Exhibitions – Page 4 – Deidre Adams

Sometimes things have a way of falling into place

Image: Informal Analogy, 48 x 48 inches, acrylic and mixed media on panel, ©Deidre Adams

It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post, I’ve almost forgotten how to do it. With all the other things we as artists must do to keep our work in front of people, like posting on Facebook and sending newsletters, and so on and so forth, it sort of feels to me like everyone already knows what’s going on in my world, and I don’t want to make it all about ME, ME, ME all the time! But if ever there was a good reason to do a blog post, I have one at this very moment, and it is: Hey, everybody, I have a gallery now! And a two-person show with artist Kim Gentile, opening on April 3.

After a long and rather less than optimal experience in this realm, the details with which I shall not bore you, the reversal in my fortunes was unexpected and swift. If you would like to know how I accomplished this, I would have to say I’m certainly no expert. The ways and motivations of gallery owners are variable and mysterious. But I will say this: Having a good inventory of finished work ready to go is unquestionably a strong factor in one’s favor. Having a complete physical portfolio with images, bio, resumé, and price list ready to go at a moment’s notice is also critical. The time between when I had the first phone conversation to the actual time of the meeting would not have been long enough to pull all of this together. It also helped that I had visited this gallery many times and had a friendly relationship with the curators, so asking them if they would take a look at my work wasn’t nearly as daunting a prospect as a total cold call would have been.

So yay, that’s it, then. I hope all of my Denver-area friends can make it to the exhibition. Details:

What Lies Beneath
Deidre Adams & Kim Gentile

April 3-25, 2015
Artist reception April 3, 6-9 pm

Point Gallery
765 Santa Fe Dr.
Denver, Colorado

A few other things did happen between last September and now: A book cover, art going to the U.S. Embassy in Albania, a show or two, and other good stuff.

My studio newsletter has all the details. If you’d like to sign up for future editions (they aren’t terribly frequent, so no worries of me overloading your inbox), there’s a form at the right.

March 21st, 2015|Exhibitions|6 Comments

Tracings series exhibition at Visions Art Museum

Visions Art Museum

2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92106

Opening reception: Sat. Aug. 9 :: 5-7 pm
Exhibition continues through Sept. 21, 2014

Tracings is a solo invitational exhibition of my recent work in the Tracings series. I use fabric, found papers, paint, and stitch to explore the traces of our presence left behind as we navigate the various systems of knowledge developed in our attempts to understand the world we live in.

See images of the work here
Read about my process here

If you’re in the San Diego area, I hope you can join me for the opening reception on Aug. 9, 5-7 pm.

This exhibition runs concurrently with:

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: 30 Quilts for 30 Years
A solo exhibition created by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry celebrating her 30 years of quilt-making.

and

Hanging Garden of California – Arline Fisch
An installation of brightly colored floating wire forms and jewelry from the artist’s collection.

August 5th, 2014|Exhibitions|Comments Off

New work – Tracings series

Tracings No. VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XI. Each 60 x 22 inches. ©2014
Stitched textile, acrylic paint, found papers.

So, I am still alive, and I am still making art, for anyone who might still be reading my blog after all this time. Among many things going on in both life in general and in the studio in particular, I finally have some new finished work to talk about.

About a year ago, I was invited to have a small solo exhibition at Visions Art Museum in San Diego. Naturally I was honored and excited, especially since there would be lots of time to make some new work for this show. But as usual, things got very busy, and August 2014 seemed like such a long way off and all, so…

Fast forward to mid June, and there is a voice mail from the gallery wanting to know more details about what I would be submitting. Still thinking I’m totally OK with the time frame, I call them and tell them what I’m planning. Six narrow vertical pieces to fit the designated space. Then, I find out they need photos of the finished work by July 15 to put into a brochure they’re going to print. Gulp! I had some other deadlines I was working under, and this was going to be a huge challenge. This was probably the one time in my life where I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to make a deadline. It was a terrible feeling. They would cancel my show and it would be the end of my art career.

The next few weeks were a roller coaster of emotion – on the one hand, total happiness and well-being during the process of making. On the other hand, fear and despair over how things were coming out. I should not be surprised at this by now; it’s as familiar as an old friend – the feeling midway through that what I’m making is utter crap and I suck, etc. Which is always followed by the “hey, maybe this isn’t SO bad…” leading to “OK, now I think I kind of like this…” as I keep working on it. The key is to keep going, no matter what. Work it through.

Here we see the total crap phase:

For whatever reason, it doesn’t look nearly as bad in the photo as it did up close and personal. And increasing the feelings of self doubt was the fact that I’d decided to do something I hadn’t tried before, which is a melding of two techniques that I’ve worked with independently in the past (process details here and here). I had NO idea if I was going to be able to make this work, which now that I think of it, was a really stupid idea.

Long story short, I did get the work done, and in the shortest amount of time it’s ever taken me to do one piece, let alone six. And that includes having my sewing machine break down and buying a new one (more on that later) plus hand-stitching all the faced bindings and sleeves. Perhaps I work best under pressure, but hey, let’s give ourselves a little more breathing room next time, OK?

The challenge was to make the paper areas blend with the backgrounds and not just look plopped on. You can let me know if you think I was successful or not.

Tracings No. VI, detail

Tracings No. VII, detail

Tracings No. IX, detail

And finally, the biggest challenge: Writing an artist’s statement. There are a lot of things that go through my mind as I’m working, and I have trouble distilling all of this into something that makes sense and also relates when viewed along with the work at hand. In many ways, my work is about everything and nothing simultaneously. Here’s what I came up with:

What does it mean to be human? Are we here as part of some grand design, put here on Earth by a benevolent creator? Or are we just the result of a random series of events involving tiny particles of space dust and electricity?

As human beings have evolved, we have developed various systems to help us make sense of our world. Language, mathematics, science, physics, artwork, music, philosophy, religion and more help us to understand, record, and communicate the lived experience of being human. And as we go through our lives, we feel compelled to leave traces of our existence, from the simplest hand-drawn markings on wood or stone to the most complex technological creations. We want someone else to know, “I was here.”

July 25th, 2014|Art, Exhibitions|22 Comments