The Ouija of Hanging

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Sculpture: Jennifer Lovejoy's  Passing, Painting: Martha Dillard's Canyon Summer (right)
 Collage: Martha Olson's Standing in the Blues

 "Feast With Art JAM" has been at Perspective Gallery since November 1st. We've had over 600 people view the exhibit already, have sold two paintings, and still have two weeks left for exhibit to be up.


So why exactly, has it taken three weeks to get the first blog on this exhibit up? And why did I tempt all of my readers with a promise to talk about Agnes's Alcove?

I was simply over the top busy...truly I am sorry, but that is the lame truth. I didn't break my leg, go to Tahiti, or forget to write (quite the contrary, I wrote this blog daily in my brain).


The "Feast" exhibit contains the work of six Virginia artists. They came up with the JAM part because it is an acronym of the artist's first names twice...Judy Schwab,  Ali Wieboldt, Martha Dillard, Jennifer Lovejoy, Ann Reardon, Martha Olson. So it is really JAM, JAM. Their website is listed over on the side of the blog.


Initially, as Agnes and Ryan's work was coming down and the JAM artist's were bringing their work into my office/storeroom/kitchen, I was overwhelmed by the number of pieces I had to reconcile into our lovely 1500 square foot gallery. I was worried that I would have to JAM it in and then I'd be finished here as the curator, that nothing would fit together right, that I'd hang the abstract pieces upside down. Alas, the problem, I was "thinking." Not that you can't think while hanging an exhibit, but if your thinking takes you down the path I was heading for initially...forget it.


I actually see first and the thinking comes smoothly afterwards if I actually do it in this order.  The positive comments received from our many guests has pushed me to thinking about "how I do it," because that is what they ask..."how do you do it?" I tell them, "It's like playing the Ouija Board http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouija ."


 I get the really weird look when I say that, but they are listening now:

 "Yes, you know how when you play Ouija the little thing (I've learned through Wikipedia is called a planchette) moves your hands to the letters and tells you what to do, well that is what the art work does when I'm arranging the work, I pick it up, look around, and move it to the right place. I keep doing this for hours, with the music very loud, and after a long while, it is on the floor, below where it needs to be hung. I leave, do the home thing, come back the next morning and do the critique...what works, what doesn't and why."

They are still listening, so I go on (and on they are thinking):


 "This is where I am usually pleasantly surprised by juxtapositions of work that I was responding to intuitively. The artwork not only works visually, it connects through content, form, concept.  Had I only been cerebral about placement I may lose a large part of my audience because people initially respond to an art exhibit visually and you have to get them right away to keep the viewer engaged long enough so they may begin a private dialogue with the art." Oh," they say, and walk away, probably too young to know what the Ouija Board is. But, maybe their curiosity has been piqued?

                                         Left to Right: Ann Reardon's Gate of Dreams Torii and Gate
                                                            of Dreams Kanji, Martha Dillards Late One Day,
                                                                              Jennifer Lovejoy's Bird

Robin Scully Boucher, Curator
M.F.A.
and all of that stuff!