Getting to sit back and fully reflect on my time installing, presenting, and then deinstalling my solo gallery exhibition “Working Proof” is still kind of surreal that it all even happened. Its not lost on me how incredible fortunate that I am to be able to wrap up my undergraduate degree with a solo show under my belt. Many changes were made over the course of developing the show. Both of the large reduction prints I planned to feature in the show didnt make the final cut (Although pieces of them were used in the show) and my plan to print on plexiglass so viewers could build a print also fell to the cutting room floor, but I look at both as opportunities for the future. I’d like to take the core theme of this show and expand on it, whether this will be over the course of the next year or the next ten I’m unsure.
Installing a show has a lot more to it than I ever imagined. I honestly thought id go in, pop some nails in the wall, maybe level a piece or two, and then be good to go. WRONG! Luckily the new gallery director Sarah has been gracious enough to show me the ropes and help me along with putting this show together, Ive really enjoyed working with her.
When the time came for the reception I was super happy that I had just done the reception for the Jean Parish Memorial Scholarship exhibition just a few weeks before. It helped shake the nerves of a first time on the artist side of a reception as well as ease into talking about my work and process. The reception for Working Proof as well as the Jean Parish show taught me a lot about myself as an artist and why I do what I do. Seeing how a piece can be interacted with, even if its just a 2D drawing on the wall, is so fascinating to me. Getting to see my work touch people and resonate with them on a personal level was a goal I didn’t know I was striving for. The show was also a sort of starting point in my journey as a ‘professional artist’ both in terms of physically putting my work out into the world and giving me the confidence to branch out more and apply to more gallery shows, but also it’s helped me start to brand my self on social media. Ive been doing pretty good with posting to instagram regularly and by the end of 2021 I’m determined to have a full website up and running. This show was an absolute blessing and I am incredibly honored to have been given the opportunity.
