Fiddler, no. 1

“Fiddler, no. 1“, originally uploaded by ahtravis.

Proposals–“Music in the Mountains” and “From Start to Finish”

As a painter becomes more confident and develops a sizable body of similar work she might begin to think of proposing an exhibition to art institutions, galleries, community art organizations. This year I am in the happy position of having two proposals accepted to two different art organizations, at two ends of my larger community. The planned exhibitions are similar but different.
The first scheduled for June, 2009 is “Music In The Mountains” , Walt Meade Gallery of the Roxbury Arts Group, Roxbury, NY. This is a themed show of paintings inspired by a summer of traditional music in the Catskill Mts. Over the past year I have sketched revelry in many forms: dancers moving fast and furiously, musicians in concentration over intricate finger work, group playing. I have used the sketches in paintings depicting an environment entirely of my own making but reminiscent of the mountains in a glorious fall. The show will include my initial sketches, oils and acrylics, and monoprints. The earlier postings of this material is filed under “Music in the Mountains”.

The second accepted proposal for August, 2009, proposed and scheduled a year in advance, is “Figures, From Start to Finish”, Wilbur Mansion Gallery, Arts Council of the Catskills, Oneonta, NY. In this show I will exhibit my creative process starting with my sketches and ending with the finished paintings in which the sketched figures are used.
I learn of opportunities to propose exhibitions through publications like Art Calendar and Art News, membership bulletins, posted notices and the web services. Most often the calls for proposals and entries for juried shows appear in the advertisement sections in the back of publications. There are strict requirements for entry and following directions is most important.

I have struggled to manage the digital requirements for copying and sending my images. One should always photograph all your work and keep the images on a file on the computer. I use Kodak EasyShare that came with my camera.

However, the dpi of each of those original photographs may not be what is required for proposals and/or exhibition entries. In that case, they will require resizing. I am able to manipulate the image files to the size required with FastStone, also free or with a contribution. It is an easy, uncomplicated program, that does enough for me but certainly not as much as a program like Photoshop. In Faststone I am able to make notes about size, price, where it has been shown etc., that stay with each image.

Copying the files to a CD, after having adjusted them for size is standard procedure on every computer. However, getting the files to appear on the CD in the order I require took me some time to figure out. “Everything is simple once you know how”! Number the titles of the file in the order you want them to appear and that matches your image list and voila, they are in the order in which you need them.

This whole procedure produces different versions of images that should be kept in dedicated folders, and requires renaming files in those folders but it is necessary.