installation view - Seeking Shelter - Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas
installation view - Seeking Shelter - Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, KansasI installed my show at the Manhattan Arts Center last week and attended the opening on Saturday. It was tiring but fun to install everything.
This is where I spent about four or five hours, despite my fear of heights! I had help from some great volunteers, though, so it went really smoothly.The show will be up until May 26th.
The reception was fun but not well attended (apparently there were a lot of events going on in the town at the same time). I've learned to not expect a lot at receptions. I had a show a few years ago where the gallery director (also a friend) got me so worked up about the reception - saying it was going to be packed and that I was going to sell everything - that when only my friends and family showed up (and nothing sold), I was very let down. I cried all the way home. So now I just look at the reception as a way to meet a few people and talk about my work.
Also, art centers and university galleries are not known for selling a lot of work. Their function is to educate the public about art. So I see these shows as a way to get my work out and get it seen. Perhaps someone will see my work and be interested and follow it and eventually become a collector.
So I'm going to do one more this summer in Douglasville, Georgia, and then Lawton, Oklahoma next fall. After that I will retire this show for a while. I'm not going to send any more proposals out for this particular body of work.
Now I'm going to focus on getting my work into commercial galleries.