Sunday, June 29, 2008

Elmira College Solo Show

Elmira, New York, is quite an out-of-the-way place. It is south of the Finger Lakes, about 30 miles from Ithaca, and about 40 miles (give or take a few) west of Binghamton.
Now you can see my show without spending a dime on gas, or lodgings!
It was a very exciting event for me and the show will be in the gallery (open by appointment) until September.



Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Today I hung a rather large solo show of my work at Elmira College. I went to college here and managed to graduate in 1963. I was very honored to be invited to have my work on display for Alumni weekend. It will hang in the gallery at the college through the summer.

My good friend Kit helped me unpack the work yesterday and today we managed to hang 48 painting and 15 drawings. She has helped me hang many of my shows and I rely on her keen eye for detail and her wonderful sense of balance and visual cohesiveness...and she prods me to rehang works that are not spaced right, which I would probably leave as is.

It is no accident that I decided to include in the show several nude drawings. This was in honor of the lady who was then dean of students who got wind of the fact that I was drawing from live nude models in my room and threatened to expel me if I persisted. She claimed that the college had a very satisfactory art department with models I could use. My response was "yes, but they put them in black leotards and I'm interested in flesh", at which point she got very pale and came back with her threat of expulsion. It was clear that we would never see eye to eye on this subject. I promised to mend my ways, and continued to draw several of my classmates who were willing models.

My show looks very wonderful in the large gallery with an amazing highly polished floor and plenty of spot lights to illuminate the works on the wall. The opening is to be this Friday night and I am really looking forward to it.