I am now an internationally exhibited artist!

Wow! and Yay! I feel like I've come to the real pinacle of all of my years of school. A real to goodness exhibition in a bonnified gallery! And an international tick on my artist CV that I can be proud of. Joining the Seoul Artists collective was a really good move on my part because it's provided a solid opportunity for me to get involved in the art community here and given me a chance to exhibit my work in the REAL WORLD so to speek.

I worked like a deamon last weekend to get it all finished in time for the installation Tuesday, Dec 1st. But in the end i got it done. I wasn't sure how it was going to come together in the end, but in some ways I think that's what make site specific installation so precious and interesting. It is really a piece produced for that space! I took my time when I got there to find the right spece. I chose a wall finally in the NA Gallery and after playing around with it for a bit I decide no to have the memory boxes on the floor but rather to have them wrapped and caught and suspended within the red ropes/veins. I think the effect was really interesting. It gives this raw visceral quality to the piece that helps connect the concept of physical memory being intertwined with psychological memory. Once it was all installed I couldn't help but wish that there were more of everything! More boxes, more strings, more paint bigger canvas. More more more more! Like any good obsession, you want more. i think it would also have been a better visual bang for you buck so to speek. Once the lighting was up and everything was in place I was actually quite pleased with the effect.

I think moving away from academic art has really given me the more liberty to play and experiment with materials and modes of expression. And I'm really pleased and loving photocoppy and gel medium transfers! it's like the best of both worlds! I get to work on my photography and then I also get to work on my painting and drawing. People were always telling my that my work was strongly tied to the photograph so might as well start going directly to the reproduction and working away from there!!

The opening vernissage was great! Silvia and Grace came to support and I ended up talking with several other artists that I hadn't had a chance to talk to before! I had a coupple people come to me and say that it was their favorite piece in the whole show!! Wow! Awsome!. I also had another curator come up to me and say that she loved my painting that was in the brochure; (Chris and Alex Sweeping, 2009) and she told me to get a flicker or myspace site going and send her the link. She said when i had more paintings ready to give her a call...... YEEHOOOO!!! It's always nice to have fans and supporters of your work. I think my work has been really well received outside of school. Which leads me to beieve what I had previously concluded; that my work is more accessible to people who are NOT looking for references and pushing the envalope but just looking for a story. I guess I'm not trendy enough for some. The subjects I choose to portray are not edgy enough.

I think when you're in art school a lot of times the people that get their work shown are a measure of who is the most popular person in the department and who has the best contacts. And maybe that's how the world functions in general? But one thing that I've discovered outside of art school is that generally speaking, outside of this very exclusive group of people, the general population doesn't have a clue what's going on, (NOR DO THEY CARE!!) what's trendy and really give a shit about what's happening in the contemporary art scene. We are a product of our education, so those that are educated in Fine Art can afford to have pretensions and a giant stick up their butt and think themselves above those who can't talk the talk. But I really get a kick when people tell me straight up that they like my work because it's pretty, beautiful or makes them feel good or think of similar situations in their own lives. That's perfectly ok to me. In fact I'd rather have people identify with my work aesthetically and on a personal level than like it because it fits the mold of a certain scene.
So now what? Well the show will be up until mid december and then, I'm in no rush to get into another show immediately, but having the prospect of future exhibitions with these people is a big push to keep plugging away at it and keep working steadily. This is great! It's the best i could have hoped for.... well appart from a solo show, but you know I have only been here 3 months, there's time.

here are some links to the posters and info about the exhibition: