Gallereeeey, Galleraaaahhhh, Gallereeeeey, Gallerahahahahaha....

I'll be at the gallery most of today.

It struck me that maybe I haven't explained about the gallery and what I'm doing there. Or maybe I have and forgot. If the former, I'm about to remedy that. If the latter, well, sorry - I am far too lazy to go back through my archives (Have you tried wading through all that crap? The IRS doesn't have as many files to search through!) and see, so you'll have to endure it again.

Ahem.

On Thursdays when T is in town, I leave him with the Evil Genius and strict instructions not to burn down the house, feed the boy a diet of nothing but sugar and food coloring, or permit any alien abductions while I'm away. I then drive as quickly as I can away from the madhouse I call Casa de Crazy sedately and obeying the speed limit like the insane woman normal person I am (hush, T, I can hear you laughing) up to the Georgia Heritage Center for the Arts, a gallery housed in what was once a Georgia Power building at Tallulah Falls. If you click the link, check out the Heritage Room (housing a basket exhibit in the photo). That's the room where my combined arts show will be.

I'm what's called a demonstrating artist, someone who (in theory) comes in once a week and demonstrates their art form. My day is Thursday, because that's when Mum and her Tribe of Outrageous and Insanely Funny Women demonstrate, and I like to hang with my peeps.

As I have something I call "Crafter's ADD", I don't demonstrate any one art or craft - sometimes I make photo greeting cards, sometimes I do collage cards, sometimes I do bead work, sometimes I crochet, now and then I color or do a kind of wriggly line art, and sometimes I glom on to someone else's art supplies and play with them (S's polymer clay is darned near irresistible!). When I need to get up and walk around because all the blood has pooled into my arse and I want it to circulate again, I go play the flutes. I loooove the flutes. I bought two of them last year, one made of PVC pipe, and they are loverly. I'm eyeing a river cane darling right now. Sigh. Anyway, I play them because they need playing, especially the wood/cane ones. If they aren't played from time to time, they will dry out and crack, be ruined, and make me cry. It's a public service. Yeah.

I am there from open to close, and it's amazing how slow the minutes, how swift the hours can go.

Tuesday afternoon, Mum and I invaded raided cleaned out calmly, quietly, and sanely shopped at JoAnn's, were we found archival paper (for top-mounting photos)(I love top mounting prints, especially because most of mine are odd sizes and won't fit in a standard mat), frames on sale (Two-for-one? Count me in!!), and mats. I can assemble frames like nobody's business, but I can't actually cut the legs myself...and while I have a very cha-cha mat cutter, have no concept of how to actually use it to, you know, cut mats with openings and stuff.

We garnered enough supplies for me to mount and frame all the prints I have for the show, and some spare mats so I can print more, mat them, and sell them without frames. I'll buy more mats, frames, and paper as budget allows, and may actually have a pretty decent show for Feblueberry.

Back to the gallery. I'll be spending today's demonstrating time trying very hard not to cuss while mounting, matting, and framing the show pieces. If I manage to get any pics, I'll post them...eventually.

I love my gallery time - even if I feel inferior to many of the artists up there, I have a blast and they're so freakin' supportive that one can't help feeling rather chuffed with one's work by the end of the day. Also, they're delightfully off-kilter, so I fit right in!

I think it's terrific that the gallery is there, supporting local artists and giving them a place to make contact with the public, demonstrate sometimes dying arts, have shows, and socialize. The public gets to meet artists every day, ask questions, and see the work that goes into the things for sale in the gallery. Win-win. I wish more communities had a resource like this.

So, does your community have a gallery? An arts center? Something to nurture the creative soul? Tell me about it!