Belskie Museum - The Selection

I brought my work from Hudson Opera House directly to the Belskie Museum. I didn’t want to store them in my house or studio and have to drag them out again. The Museum was closed for the summer and the curator of painting and sculpture, Anita Duquette was nice enough to open the museum to allow me to bring the paintings in a few weeks earlier. The idea was to let them select the works they wanted for the show from that group and then visit the studio to select others later. That visit was a few days before the hanging of the show. I am nervous because this is the first time a curator is coming to my studio. I’ve read about it but what should I do? Well I spruced the place up a bit so it looked presentable, hung my new paintings on the walls of the gallery space and in the studio. I turned unfinished paintings to the wall. I didn’t have time to use the art putty but the paintings were not crooked. I worried about the light but except for the far corner of the gallery which was dark the light was fine. Now I know where to put lighting if someone comes at night. I never thought about people coming at night. I thought days and weekends, now I know I need to be more flexible. The three curators came and once in the studio began the slow paced process of absorbing the paintings. They kind of stood around and looked and looked and looked. There were about thirty paintings in the studio 2 unfinished, 13 new and 15 from other series. Some I had stacked away but they were pulled out and examined, the unfinished were examined also. Then they just stood around, the silence was heavy in the room. I didn’t know what to think or do, so I just kept busy doing I don’t know what. I hear a few words here and there, a nod and a decision was in the making. They selected nine paintings, two from the new series and seven from a fun series I’m working on and one from an old series. They also wanted a painting from another series and one from my flower series, these were at home. I was a little concerned to say the least, for those of you who know me know I would never put all of these works from different series together. I wondered how this was going to look. I would have to wait because I was not involved in the hanging of the show. The curators excitment about their selections reinforced what I have always believed about my work. I have no idea what makes a person excited about a piece of my work, it sometimes surprise me what people fall in love with. Which means you can never paint to sell because how do you know what a person will want in their lives. Ten o’clock the morning of the hanging I show up promptly with all of the requested paintings. I also brought an updated inventory list of the paintings in the show. They gave me three paintings to take home which I deleted from their list. They had already laid out the painting in the way they thought they would hang them; I was skeptical but keep my mouth shut. It was my job to make the paintings and theirs to hang them; I believed that they knew better than I. I did ask that they place at least a foot between each painting. I think my paintings need breathing room, some space between their stories. The strength of their color requires that. What I learned from this is, remember all of the packages that you sent to the gallery or exhibition space over the years. They will make their selection for the show from all of them and it their choice not yours. Save all of your statements and bios digitally because they take a lot of information from your packages. If you are like me you have a different statement for each series that you do. Who remembers them all or what you sent?