Diary Of The Progress Towards My Exhibition And Its Realisation

Diary of the Progress Towards My Exhibition and Its Realisation.

As I began to work towards the exhibition of my major project as its publication, I kept a diary of progress.  As I leaf through my day book now it makes fascinating reading (for me anyway) as I reflected on what went well, the problems and their resolution and the glow of satisfaction when it all came to fruition.  For posterity ;-) I reproduce it here.

Friday 5th January

• Rang the wood yard regarding the wood to be used for the cover of my hand-made artist's book.  It is ready and needs collecting.

Monday 8th January

• Drove over to Wragby to pick up the wood.  It is beautiful and satisfying;
• Experimented with a design for my advertising flyers;

Tuesday 9th January

• Visited Cleethorpes Library to check on the possibility fo holding a preview event.  It should be OK but the opening hours may change owing to cut-backs.  I need to return at the beginning of February to double check;
• Visit the picture framers.  All OK;

Wednesday 10th January

• Delivered the wood to the bookbinders.  Ideally it needs to be only 1 cm thick.  Rang a local joiner/kitchen fitter who thinks he can do it.  He will collect it over the weekend;
• Ordered paper for exhibition prints and artist's book;

Friday 11th January

• Paper arrived;

Monday 15th January

• Began printing for the exhibition.  Rang the framers to check on the border width he needed.  It should be OK but framer away on holiday until 31st.  Need to check when he returns;
• Rang the joiner but the motor on his saw has died.  He will take the wood to another joiners;
• Slight concern over the colour of one of the images in the print;

Tuesday 16th January

• Have decided the print is Ok after consultation so continued with printing.
• Second joiner unable to cut down the size of thickness of the wood.  Rang bookbinder who decides that we will go ahead with the wood as it is;
• Experimented with the text for the book printed on vellum and made trial prints for the book with and without a white border.

Wednesday 17th January

• Took the wood back to the bookbinder.  Revised the text printing and decide that images are best without a border.
• Purchase more vellum for printing the text to continue trial and buy a white gel pen to experiment with white handwritten text;
• The bookbinder suggests printing in draft to give a grey look.  This works.

Thursday 18th January

• Worked on the Shul video and got it to a stage ready to share with the Hangout Group next week; or thought I had!!!
• Succumbed to full blown flu, cancelled a talk to Grimsby Camera Club and took to my bed.

Sunday 21st January

• Worried now that flu is holding up progress so temporarily rose from my sick bed and worked on the Shul video and emailed it to the Hangout group with my thoughts.  Received a very encouraging email from one member.
• Completed printing my original BOW images ready for framing;
• Completed printing images for the book.

Monday 22nd January

• Produced a second prototype for my advertising flyer/poster;
• Completed design for a business card.

Saturday 27th January

• Edited Bewildered Images for including in the exhibition taking note of comments from the Hangout Group.

Sunday 28th January

• Made final choice on Bewildered images and printed them.

Monday 29th January

• Edited the introduction to the work as an artist's statement;
• Collated advertising flyers;
• Collated press release;
• Used Sketch Up software to trial maquettes of Cleethorpes Library and hanging of the exhibition.  I had made an early visit to the Library after booking the room in 2017 to take measurements;
• Completed exhibition prints.

Tuesday 30th January

• Trimmed the prints;
• Made a first decision on final framed image size.

Wednesday 31st January

• Took prints to picture framers and paid a deposit of £145;
• Visited library to double check gallery dimensions;
• Completed maquettes of library now that I had checked dimensions and was certain of framed image size;
• Took part in OCA Hangout to discuss the video.

Thursday 1st February

• Updated video following yesterday's Hangout.
• Began to work on Assignment 4.

Tuesday 6th February

• Completed and submitted Assignment 4.

Wednesday 7th February

• Posted Assignment 4 on blog;
• Took part in OCA Hangout.

Thursday 8th February

• Took business cards to printers
• Bought frames for images selected by Linda Ingham for an exhibition in The Steel Rooms Gallery, Brigg.

Monday 19th February

• Picked up cards from printers.  Very pleased.

Friday 23rd February

• Picked up pictures from the framers.  Absolutely delighted;
• Ordered hardback sketch book for visitor book and mirror plates for hanging.

Tuesday 27th February

• Mirror plates and visitor book arrived

Wednesday 28th February

• Painted mirror plates white to match the wall;
• Lined out visitor book.

Thursday 1st March

• Bought screws for mirror plates;
• The bookbinder has the book ready for mounting images and text.

Friday 2nd March

• Begin to attach mirror plates but screw heads are too big!!!
• Go to bookbinders to mount images and complete book.
• Visit Screwfix to buy new mirror plates.

Sunday 4th March

• Paint new mirror plates;
• Discovered that we have two of one image and one missing!!!  Aaaaggghhh!!!

Monday 5th March

• Printed and reframed the missing image;
• Began to attach the mirror plates but damage a frame!!!
• Rang the framer who was happy to reframe that image.

Tuesday 6th March

• Returned the damaged picture to the framers;
• Bought more foam board for mounting statements etc;
• Bought bubble wrap for protecting the pictures in transit;
• Completed attaching the mirror plates.

Tuesday 13th March

• Collected reframed picture and attached the mirror plate;
• Remeasured the library wall to rectify a mistake.  I had omitted to add the door to the calculations!!
• Ordered wine glasses from Tesco for preview event;
• Printed all text/labels and attached to foam board.

Wednesday 14th March

• Completed attaching text to foam board and made supports to enable the labels to be freestanding.

Sunday 18th March

• Collected glasses from Tesco and bought food and drink for the preview.

Monday 19th March

• Hung the exhibition in the morning.  This went really well with thanks to help from friend and one time art college technician;
• Exhibition opened in the afternoon;
• Preview event from 5.00 - 7.00 pm.  This went exceptionally well.  I was delighted with the way the work was received and the fact that degree colleagues came from as far afield as Nottingham and Holmfirth.

Thursday 22nd March

• Nearly 90 people have visited so far;
• Three framed prints, several mounted ones and many cards have been sold;
• Takings of £300 so far are going to offset the cost of mounting the exhibition;
• There was a slight hiccup on Wednesday afternoon when an art group use the gallery space but this was overcome and it added to the number of people who saw the work.

Saturday 24th March

• Family members came from far and wide to see the work and help to take the exhibition down.

Saturday 7th April

• Assignment 5 completed and submitted.  After a week away following the exhibition sitting down to write up this assignment was a great way to relive and reflect on several months hard work and its very pleasing resolution.

Tuesday 1st May

• Received the written Tutor report today following a feedback via Google Hangout.  This went exceptionally well and was a very pleasing and positive conclusion to the project.  However we discussed ways of further developing this project especially Bewildered and also some new work that I have in mind based on some personal writing by my mother.  Robert says that this would be perfect to add to my submission, even as work in progress, to show evidence of sustaining my practice.  I have already begun work on this and shared early progress with my Hangout Group.  Reflecting on the study visit to view John Stezaker's work has given more ideas to help with both this and Bewildered.