Third day of show

There's been a long break before I've written this up - exhaustion and writing final amendments to essay.

Sunday morning Darren and I were late getting to the exhibition.  This was because my Aunt Doreen, who is staying with me, took her morning tablets on Saturday night.  This meant on Sunday morning I had to look up all her medication and work out what was safe to give her in the morning, to make sure she was correctly dosed.  This took some time.

Darren and I got to the show at 11.30 - having advertised it to be open from 10am.  This meant I missed one of my art class friends, who had made a lot of effort and driven a very long way to get there.  I was frustrated with myself.

However, on Sunday, we only had 4 couples: (Lori and partner, who I missed!), Ian and Gwen, Sharon and Becky, and Margaret and Chris.  However they all wanted the detailed tour, so I talked them through my work.  Becky has just resigned from her job working in publishing, and has been accepted at University of East Anglia to do an MA in Poetry.  When I read my Oulipo poem What Difference Does a Good Toilet Cleaner Make? she said the inflection of the voice and the punctuation enhanced the poem.  High praise!

Darren and I struck the show very quickly at 4pm.  Unfortunately I forgot the plinths had been wrapped in a corrugated cardboard cover, and we stuffed the plinths in the car and scraped them.  Had I retrieved the cardboard covers, they would have been really useful when the plinths get stored in the garage.  And it's a lot of bother to remake them.

So, reviewing the event:

The location hugely impacts who visits.  I used RAWLabs because it was the only venue I could find. (Thank you Mary Schoeser!).  But it was awkward for visitors to find.  Even with most people having google maps on their phones, and Darren putting out the advertising poster and direction arrows, people still found it hard to find.

I should have managed the relationship with the venue better.  Confirm what is booked in writing, particularly sole use of the gallery.  This was due to a lack of knowledge and exhibiting experience on my part.

People who visited, had made a lot of effort to get there - for me!  This was very flattering.

Advertising should have been more targeted.  Very few people who did not know me attended.  So my advertising to WI in East London, and others was unsuccessful.  But people I knew from church (30 years ago) attended, because I'm still in touch with one friend, and they were relatively close to the venue.

Friends from church commented that my show was a self-portrait.  The attitudes within it, were the same as I demonstrated when they knew me well 30 years ago.  I don't have the words to describe how this makes me feel.  I don't like the term humbling, but it is humbling that they found my exhibition positive and that it went to the core of my being.

I should have been more realistic about what times I could staff the show.  If I had reduced in the evening opening hours, I would have been less tired.  I should have expected there to be incidents that would make me tired (Doreen's medication; my brother upsetting my husband; my brother dropping the bombshell that his consultant thought he had MS, just before me leaving for the last day of show).

I was very glad Darren worked the show with me, even though on the last two days there was very little to do.  He was the MOST FANTASTIC staging assistant, and did all the heavy lifting, carrying and hammering for me.