Ta-da! I was in an art show this past Saturday. It was the first one ever and it might be my only one, so the family insisted on taking a lot of photos. Three mobiles were used, y'all. That's how significant it was... because I'm never in things. So... it went about as well as you'd expect. This is the recognition line-up and I hate being in front of people. You might think it's because I'm self conscious about my looks. I say that, because it comes up from time to time as a reason people give on my behalf. This is not why. Unless I'm in a wacky mood, I don't approach people to talk, I don't like giving speeches, I don't like standing in front of groups of people. It's just boring and awkward. I'd rather watch the crowd of onlookers looking at other people. I know that might sound weird, but it's true. I like to see how people react socially in various situations and settings. Not so I can emulate them because I'm rubbish at trying to fit in, but because I find it fascinating. So, that's a big weird explanation, but there ya go. My pants are too long because I'm rather short at 5'2" and haven't bothered to ever try hemming them and I never know what to do with my hands. I want to stand in authoritative positions because it feels better for my body, not because I want to give off an air air of power. So, I like to have my hands or fists on my hips or standing in a military stance with my legs slightly apart and my arms behind my back. But I know this is not acceptable to crowds of people because I'll come off looking like a bitch because it looks like I'm trying to do some power play. (I realize the girl next to me is in the last position I described, but hers looks easy and not so militant, so that doesn't count and doesn't seem like a power play.) I also like to put my hands in my pockets and these pants don't have any damn pockets and cocking my right hip out with that leg extended out (which is a trait of comfort standing that I inherited from my dad and paternal grandfather), completely with crossed arms, is also apparently not appropriate in social situations. I don't know why. I mean crossed arms means your being stand-offish, which I'm not, it's just comfortable, but only with the whole hip/leg thing, anyway. I know I'm probably over thinking how one should stand in front of a crowd, but yeah I just come off looking like a dork and probably should just stand militant and powerful, perhaps then I would have sold some art? Haha, I don't know. Moving on!! So, these are the four pieces (the scanned images) that I submitted for the show. I submitted the educational summaries with them in hopes they would include them on the walls and they did! If you'd like to read those summaries or see the other girls in the Girls Around The World series just click this link. Datoga from Tanzania Kayan from Thailand Hopi from Arizona Miao from China during Duan Wu Po Most of the people that I noticed really looking at my art were younger people (teens/kids) and non-white people. Makes sense. Most white people (read white adults) and most adults in general do not like my art. The two darker headed girls in this photo are Asian-American, there was also an Asian-American woman along with several African-American ladies and other kids both white and black; but mainly all female. That older gentleman in the photo is my dad. Of course he was going to be supportive, come and look, but he doesn't really like my art. I know as he's stated as much that the people are drawn weird or that I don't draw males or the boobs are weird, etc. That's fine. I do know that two of the girls (one black and one white, both of who's art I liked and feature in a collage further on) looked at my art. Two older ladies that I know that attended the art show liked my work. One was that photography lady that I was talking about in this post, the other is the wife of the man I reference from an art walk several years before in that same post. The photography lady liked the art and while living and photographing in Africa she did meet the Datoga people so there's confirmation right there that I'm good. My illustration and summary are spot on according to someone who has met them and spent a bit of time with them. So that was nice as I would hate to know that I captured the Datoga people inaccurately. The other lady liked the art as well, but ended up asking how long I'd been creating art. That was awkward and I didn't know how to answer, because I wasn't sure what she was asking exactly. When I actually started up again and showing it online and to people and trying to sell it was about five years ago and she was there at that bar when I gave a piece to a mutual friend of ours. So, did she not remember that? (because she acted like she had no idea that I illustrated at all, ever) or did she just mean in general? Because if that's the case my answer should have been since I could hold a pencil or marker, but more specifically when I was seven and continuously drawing mermaids (before Disney's The Little Mermaid came out). I say that's the starting point because though my girls have evolved since then, that was the beginnings of actual figures with similar body shapes and face shapes as opposed to the marker or crayon stick figures I'd been drawing before. The art lady, who is in that first photo, couldn't stop talking about how much she liked my art. I think she didn't at first and she needed to fill spaces but the more she saw them they grew on her. She was genuine in saying she really liked them, but it's like it surprised her how much she liked them. From her I got that I should create these girls as dolls. From her art associate I got that I should create the clothing. A doll I could probably do as I've hand-sewn plushies before, but I haven't got a clue how to create clothing; like real for real clothing that a full grown (or even child) person could actually wear. But interesting ideas. Later at a party where all three of those ladies were in attendance, the lady that I gifted the art to those five years ago quipped up with "I have a Sarah original too! And it's of me." Which was weird because it's not hanging in her house anywhere. I know as I've house sat for a month the past two summers. I'd assumed that she had chucked it since she always puts her art that she likes on her walls. I suppose she still does have it and I guess if it's not tucked in somewhere like a book or folder or in a stack of things then it's hanging up at her office. Huh. Interesting information to receive. So, moving along. Here they are, my girls in their pretty little frames (with gold hooks and not silver too - that's all the art associations doing, the hook bits) and right where most people will enter because most will use the elevator. That's pretty cool, ya know. The Sister was super excited because Miao is one of my better one's but I gifted her to The Sister last year, however we both agreed she should be in the show (as not for sale though). I don't know if people love their own art. Like love their own art. 95% of my creations that are humanoid (I do landscapes and creatures and nature too), well... I absolutely love them. I feel like Beatrix Potter. These are my girls, they're real in their own ways, even though they are two dimensional. They have personalities, honestly, they do leap off the page at you as if there really is more to them than mere ink and colour. Almost like there's a soul there for lack of a better term. It may have been my art show last night (not solely, but I mean not The Sisters art show, because it wasn't her art in a show), but my girls were really the shining stars... not me. Does that make sense? Like they had to look good in the proper frames and float matting, not because it would make me look good, but because it would make them look good. These beautiful and adorable girls that I have created in ink and colour. Perhaps it does not make sense, but it does to me. It's like they are kittens. I have created them (kittens that were born at our house, and well, I was the human mom because I allowed the mom's to have kittens and the entire family was my responsibility - get it?) and they're not meant for everyone. I safeguard them and won't let you talk shit about them (not because you're saying I'm rubbish as an artist, but because you'd be insulting the girls that they are). I've given them away for free because that's the home for them, their forever home, where the person obtaining that illustration is meant to have them. With the kittens at our house, I was in charge of yaying or naying the people that came for kittens. I was the last and definitive word because I knew which people would treat the kittens well and I knew which people would end up killing, abusing, neglecting, or abandoning the kitten. So, yes, I want my art to sell, but it's more important to me that these girls (all of them, not just The Girls Around the World series) go to the right and proper homes. So, I love that I was selected to be in an art show and I'm proud of myself, but I'm more proud of my girls shining out on their little wall. Does this mean that they were the highlight of the art show? No, they weren't. Most people ignored them completely or did a half-assed glance. There were slews of sold stickers on peoples art before the afternoon was over and none on mine. But they were there for the people that did take time to look and read about them and learn about the cultures from where they come. They shined out in their own ways, for the reasons they were meant to, even if I don't fully understand the reasons or the where-fors of which people cared and which people didn't. Also... I do kind of miss them, if I'm being honest. They're over there at what was the old library until the 29th of November. They're lonely and I kind of miss them. If they're meant to go to good homes then that'll happen and I'll be glad. But if they're all meant to come home with me (or those three that are for sale) then I'll be glad too. Like I imagine Beatrix Potter would have done, I'll clutch them to me and whisper, "I missed y'all." and they'll smile because they'll know and they'll have missed me as well. So my family had to have a million photos and I'm weird with taking photo's. I generally call it resting bitch face because I think I'm smiling or look nice and well... I'm not (go back to that very first picture of me). Then I'm beyond the photo taking and I'm metaphorically tugging my earlobe like Nathalie Portman's character in Garden State when she's had enough. The last one's funny because it seems like I'm giving a very animated discussion on my artwork. I was not. I didn't talk to anyone about my art really and this was just me being antsy to stop being their posing monkey for the perfect shot. The Sister kept telling me to take better photo's, to smile, or to be pretty. It's not offensive to me, I just don't like it. So, pretty much if you tell me to be a certain way and I'm done taking pictures I'll make goofy faces. Partly because it's the opposite of what you want and partly because well, now picture taking is now slightly more fun. I told y'all (in some previous post) that I had teeth that could core an apple through a fence! I like them, but yeah, these are not straight teeth at all. Incidentally now that I'm thinking on it, I've had quite a few very strange people compliment me on my teeth. As in, "OMG I LOVE YOUR TEETH!!!" Which is followed by the reason why they think my teeth are cool, "YOU LOOK LIKE A VAMPIRE!!!" Ummm... OK... It's just because those two teeth are pushed back so that my canines look really prominent, but really? They're totally awesome because you, too, wish you had vampiric teeth? Hmm... I'm not sure if we can keep conversing, because honestly where do you move on from there when you just don't feel the same hyperactivity for orthodontic oddities? hahah Also that second picture The Sister just kept saying, "Your forehead is SO large!" Yes, yes it is. I like that I have a large forehead. I like my weird and prominent eyebrows too, or my slight widows peak. (which is not that visible in the one picture where one might be able to see it). I don't think I'm beautiful or gorgeous, but I'm cool with the way I look and I like my random quirks and pretty much that's good enough, right? I like me. There was a lot of art by twelve other artists (not even including the high school submissions in the mezzanine upstairs). These are the pieces that I loved.
So, Cara Larsen had three pieces in the show and they shared the elevator wall with me (one of them can barely be seen in the photo with the three girls and my dad). I loved all of her pieces, but If Only We Could Swim Backwards was my absolute favourite. Incidentally, she looked at my art three times (that I know of), and generally just Datoga and possibly Kayan. The next two (upper right and lower left) were by artist Keandra Johnson, who incidentally is the girl in green standing beside me in the recognition line-up & she really looked at my art as well). The first piece is In A World of Greys (& if I'd had money I would have purchased it and the one by Larsen.) & the next is "Hur" Dynamics. I just loved the volume of the piece as a whole. The girl is sitting before the universe and her hair is the Earth with the words stating "Her hair is her World Don't Dare Touch". The last one I liked the colours, the flow, the geometry, and how small it was. It sold really quickly too. Bermuda Triangle by Freda Clark. My mobile is rubbish with videos so I don't bother with them, but they had the local high school orchestra play at the beginning of the afternoon. I was impressed because my school never had an orchestra and I didn't know that Hattiesburg High had one. They were really phenomenal too. I did recognize all of the pieces even if I couldn't name them. However, The Sister and I were on the mezzanine level and they started a new piece and we were like, "We know this. This is in a sci-fi-ish film... oh what is it?!" It was bothering us because we knew it but just couldn't place it until suddenly I was like, "Jurassic Park!" Yes, the Hattiesburg High School orchestra played the theme to Jurassic Park at my first and possibly only art show. That's pretty awesome. The other was a guy, Carlos Varela, who was one of the artists. Not all the pieces were hanging (as some were pottery) and his was live performance art. He played an original piece on the piano and it was really good. I know, I took piano for twelve years. I can't read music and it's a surprise I stayed in so long or even placed in competitions, but yes, I know what good is (only with that instrument, though I'm enamoured by other instruments and think its impressive that people can play, like, the violin for instance, but the piano I know) pertaining to this. So, that about wraps that up. I liked that it was really cold that day (it's disappointing to me when it's hot and muggy out). People, though they perhaps were few, really appreciated my girls. My family was there. The Sister took me out to celebrate afterwards. The Jurassic Park theme was played on orchestra. There was a holiday party later that evening which was nice. It was nice to learn that Datoga is spot on. Overall it was a nice day and I'm grateful to have that life experience under my belt so to speak.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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