Fine Art Society
Today was a big day for the Fine Art Society. Today, we opened our very first exhibition.
I can safely say that the whole affair was a resounding success. There is some amazing (and pretty much untapped) talent here in Durham, and it was really great to see some of it shown off to so many different people. Loads of people came to see the artwork, and quite a few people were interested in buying some of the pieces. Plus, we covered all our costs and made about £80 profit! All of which will go into the society account, and hopefully towards the exhibition we want to hold in the Summer.
However. Today did not go off without a hitch.
At 2pm, the three main Exec. members - Lexi, Thomas and I - trooped up to St Mary's College, where the Exhibition is being held. (It's there until the 28th; if by some minor miracle you're in Durham at any point before then, go and check it out!) We had a pretty Epic task ahead of us: mounting all of the work that was on paper before Henry Dyson (interesting, likeable, rule-breaking, rather camp Arty Person) arrived to help us hang everything at 4pm.
Thirty-four out of forty-six pieces needed backing on mount-boards. Yes, that many.
I, however, was charged with the task of creating a leaflet for people to look at, so that they could match the title and artist to the (numbered) pieces of art. Of course, we couldn't do the numbering until last, so I just sat and typed up names, descriptions and so forth, while Lexi and Thomas got on with mounting things.
First Snag Of The Day: The craft knife we had wouldn't cut through the mount boards. At least, not without destroying the edges.
So, we had to cut everything by hand, with scissors. (Not fun, I can tell you; the mount boards were made of thick, thick card, and by the time I'd finished mounting the last of the pieces, my hand was all but bruised from where the scissors had dug into my fingers.) Plus, it took ages to get everything mounted.
First Stroke Of Luck: Henry Dyson was late to arrive, so we got an extra half hour of mounting time before he started to hang things.
When Henry did arrive, I was charged with mounting the remaining pieces. Once that was done, we took them through and finished hanging things. We kind of ran out of easles and wall space ... so we stole the music stands that were standing by the piano and used those. :P
It was a good plan! And it's not like we vandalised them or whatever. Anyway. Once we had all the pieces up, Henry bowed out (to go and have dinner with the Master of St. Mary's College!) and all that was left to do was numbering, and sorting the leaflet. Now comes the really fun part!
I brought my laptop into the exhibition room, and basically decided on the order myself. :P (Well, it made the most sense - I could decide the order, and then have Lexi follow my lead, sort of thing.) However, I had to leave at about half seven, because my parents arrived. (They were coming to look at the Exhibition, and to bring me some stuff from home - mostly books.) So, I shoved in a rough description of each piece and then rushed off to go back to the house with my parents, eat, sort the leaflet and print it off.
Thankfully, my mum offered to make me a sandwich while I typed furiously. I managed to get everything semi-sorted by 8:30pm ... which didn't really leave enough time for printing, but I just thought, "Sod it, they'll have to wait." I mean, I was rushed anyway, and I did make one glaring mistake: I put on the wrong email address for the society. STUPID me. *disgusted with self*
So, I went into Lexi's room (as instructed) and set her printer going. However, it is an Epson, and the slowest printer in the world ever. I'm not even joking. My printer upstairs (when I realised that I was dealing with the slowest printer ever, I rushed upstairs and started my own printer going, too) managed to print almost 20 sheets, double-sided, in the time it took Lexi's to do 10, single-sided. >.>
I was deeply unimpressed.
So, between running up and down the stairs and flailing at my printer and getting phonecalls from Lexi and Thomas asking how long I'd be ... it wasn't a fun time, that. BUT, it all got done in the end, and we got to the Exhibition only half an hour late. My mum and dad paid on the door (even though I offered to, they insisted; mum said they wanted to make a donation to the society) and we walked in.
And were met by a veritable wall of people! I was shocked, I can tell you! I was not expecting the room to be full. And yet it was! For the first few minutes, we couldn't get in to look at the artwork properly, because there were too many people! *gleeful*
I'd call that a roaring success, wouldn't you?
We had a good look around -- mum liked all the pieces I thought she would; dad made a good show of not being bored to tears -- but when we got about half-way around the room, something supremely odd happened. Gill - the lady at St. Mary's who we'd coordinated with to book the room and such - said that she wanted to buy one of my pieces!
I. Was. Gobsmacked. I still am, actually. There is one small problem: it's the one piece that I am loath to part with. (Typical, eh?!) Still, I'm contemplating making a copy and letting her have that. I really don't want to sell the original. (But I feel almost bad about that ... is that even vaguely normal?)
Anyway, mum and dad looked around a bit more, and then they had to leave because it was getting late and my nan was in the house on her own. Pretty soon after that, people started to filter out, and then we had to start clearing up. We moved the tables that had been in the centre of the room over to one wall, and jiggled the art around so that it was all facing outwards, and then left it.
However, Lexi - who had gone to take stuff back to the Studio - had forgotten all about the leftover wine. There were four bottles (plus two cartons of orange juice and an A3 poster that I nicked of Thomas because I wanted one), which she asked me to carry over to the road. I looked like such an alcoholic, carrying three bottles of wine in a carrier bag (clinking all the way!) and another in my handbag! XD
Anyway, she picked me up in her car, and drove us all back to the house. And now, here I am, telling you all about my day. :)
All in all? Today has been busy and stressful in ways that were refreshingly different. (Not fun, just different.) However, seeing all those people enjoying our art - and knowing that we made a profit! - makes it all sort of worthwhile. Gives me warm-and-fuzzies somehow. :)
I'm really glad it was a success, for Lexi's sake really. She was so worried that we wouldn't break even on this. It's put us all in such a positive frame of mind for the society, it's brilliant!
Now, I'm going to bed. Because I am so tired. And also ill. I can't stop coughing, and my throat feels weird. And my nose is all prickly and semi-bunged-up and sore. BOO. :( ('M still in a good mood, though.)
.
I can safely say that the whole affair was a resounding success. There is some amazing (and pretty much untapped) talent here in Durham, and it was really great to see some of it shown off to so many different people. Loads of people came to see the artwork, and quite a few people were interested in buying some of the pieces. Plus, we covered all our costs and made about £80 profit! All of which will go into the society account, and hopefully towards the exhibition we want to hold in the Summer.
However. Today did not go off without a hitch.
At 2pm, the three main Exec. members - Lexi, Thomas and I - trooped up to St Mary's College, where the Exhibition is being held. (It's there until the 28th; if by some minor miracle you're in Durham at any point before then, go and check it out!) We had a pretty Epic task ahead of us: mounting all of the work that was on paper before Henry Dyson (interesting, likeable, rule-breaking, rather camp Arty Person) arrived to help us hang everything at 4pm.
Thirty-four out of forty-six pieces needed backing on mount-boards. Yes, that many.
I, however, was charged with the task of creating a leaflet for people to look at, so that they could match the title and artist to the (numbered) pieces of art. Of course, we couldn't do the numbering until last, so I just sat and typed up names, descriptions and so forth, while Lexi and Thomas got on with mounting things.
First Snag Of The Day: The craft knife we had wouldn't cut through the mount boards. At least, not without destroying the edges.
So, we had to cut everything by hand, with scissors. (Not fun, I can tell you; the mount boards were made of thick, thick card, and by the time I'd finished mounting the last of the pieces, my hand was all but bruised from where the scissors had dug into my fingers.) Plus, it took ages to get everything mounted.
First Stroke Of Luck: Henry Dyson was late to arrive, so we got an extra half hour of mounting time before he started to hang things.
When Henry did arrive, I was charged with mounting the remaining pieces. Once that was done, we took them through and finished hanging things. We kind of ran out of easles and wall space ... so we stole the music stands that were standing by the piano and used those. :P
It was a good plan! And it's not like we vandalised them or whatever. Anyway. Once we had all the pieces up, Henry bowed out (to go and have dinner with the Master of St. Mary's College!) and all that was left to do was numbering, and sorting the leaflet. Now comes the really fun part!
I brought my laptop into the exhibition room, and basically decided on the order myself. :P (Well, it made the most sense - I could decide the order, and then have Lexi follow my lead, sort of thing.) However, I had to leave at about half seven, because my parents arrived. (They were coming to look at the Exhibition, and to bring me some stuff from home - mostly books.) So, I shoved in a rough description of each piece and then rushed off to go back to the house with my parents, eat, sort the leaflet and print it off.
Thankfully, my mum offered to make me a sandwich while I typed furiously. I managed to get everything semi-sorted by 8:30pm ... which didn't really leave enough time for printing, but I just thought, "Sod it, they'll have to wait." I mean, I was rushed anyway, and I did make one glaring mistake: I put on the wrong email address for the society. STUPID me. *disgusted with self*
So, I went into Lexi's room (as instructed) and set her printer going. However, it is an Epson, and the slowest printer in the world ever. I'm not even joking. My printer upstairs (when I realised that I was dealing with the slowest printer ever, I rushed upstairs and started my own printer going, too) managed to print almost 20 sheets, double-sided, in the time it took Lexi's to do 10, single-sided. >.>
I was deeply unimpressed.
So, between running up and down the stairs and flailing at my printer and getting phonecalls from Lexi and Thomas asking how long I'd be ... it wasn't a fun time, that. BUT, it all got done in the end, and we got to the Exhibition only half an hour late. My mum and dad paid on the door (even though I offered to, they insisted; mum said they wanted to make a donation to the society) and we walked in.
And were met by a veritable wall of people! I was shocked, I can tell you! I was not expecting the room to be full. And yet it was! For the first few minutes, we couldn't get in to look at the artwork properly, because there were too many people! *gleeful*
I'd call that a roaring success, wouldn't you?
We had a good look around -- mum liked all the pieces I thought she would; dad made a good show of not being bored to tears -- but when we got about half-way around the room, something supremely odd happened. Gill - the lady at St. Mary's who we'd coordinated with to book the room and such - said that she wanted to buy one of my pieces!
I. Was. Gobsmacked. I still am, actually. There is one small problem: it's the one piece that I am loath to part with. (Typical, eh?!) Still, I'm contemplating making a copy and letting her have that. I really don't want to sell the original. (But I feel almost bad about that ... is that even vaguely normal?)
Anyway, mum and dad looked around a bit more, and then they had to leave because it was getting late and my nan was in the house on her own. Pretty soon after that, people started to filter out, and then we had to start clearing up. We moved the tables that had been in the centre of the room over to one wall, and jiggled the art around so that it was all facing outwards, and then left it.
However, Lexi - who had gone to take stuff back to the Studio - had forgotten all about the leftover wine. There were four bottles (plus two cartons of orange juice and an A3 poster that I nicked of Thomas because I wanted one), which she asked me to carry over to the road. I looked like such an alcoholic, carrying three bottles of wine in a carrier bag (clinking all the way!) and another in my handbag! XD
Anyway, she picked me up in her car, and drove us all back to the house. And now, here I am, telling you all about my day. :)
All in all? Today has been busy and stressful in ways that were refreshingly different. (Not fun, just different.) However, seeing all those people enjoying our art - and knowing that we made a profit! - makes it all sort of worthwhile. Gives me warm-and-fuzzies somehow. :)
I'm really glad it was a success, for Lexi's sake really. She was so worried that we wouldn't break even on this. It's put us all in such a positive frame of mind for the society, it's brilliant!
Now, I'm going to bed. Because I am so tired. And also ill. I can't stop coughing, and my throat feels weird. And my nose is all prickly and semi-bunged-up and sore. BOO. :( ('M still in a good mood, though.)
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