Erie Spring Show Opening

Posing by "Stop the War"
Busy weekend !

Friday was the Folk Festival down in Cambridge Springs. Forsythe and Generic played back to back sets, so I got a bit of a work out in a very hot and sweaty setting. Fun time, but I about croaked by the end of it all.

Saturday night was the opening of the Spring Show, so we went on down to see what it was all about.

Coming up the steps to the museum, there were a lot of people sitting out on the steps in the cool of the evening, so I laughingly called out "Must be an awful show if you all are hanging around outside". No one reacted. Hmmmmm.

Once inside, it became rapidly apparent that it was hotter than Hades and jam packed full of art lovers, bohemian wannabes, extra credit seeking students of every stripe, free drink swillers and free snack gobblers.

We took a deep breath and pushed into the throng.

Now the Erie Art Museum is not a cavernous structure by any stretch, and art viewing sort of took second place to dodging bodies, drinks, hairdos and opinions. We went with the flow of the crowd and tried to see as best we could.

Five or so pictures into it, we knew that the crowd was moving too slowly for our liking, so we busted out and went looking for my painting. Various and sundry unfortunate visual experiences later, we found it hung into an inconspicuous corner where those wandering in search of the bathroom, smoking area, or unnoticable empty wine glass/snack plate disposal opportunity might accidentally stumble upon it.

Several people were gathered around, but this was because this lonely hallway offered the only seating in the place, and the remote location provided a respite from the pressing crush of art lovers and wine swillers.

I felt a little embarassed seeing the thing I had spent so much time working on hanging there all lonesome like. We looked for a bit, then I grabbed some passerby and asked her to take a couple photos for us (thanks lady, whoever you are), and then it was time to get on out of there.

Art shows are a funny business. On one hand I was tickled to have gotten in, and then once we looked around, I felt kind of goofy and sad about the whole thing and just wanted to leave ASAP.

Maybe I'm a dope and maybe my attempt to say something about this idiotic ,illegal and immoral mess we are in was lame, ( it's called "Stop the War) but it sure seems to me that if ever there was a time when artists should be using their medium to stand up for something, that time is now.

I was a bit stunned and disappointed that this show had very little (if anything at all) to say about a time when events of potentially disastrous proportions are erupting all around us.

Thank God for that BFA

Two weeks ago I decided, after one and a half minutes of profound contemplation, that it was about high time to dust off the pencil, dig out the sketch pad, and break out the ART.

This decision was the result of stumbling upon the Erie Art Museum web page instead of working one day , and seeing that the annual Spring Show was coming up. Since I had just gotten my taxes back, I was in possession of the required fee of $10 per entry, and I also determined that the sting of previous rejections had abated sufficiently in the 18 years since I last pissed away time, effort , creativity and $30 to allow another go at acceptance in the ART WORLD, or another dance with the miserable twin of acceptance, humiliating rejection.

Flashback:
Many years ago, fresh from college, young and idealistic, I entered the Spring Show for the first time. The first show I had ever had the nerve to enter.My theory was to enter paintings that opposed convention yet were still conventional in that they were paintings in frames. Or some shit like that. Come on, I was 22. Anyway, I actually had one piece that I framed with lasagna, macaroni, and whatever other decorative pasta I could find. I glued it all on and spray painted it gold.

Well, darned if I didn't not only get in the show, but I won one of the prizes. Hot damn, I thought as I pocketed my check and talked to all the Erie ART swells at the opening party, I'm on my way. Then soon after the Gulf War broke out, and I was invited to do a piece for a special "All About the War" show, and I was sure ART was my thing. There was no stopping me now.

Of course, every show I entered after that rejected my stuff. After the basement filled up with rejected crap, I just quit even picking the damn things up from wherever I sent them. Then I stopped entering all together. Bastards.


Flash forward:
All this rattled around in my brain as I worked on getting two pieces done in time to enter this year. The huge drawing callous on the middle finger of my right hand hand long ago faded , and my ART muscles hurt like hell after two days of cutting giant stencils with the scalpel that Mother stole for me about 25 years ago, but it felt good to do something ARTSY. It was even fun. I was very happy with the first piece, and okay with the second, and so off they went to be judged.

The moment of truth came on Saturday. I got the mail and there between the 0% APR credit card offers and the Penelec bill was the Erie Art Museum logo. I tore it open and had a look.


The Spring Show opens Saturday, April 22, from 7 to 9:30 p.m with a private preview and reception for the artists.

I'll be there.