Solo Show: making progress

July 23rd.
That’s my deadline.

Deadlines and I have a love/hate relationship. I love them because I don’t get anything done without them. Or, I should say, I don’t complete artwork without them. I make lots of things but often don’t bother doing the boring work like finishing facings until right before a deadline.

I also hate deadlines. The pressure. The looming-ness of them. The knowledge that knowing there absolutely WILL be some sort of family crisis right before the deadline hits. I can’t tell you the number of times my machine has broken down the week before a deadline. Or how many art disasters I’ve had the very night before something is due.

This deadline is very real for me. I’ve worked for a long time to get to the point where I feel confident enough in my work to even apply for a solo show. I have an entire gallery space to fill all on my own. It’s exciting. It’s terrifying.

I love the ideas I’m working with. I’m playing with lots of ideas centering around my theme. Not every one of them might be fantastic. I’m “heads down” plowing away at doing lots of the work right now and have enough time to fail a few times. Yes, fail. It’s a freeing thing, to work with enough time that I know I can throw several pieces out if they don’t work. I can just try them and see what happens. If they work out – bonus.

I know nothing looks like it goes together in these three pictures. I’m playing with a number of ideas. And this time, I’m doing my best to work well ahead of my deadline so that I will have choices. And also so that when the inevitable disaster strikes the week before the show hangs, I will have already done what needs to be done.

July 23 – September 23rd
Stone, Water, Time
Art by Lyric Montgomery Kinard
Poetry by Maura High
Cary Art Center
Cary, NC

Hope to see you there!