(& What Goes Into Making An Exhibition)

The day finally arrived to celebrate and share with the public all of the new work that I created for La Mémoire Et Le Lieu: Exposition De Peintures Sur Soie De René Shoemaker | Memory And Place: Exhibition Of Silk Paintings By René Shoemaker. Please enjoy having a look!

Here I am with Harvey feeling the glow of sharing my work with my new community here in Felletin

The exhibition is up, it is awake, tourists and new friends and neighbors mingle and visit, and I'm even featured in the local newspaper! What an incredible experience. I honestly don't know how it could have been better.

A lot was made of the relationship between dyeing, weaving, and textile design and my work during the opening. I find this especially intriguing due to the fact that Felletin is the center of textile weaving and custom dyeing (see my last post for more). What an inspiring place to live and work! And for my new community to discover these connections feels like such a gift, like I'm exactly where I need to be. And as promised, here are photos from the Vernissage* on June 21, 2017. Click on any image to see larger:

OPENING NIGHT IMAGES BY THE INCREDIBLE YVELINE LE GRAND:

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* the word Vernissage is of a curious origin and it fascinated me, so I thought I'd share the definition: noun: vernissage; plural noun: vernissages - a private viewing of paintings before public exhibition.

An art opening in France was called a vernissage because it was the first viewing of a new body of work, and often the varnish (painted on top of completed oil paintings to protect them) was still wet. 'Vernis' means 'varnish' in French.

THE PROCESS OF MAKING AN EXHIBITION

There is so much that goes into an exhibition. This one in particular was perfect for the imagination, as I could not use the walls. Not only that, but the art needed to be moveable for meetings, weddings, parties... Tons of brainstorming ensued, and I landed on the perfect solution. With my husband Harvey's help, we created beautiful wooden screens to showcase my work. It was exactly right!

There is so much more... from choosing the pieces to paint from my daily explorations of Felletin to hunkering down in the studio for days on end, to arranging for the framing in French (NOT my native language!), to collaborating with my friend Eleanora Machado, who was a genius in designing the promotional materials like postcards and signage while on a flight to Brazil (her home country) from the US, to sending out press releases, to putting all of the framed work together to understand the story it wants me to tell... I'm sure I've forgotten others...