component that locks onto the celestial co-ordinates of whatever and stays there, even when it (a star, a planet, etc) sets. This means I could lock onto the Orion nebula (near his belt) and leave the shutter open for an hour or more and get a totally clear picture. I did do a 20 second shot of the nebula area, but the stars around it "moved" so much that all you see is a blur. The nebula is there, but it doesn't look like much...a blur like everything else. Too bad.
Gotta get me one of those mounts...just...I'm not entirely sure what they're called. I'm sure my teacher can help me find one. That'll be a cool investment. If people will buy photos of rural Chinese landscapes and the foggy Yellow Mountains, they'll definitely buy shots of deep-space objects!
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That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Comments welcome, as always!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt. 3
I have submitted my photos for printing. They'll be in my hands tomorrow and I'll begin framing immediately.
It took a lot of time and even more critical creative thinking to figure out which I wanted to remove from the big-print list and which I wanted to remove from the exhibit entirely. I ended up getting rid of only nine, while putting the rest that were "on the fence" onto the small-print list - they'll be either alternates or space-fillers, whichever is necessary.
There are eight 12x18s and two 16x20s which will be hanging on the walls but not in frames, and seven 11x14s that will be framed. My finances are much more secure than I thought, too. Originally, this was all going to cost me $240 or so - much more than I could or was willing to spend. Now, I just spent about 1/4 of that on prints, and instead of the initially projected cost of $78.00 for frames, I don't need to buy frames at all. In fact, I'm just reusing the frames from The Mind Dynamic.
This also helps with filling the gallery more, since the photos from TMD are still lying around (and still for sale, by the way...), so I can put them up too if need be. I've even got a bunch of spare 8x10 frames for the small-print list stuff that I may want to frame.
Saturday, I begin installation. I'll have pictures up here and on Facebook as well.
Speaking of Facebook - If you have one, and are in the Main Line area, check out the Facebook page I made for this event. Main Line First Fridays (March 5th) will be in full swing, and mine is one of several art openings that night. Shuttle buses will be going up and down Lancaster Avenue stopping at all the venues, and The Haverford School's Centennial Hall Gallery is one of them - and will be full of my photos.
The exhibit runs from the 1st to the 25th of March, but the official reception is Friday March 5th from 6 to 8 PM. I will be there to answer questions, take comments, make sales, and pretty much anything else (artist networking? great!). Additionally, I'll be taking commissions for photo-restorations and have some samples of my work available, so I'm going to be representing pretty much every side of my photographic adventures.
That's all for now - next post will likely be a final wrap-up of information, probably when I finish preparation completely. Maybe I'll even have some photos of the installation (in progress, finished exhibit, etc).
I'm pretty excited, to say the least. :)
It took a lot of time and even more critical creative thinking to figure out which I wanted to remove from the big-print list and which I wanted to remove from the exhibit entirely. I ended up getting rid of only nine, while putting the rest that were "on the fence" onto the small-print list - they'll be either alternates or space-fillers, whichever is necessary.
There are eight 12x18s and two 16x20s which will be hanging on the walls but not in frames, and seven 11x14s that will be framed. My finances are much more secure than I thought, too. Originally, this was all going to cost me $240 or so - much more than I could or was willing to spend. Now, I just spent about 1/4 of that on prints, and instead of the initially projected cost of $78.00 for frames, I don't need to buy frames at all. In fact, I'm just reusing the frames from The Mind Dynamic.
This also helps with filling the gallery more, since the photos from TMD are still lying around (and still for sale, by the way...), so I can put them up too if need be. I've even got a bunch of spare 8x10 frames for the small-print list stuff that I may want to frame.
Saturday, I begin installation. I'll have pictures up here and on Facebook as well.
Speaking of Facebook - If you have one, and are in the Main Line area, check out the Facebook page I made for this event. Main Line First Fridays (March 5th) will be in full swing, and mine is one of several art openings that night. Shuttle buses will be going up and down Lancaster Avenue stopping at all the venues, and The Haverford School's Centennial Hall Gallery is one of them - and will be full of my photos.
The exhibit runs from the 1st to the 25th of March, but the official reception is Friday March 5th from 6 to 8 PM. I will be there to answer questions, take comments, make sales, and pretty much anything else (artist networking? great!). Additionally, I'll be taking commissions for photo-restorations and have some samples of my work available, so I'm going to be representing pretty much every side of my photographic adventures.
That's all for now - next post will likely be a final wrap-up of information, probably when I finish preparation completely. Maybe I'll even have some photos of the installation (in progress, finished exhibit, etc).
I'm pretty excited, to say the least. :)
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt.2
After six days off from school, I'm back and shifting exhibit prep to the top of my priority list.
As of now, there are 69 items lined up to be in the exhibit. I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to go next, though. See, printing and framing is a bigger issue than it ought to be (par for the course). Some photos, as I mentioned, will be printed at school - this is beneficial because it's free and those 20 or so pictures either don't need to be framed or can be put in frames I already have.
But the Costco prints, there's a challenge. See, it's really cheap and convenient and all, but there's still the fact that I'm printing (theoretically) 40 pictures there at 12x18. That works out to $120 for the printing alone. Then there's frames. The ones I use are basic and rather boring and happen to cost as much as each print, so there's another $120 roughly. That's a total cost of $240. $240 I'm not necessarily willing to spend. I'd much rather save wherever I can.
I have all the TMD stuff sitting in my room. 3 of them are going in the exhibit already, which leaves 12 frames I could salvage (read: reuse), saving me $36.
So that's $204.
Also, what's to say I really am going to print 40 pictures at 12x18? I've yet to actually scope the gallery itself, measuring the walls and all. For all I know, it's more efficient to have a bunch of unframed 8x10s or 8x12s pinned to the walls and maybe 20 12x18s. I know for a fact that 40 12x18 framed photos would take up much more space than I have! And given the duration of the exhibit...nah.
Notice the stream-of-consciousness writing tactic implemented above. See why long-term projects stress me out. Good. Moving on.
There you have it - the cartoony, colorful, and much-anticipated (I hope) poster advertising the exhibit. I just printed 20 of 'em and I'll start hanging them as soon as I can. Maybe a Facebook album of their locations will ensue. If you live in the Main Line area, be on the lookout for them. :P
In the near future (read: when I'm done with Astronomy homework), I'll be going through the "Costco Prints" folder and narrowing down my future 12x18 prints. With any luck, I'll cut it in half. That might be hard, but at least I'll still be showing the others at a later date. ;)
Total cost: $144
Each 12x18 print will be selling for $45. The others, of various sizes, will be of various prices...yet to be set.
I'll have a Guestbook format finalized very soon, along with an aesthetically pleasing price list. I have already made labels for each photo, but haven't printed them because I don't know which will be in the final exhibit. For reference, I can begin "installation" on February 27th. So I've got time. But as we all know, time is money...
I'll keep you posted. Stay informed. :)
As of now, there are 69 items lined up to be in the exhibit. I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to go next, though. See, printing and framing is a bigger issue than it ought to be (par for the course). Some photos, as I mentioned, will be printed at school - this is beneficial because it's free and those 20 or so pictures either don't need to be framed or can be put in frames I already have.
But the Costco prints, there's a challenge. See, it's really cheap and convenient and all, but there's still the fact that I'm printing (theoretically) 40 pictures there at 12x18. That works out to $120 for the printing alone. Then there's frames. The ones I use are basic and rather boring and happen to cost as much as each print, so there's another $120 roughly. That's a total cost of $240. $240 I'm not necessarily willing to spend. I'd much rather save wherever I can.
I have all the TMD stuff sitting in my room. 3 of them are going in the exhibit already, which leaves 12 frames I could salvage (read: reuse), saving me $36.
So that's $204.
Also, what's to say I really am going to print 40 pictures at 12x18? I've yet to actually scope the gallery itself, measuring the walls and all. For all I know, it's more efficient to have a bunch of unframed 8x10s or 8x12s pinned to the walls and maybe 20 12x18s. I know for a fact that 40 12x18 framed photos would take up much more space than I have! And given the duration of the exhibit...nah.
Notice the stream-of-consciousness writing tactic implemented above. See why long-term projects stress me out. Good. Moving on.
There you have it - the cartoony, colorful, and much-anticipated (I hope) poster advertising the exhibit. I just printed 20 of 'em and I'll start hanging them as soon as I can. Maybe a Facebook album of their locations will ensue. If you live in the Main Line area, be on the lookout for them. :P
In the near future (read: when I'm done with Astronomy homework), I'll be going through the "Costco Prints" folder and narrowing down my future 12x18 prints. With any luck, I'll cut it in half. That might be hard, but at least I'll still be showing the others at a later date. ;)
Total cost: $144
Each 12x18 print will be selling for $45. The others, of various sizes, will be of various prices...yet to be set.
I'll have a Guestbook format finalized very soon, along with an aesthetically pleasing price list. I have already made labels for each photo, but haven't printed them because I don't know which will be in the final exhibit. For reference, I can begin "installation" on February 27th. So I've got time. But as we all know, time is money...
I'll keep you posted. Stay informed. :)
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt. 1
My next exhibit will be in March, at my school's art gallery. It's a sizable space with plenty of room to hang photos. Which is good, since I've got together about sixty photos I want to put in the exhibit.
They're of various sizes and styles...got some HDR stuff, some black and whites, some Thought-Process drawings, and some other weird and wonderful photographic art. It'll be cool to see it all in one place.
As of now, I've got a folder of stuff I'll print with my own resources and a folder to print at Costco (great prices and great quality). Luckily, I've already got a bunch of 12x18s left over from The Mind Dynamic and some other 8x10s that were alternates. Some of the photos I'm going to put in the exhibit will be printed small anyway (5x7 or 4x6) because that's how I want them. So it'll be a cool meld.
At this point, what's left is finalizing a poster design, printing it, and hanging it all over the place. Also, I've got to find out specific details on the exhibit space (as in how I'm gonna hang stuff - nails in the walls? - and how many exactly) because I'm new at this...I've seen exhibits at the gallery before, and know how they work and all, but I've never been in charge of setup and arrangement and such! I'm going to have a guestbook, of course, and I look forward to reading people's comments and such.
Also, I'll be selling pretty much everything at the exhibit. The experiences I had with TMD have taught me that my approach to selling isn't quite correct. Two people "bought" prints from TMD and never followed up. It was as good as saying "Hey, I'll buy this!" and then forgetting about it...
So that's part one. Fair and simple.
They're of various sizes and styles...got some HDR stuff, some black and whites, some Thought-Process drawings, and some other weird and wonderful photographic art. It'll be cool to see it all in one place.
As of now, I've got a folder of stuff I'll print with my own resources and a folder to print at Costco (great prices and great quality). Luckily, I've already got a bunch of 12x18s left over from The Mind Dynamic and some other 8x10s that were alternates. Some of the photos I'm going to put in the exhibit will be printed small anyway (5x7 or 4x6) because that's how I want them. So it'll be a cool meld.
At this point, what's left is finalizing a poster design, printing it, and hanging it all over the place. Also, I've got to find out specific details on the exhibit space (as in how I'm gonna hang stuff - nails in the walls? - and how many exactly) because I'm new at this...I've seen exhibits at the gallery before, and know how they work and all, but I've never been in charge of setup and arrangement and such! I'm going to have a guestbook, of course, and I look forward to reading people's comments and such.
Also, I'll be selling pretty much everything at the exhibit. The experiences I had with TMD have taught me that my approach to selling isn't quite correct. Two people "bought" prints from TMD and never followed up. It was as good as saying "Hey, I'll buy this!" and then forgetting about it...
So that's part one. Fair and simple.
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