September 1, 2016

Studio time


My show was up for six days after the opening.  The gallery is in a multi-purpose building (a couple of studios and one business), so people are in and out, but no one is attending in the gallery.  I didn't want to leave the quilts unattended, so I set up a makeshift studio in a side area of the gallery and worked there from 12:00-5:00 each day.  It was interesting to see what it was like to dedicate five straight hours to studio time.  Since my regular studio is in my home, I tend to move back and forth from one kind of activity to another. The study with my computer is just across the hall from the studio, and all too often, I go in to check e-mail, and then get sucked into responding, following up on things, going to other links, etc.  Being at the gallery gave me a sense of what it would be like to have a separate studio, at a distance from home.  I still checked e-mail from time to time on my phone, but I don't like typing or web-surfing on the phone, so it really was just a quick occasional check.  It was instructive to see how much more sewing I got done than if I'd been at home.  I spent most of the time making bookmarks from the remains of several quilts in the show (photo above).  I also planned out dimensions and cutting directions for two quilts I have lined up to do.  Very productive! But I also found that five hours devoted to quilting didn't leave me enough time to do the other things I want/need to be doing during the day, in the relaxed way that I have been able to do them since retiring from academic work.

The show came down early this week, and I've been enjoying several days back at home.  It's a relief to be done with the show, which took months of preparation.  Having seen the benefit of uninterrupted hours in the studio, I'm spending more uninterrupted time there--not as much as five hours at a time, but more than before, and staying away from side-trips to the computer when it's studio time.

And the opening went very well!  Here's a shot of the crowd just before my talk, and you can see a few of the quilts, too.



3 comments:

  1. I love the crowd. That must have been very exciting. I am assuming your work was well received as well as your presentation! How wonderful.

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  2. Great turnout for your talk! Can you post more gallery shots??

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  3. Thank you so much for one of the bookmarks. The fact that I know the writing on it is a part of the larger whole story makes it very powerful.

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