Entries from August 1, 2007 - September 1, 2007
8/28: Eclipse
This morning we got up early and went out to Sand Beach to see the lunar eclipse. Which is why I'm tired and can't think of a thing to write about it. It was pretty, we enjoyed it, a good time was had by all. Bruce Bulger of Deer Isle has a tradition of painting on location for every eclipse. Wonder what he came up with this time?
We've been very busy, as we always are in August. Real life sometimes gets in the way of maintaining my virtual life. I've had very little time in the gallery without visitors. So when I logged into the website, I was amazed to find we'd had nearly four-hundred visitors in the last day. Most were referred to three particular blog entries, so I'm guessing that someone posted a link in an article or blog or something. Either way, cool. If anyone can fill me in, please do.
isalos fine art
Post a Comment
8/11: Ruppert Show Online
We now have most of the Farrell Ruppert show on our website. Just click here. Please don't ask me to ship that big granite boulder. Of course, Farrell might be willing to deliver it.
We've been extremely busy, and Rebecca is at the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show in Rockland, so these have been some long days for me. Every day has it's surreal moments, usually when the gallery is bustling with people. Amid the noisy kids and the people with ice cream cones who don't take off their sunglasses, one couple sits on the bench admiring a painting they've already decided to buy. They've been looking at it for over a month, and today seems like the day they'll take the plunge. An artist has just left, who didn't seem to understand why I didn't want to look at her portfolio... now. Two artists are dropping off work, one scheduled, one not. A friend comes in and wants to talk, and when she sees me filling out the invoice on the painting, makes a loud fuss as though the buyers aren't sitting eight feet away. And hey- is that person taking a picture of a painting with a cell phone? My phone rings...
When the crowd is gone, the couple is still there, happy, gazing at their new painting.
8/8: Farrell Ruppert Show
Last Thursday I closed at four and started getting the gallery ready. I took down art, patched holes, painted and started moving the walls to where I thought they might work. Farrell arrived a bit later. Fortunately, he had Aaron to help. I say "fortunately" because many of his pieces are quite heavy and take at least two people to move them. My back had been hurting all week, so the help was a great relief.
Farrell and Aaron made a second trip back to the forge to get the fountain, which is four by four feet and fifteen inches high. While they were away, we moved the walls again. It took about two hours to assemble the fountain components, arrange the sand and stone in it and add the water. Aaron's friends, who'd been watching with interest from the sidewalk, were recruited for part of this endeavor. It was messy, so I was glad I'd stored the other art far from these efforts. Then it was time for beer and pizza.
Ron Watson stopped by, and I asked why he wasn't hanging his Michael Mazur and Karl Schrag show. He shrugged. "I'll do it in the morning." I felt a bit envious.
At some point, Farrell decided to take his "Reference" sculpture back to the forge and replace it with "Drop". Here they are, wheeling the granite base through the front door. This was at 11:30.
Farrell's show was hung by one. I still had to rehang much of the other side of the gallery. We got a few hours sleep and got up early to finish. By 1:30, I opened the doors. The labels were up by 3:30. The food and wine was laid-out by four, when everyone started arriving.
Of course, as in most photographs of openings, the people are mostly looking at each other, rather than the art, but that's the way it goes, especially when the crowd spills out onto the sidewalk.
By nine, the traffic had slowed enough so we could close.
8/4: Calm Before the Storm
Philip Koch, Vaino Kola, Wendy, Turner
I took this picture on Wednesday night. As much as I enjoy putting up new shows, I lament losing the beautiful arrangements that evolve in the gallery. On Tuesday and Wednesday, this trio of paintings greeted visitors: Philip Koch's The Voyage, Vaino Kola's The Sea (Greenlaw Cove) and Wendy Turner's The Color of Water IV.
Vaino brought in The Sea on Tuesday afternoon. After working on it for seven months, he'd decided it was finished, and had spent some time fine-tuning it before finally letting it go. We hung it in the spot where it obviously belonged, which happened to be between The Voyage and The Color of Water IV. The result was a place that made you quiet when you entered it: that made you want to sit and ponder. It inspired a sense of calm.
Aside from all being exceptional, museum-worthy paintings, they each have a different take on the sea. In Koch's, a lone sailboat navigates a narrow passage inland from a broader sea. Kola's is a meditation on water surface, inviting the viewer to become lost in the shapes and movement of the water. Turner's watercolor evokes a high-energy moment before a breaking wave strikes a rocky shore. Together, the space they inhabited felt charged with their presence.
Of course, the gallery business is ephemeral by nature. The artwork comes and goes, and the arrangements sometimes last a short period. By Thursday night we had the gallery largely disassembled in preparation for the Farrell Ruppert show.
