Here is my empty studio. I am now in New York and the paintings are in a vacant gallery, shade pulled over their shadow boxes, door to the space locked.
Tomorrow they will be installed on the walls of Ceres Gallery. And on Tuesday, the show opens.
I know what went into the work. I know how much I attended to the detail of organizing this exhibition. What I don’t know, is how well these works will be received by an audience.
I always paint with part fear, part courage. It’s never a neutral mechanical thing. Oh, the mixing is. I try for what is called internal logic. The colors have to relate to one another. And that’s fairly scientific. Composition has certain rules as well. But the overall letting go of the work! The turning it out into the world! The calling of it finished!
Now they are finished. I called them so. All lined up silently behind the black shade, behind the locked door. Waiting to perform. They aren’t mine anymore. I have no control.
Thanks for sharing the excitement with us, Hollis! You’ll do great!
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Thanks Jill!!!
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OK– Now if you can, show us some photos of the exhibit…
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I will! But you can look at my website in the meantime.
http://www.hollishildebrand-mills.com
Thanks for your interest!
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Good luck but most of all enjoy!
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Hey Marjie!!! I will!
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I had never, ever thought of art as a science. Science scares me. Art doesn’t. But you’re so right…it is, of course it is. Oh my. I feel your desolation – like saying goodbye to children when they leave home – hoping they’ll fare well, willing for them to be liked, be loved and understood and knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do now but fret. Deep breaths, Hollis. Your babies will be fine. Xxxxx
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Thanks Jenny!!
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Well said!!
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Jhow exciting, good luck!
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Thanks, Jean-A-Drawing-A-Day. I thought of you in The Strand Bookstore the other day. There are a number of journals out now, available for the artist to do one drawing a day. A page designated for each day. I was tempted, but then, never one to keep a consistent sketchbook, I thought I would not keep it up!!! And you wouldn’t use it because your work is in a variety of papers and in different mediums. I wonder if those books sell?
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Yes, I’ve seen them! Maybe a good place to start. I like the idea of all the drawings contained in one book but mine are spread out all over! My approach is to have a sketchbook in the car, at work, in every bag so I can use what I have to hand. That’s why I have the blog, so I can see them all in chronological order somewhere. I hadn’t realised when I set it up that others would look!
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Of course they would look! But it is really cool that your motive for setting up the blog was to organize the drawings. I also like your keeping different sketchbook in different places.
That method might work best for me. All my sketchbooks are pretty blank because I move around a lot and don’t feel like carting the same sketchbook around all the time.
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Hope everything falls into place, I am sure adrenaline and courage will take over the fear part, Hollis. hugs and excitement for you!!
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Thanks Robin!!! Yes it went well. ( the reception is over. Now I can say that ) but the pieces are still up until the 21st of May. And I do still feel anxious. But they have been getting extremely high praise. Very high praise that feels incongruous to my feelings of having done the work ( hard ) and a little touch of fear and despair to be in the limelight like that. Always you and everyone in blogland: Thank you!!!!
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I love this: “I always paint with part fear, part courage.” That’s how I write, even when I just write for myself.
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