Catalogue, show preparations

An incredibly busy art day!  Last night I stayed up until 3 AM finishing up the catalogue.  I wanted to send it in today, but the place was closed for Labor Day.  I'll do it tomorrow.  I'm excited about how it has turned out and hope it will look good when it's printed.  It'll be available at the show for $25 or beforehand for $20 if you let me know you want one.

I also went through my address list to make sure I'm sending everyone I can a postcard.  I figured out how to make labels - it's very complicated with the new version of Word somehow - then printed them up, stuck them on the cards, then put stamps on them and went to the mailbox to send them.  If you're on my list, you should get one very soon!  I actually ran out of cards that can be mailed, so I'll have to hand most of them out in person.

After doing all that busy work and not painting for 4-5 days, I finally got into the studio to paint.  I'm working on a piece I'm calling, "Don't Mess with Me!"  It's a larger-than-lifesize portrait of a woman looking directly into the camera wearing her grandmother's heavy turquoise and silver necklace.  She looks very powerful.  I've painted a pattern in the background.  I don't have a picture of it right now but I'll get one for tomorrow.  I have mostly finished her body, but the necklace is only 1/4 of the way done.  It's going to take some time because it's so ornate and complicated.  It'll be fun to see it start to look like real jewelry!  I'm hoping to have the piece finished in time for the opening Sept 30.  There are no objectional body parts showing, so it's a good piece to put in the window for public consumption.

Chris and I spent a few hours yesterday laying out the pieces for the show.  It was fun trying to figure out where to put what.  The front wall will say the following, "All Women Are Beautiful."  "All Flesh is Sacred."  Under that will be the two paintings I've pasted in above.  I think they, along with the statements, will get people thinking about the concept of body image and what is beautiful right away.  I find both of these women incredibly courageous and gorgeous, but I'm not sure they would make it into Vogue magazine because they don't fit Madison Avenue's idea of ideal beauty.  I imagine some people might have judgments come up when they see them.  What a great opportunity to examine those feelings and discover what they're about.  I think the show will give people many opportunities like that!

I'm starting to get very excited about the show.  I've been working on these paintings for almost two years now.  I've shown bits and pieces of them but never all of them in one place.  I'm excited to see how they look all hung with so many of them in one place.  I wonder what sort of impact they'll have.

I do hope you'll join me if you can!