Art Walk: The First Day
In brief, pretty fun.
Wandered to most galleries, saw some friends, had an interesting conversation with a potter who studied in Japan and his family. They gave me a sushi roll.
Had one weird thing on sidewalk, some guy saw I wore a camera and flipped OUT. Thrust his map of events in front of his face, hunched down, and crabwalked past, back mostly to me, muttering, despite my not having been actively fiddling with camera- it was just around my neck while I walked down the sidewalk. Weirdest shit EVER,I was focused on getting to the Granada and didn't even look at him til he jerked to a stop and started doing that. I probably should have actually piped up and said "Dude, you are not a gallery, I have NO interest in taking your picture." but I was walking one way, he another, and I fortunately passed him pretty quickly. Also I didn't want to get into some kind of argument if he decided I was lying or whatever. But later I wondered if he did that to EVERYONE seen with camera or cel phone or if it was just some special vibe I gave off in particular.
Lots of donations to the Library Society's silent auction. But it seemed that when I went in (early afternoon) there were almost no bids written on sheets, which is a little saddening. I continued the trend of not bidding because while some paintings caught my eye, I have no PLACE for a painting or print, and I didn't really see anything else I was terribly interested in. Which I guess might be what everyone thought when they wandered through. Of course when I wandered it, there were maybe five people in there looking, too. So... hope that picks up today.
I came home for a bit, went back out, stayed at BBAC gallery from about 6:30 to 10pm. I hung out mostly in the back gallery where my things are so I could talk to people and give help as needed since most BBAC people stayed in the front room. Enjoyed several conversations there about various artists and work, including of course me and my own art. Best was a group of students from probably Sul Ross though they may have been High School senior-ish (I am bad at judging) who seemed to enjoy several paintings and hearing about them. One of them even realized exactly what photo of Billie Holiday I'd used as a reference for "Strange Fruit" and they all dealt well with my nerdy babble about style, symbols, and PBS documentaries. *cough*
Several friends came through and as always, good conversations with them as well, including the gentleman who was my counselor when I was using the state rehabilitation commission to get back on my feet. He seems to really REALLY like my art, and was the first person that I know of to actually want a Terlinguabell print.
I kind of speechified at a few folks now and then about the BBAC and the website. There was some hot interest about the website from a couple of people, less from others, right down to one person mentioning that really, there's no point because West Texas Weekly (.com) covers music and art events along with everything ELSE. It's a point I could argue on several levels, but I was a little low on debate juice at that point so didn't really go into my thoughts.
Crass as it is to talk about sales perhaps, this gallery night has been about on par or maybe even mildly better than previous ones already, though so far certainly not as sales-happy as I'd hoped. Several greeting cards, one print that I know of, and one very small canvas went home with happy new owners.
Part of the problem may well be location. All gallery nights previous the activity was really squeezed down into the main 'downtown' area. However we're a block and a half from that area, and there's never been anything in the spot we're in during previous years...so we are not getting very many visitors. We're too 'out of the way' and have no great reputation for showing folks a good time or for having extra amazing art or what have you.
The SRSU students are next door, their Mariachi band and then improv theatrical group brought SOME curious folks in late last night, but there hasn't been as much publicity for them either this year since they got the space kind of at the last minute as far as arranging press releases and the like go.
Wandered to most galleries, saw some friends, had an interesting conversation with a potter who studied in Japan and his family. They gave me a sushi roll.
Had one weird thing on sidewalk, some guy saw I wore a camera and flipped OUT. Thrust his map of events in front of his face, hunched down, and crabwalked past, back mostly to me, muttering, despite my not having been actively fiddling with camera- it was just around my neck while I walked down the sidewalk. Weirdest shit EVER,I was focused on getting to the Granada and didn't even look at him til he jerked to a stop and started doing that. I probably should have actually piped up and said "Dude, you are not a gallery, I have NO interest in taking your picture." but I was walking one way, he another, and I fortunately passed him pretty quickly. Also I didn't want to get into some kind of argument if he decided I was lying or whatever. But later I wondered if he did that to EVERYONE seen with camera or cel phone or if it was just some special vibe I gave off in particular.
Lots of donations to the Library Society's silent auction. But it seemed that when I went in (early afternoon) there were almost no bids written on sheets, which is a little saddening. I continued the trend of not bidding because while some paintings caught my eye, I have no PLACE for a painting or print, and I didn't really see anything else I was terribly interested in. Which I guess might be what everyone thought when they wandered through. Of course when I wandered it, there were maybe five people in there looking, too. So... hope that picks up today.
I came home for a bit, went back out, stayed at BBAC gallery from about 6:30 to 10pm. I hung out mostly in the back gallery where my things are so I could talk to people and give help as needed since most BBAC people stayed in the front room. Enjoyed several conversations there about various artists and work, including of course me and my own art. Best was a group of students from probably Sul Ross though they may have been High School senior-ish (I am bad at judging) who seemed to enjoy several paintings and hearing about them. One of them even realized exactly what photo of Billie Holiday I'd used as a reference for "Strange Fruit" and they all dealt well with my nerdy babble about style, symbols, and PBS documentaries. *cough*
Several friends came through and as always, good conversations with them as well, including the gentleman who was my counselor when I was using the state rehabilitation commission to get back on my feet. He seems to really REALLY like my art, and was the first person that I know of to actually want a Terlinguabell print.
I kind of speechified at a few folks now and then about the BBAC and the website. There was some hot interest about the website from a couple of people, less from others, right down to one person mentioning that really, there's no point because West Texas Weekly (.com) covers music and art events along with everything ELSE. It's a point I could argue on several levels, but I was a little low on debate juice at that point so didn't really go into my thoughts.
Crass as it is to talk about sales perhaps, this gallery night has been about on par or maybe even mildly better than previous ones already, though so far certainly not as sales-happy as I'd hoped. Several greeting cards, one print that I know of, and one very small canvas went home with happy new owners.
Part of the problem may well be location. All gallery nights previous the activity was really squeezed down into the main 'downtown' area. However we're a block and a half from that area, and there's never been anything in the spot we're in during previous years...so we are not getting very many visitors. We're too 'out of the way' and have no great reputation for showing folks a good time or for having extra amazing art or what have you.
The SRSU students are next door, their Mariachi band and then improv theatrical group brought SOME curious folks in late last night, but there hasn't been as much publicity for them either this year since they got the space kind of at the last minute as far as arranging press releases and the like go.