The Installation
I found out that I had four days to install my show between Monday Oct. 28-Thursday Oct. 31. I was working on the show for at least 3 months prior to the installation. I had been working on paintings and sculptures in my studio at home. I decided to work at home in my studio on Oct. 28 to finish things up. Later I would wish I had this extra day. I thought that it would take me only one day to do the installation of the show...well I was wrong...
I tried the beginnings of the spiral in my living room:
I arrived at the Gallery on the morning on Tuesday Oct. 29. I spent a good bit of time thinking about how to arrange the gallery for the show. Lynette the gallery director would be a great help with this. Although we would use most my original ideas she helped me with some of the placements, particularly with the paintings.
Here is what the room looked like then I arrived:
The first thing I would do would be to find a sweeper and sweep the
floor before I began working on the big spiral installation in the
middle of the room:
I worked some on the big spiral on the first day and this is what it looked like when I left on the first day:
I would later take away the white balls on the outside and on Wed. when I arrived at the gallery I took a lot of time trying to get it to look like a spiral instead of circles. The spiral would take shape later
On Wed. Oct. 30 I would get the most work done. I spent the morning working on the installation at the beginning of the show with the red shoes. I had done the sculptures previously in the months leading up to the show, now I had to place them into the installation. I had been collecting shoes and decided that red and white shoes would be the best.
When I arrived at the gallery there was already a platform in place form a previous show, so I decided to use it. I had planned to put the installation on the floor, but this would work well to separate this installation from the rest of the gallery. I wasn't sure what to use to cover the platform, but decided on plain brown paper, which worked well. Then I placed the sculptures on the platform and arranged the rest of the things around them.
The next thing would be to place my paintings. With Lynette's help I think the placement worked out well.
I would spend the rest of the day working on the big spiral in the middle of the room. I remember that Lynette left about 4:00 and this is when I really dug into my work on the spiral. I heard the people in the office leave at 5:00 and as things got quite in the gallery I just worked on the spiral all evening. I took no breaks, not even to go to the bathroom and finally finished about 8:30 Wed. evening.
Here is the progression of the spiral over the three days that I worked on it. I did most of the work on Wed. I started it on Tues. and put some finishing touches on it on Thursday and Friday.
Thought of all kinds of things for the center of the spiral and finally came up with this plant. It actually looks a little like the Family Tree painting that I did for the show. I hope people see the nest that I put in the tree. Not sure that they will, but I know that it is there!
This is about where I was at the end of the day on Tuesday.
This is where I ended on Wed. Notice how it has gotten dark and the lights in the gallery are on.
I finished with the last row of black buttons on Thursday afternoon. I suddenly had a thought...I can't just finish with black, representing death. I had to put something in to represent the afterlife. After some thought I had went out on Thursday evening to look for some stars.
This is the final picture on Friday when I added the stars to represent afterlife.
Here are some pictures what I looked like for two days putting the spiral together:
My daughter Lydia helped me put the finishing touches, the stars, on the spiral on Friday.
On Thursday we finished up the Family Portrait House. Thanks to the Lynette, the Gallery Director and her staff it went pretty fast. I had so many ideas about how to do this house. At first I was going to hang clotheslines in the gallery, then I had the idea to use the frame of my art show tent. This worked out well and it looked great! I used the other platform in the gallery as a surface for people to draw more portraits on.
Here I am with the "house."
My daughter Lydia and I with the "house."
Here is my final reflection from the guide for the show:
Spiral of Life
Concourse Gallery Show by Ginny
Baughman
Through this show, I wanted to make
a statement about life and family. These artworks are not specific statements
about me and/or my family, but they have been significantly influenced my life.
The show began with the idea for
the installation in the center of the room. I wanted to make a statement
through the installation about the quickness of life from birth to death. I
knew that this artwork had to be installed on site, but as I thought about doing
the spiral I had other ideas for some paintings and sculptures to accent the
spiral installation. I have been working with this theme of family for awhile
so about half of the pieces are paintings or sculptures that I had made
previously. The second installation on the platform uses my sculptures (both
new and old) to make a statement about how we begin as a family and then go out
on our own. The paintings on the walls are both new and old and deal with
different views of family.
The paintings on the walls reflect
my ideas about family. The family tree series is a statement about three
different types of families and how they influence and are influenced by the
world. The Life Spiral painting shows a different view of the Life Spiral
installation on the platform. The Adam and Eve and Mother earth were both done
previously but I felt that they reflected the theme of the show, so I wanted to
include them, too.
I’m including the Community Family
Reflections House to include the community in my show about family and I’m
inviting the community to make reflections about their family. This family
house is decorated with family drawings that I collected from kids at the Upper
Arlington Arts Fest.
I hope you enjoy and can relate to
my reflections about family. Putting it all together took me longer than I
expected. I’ve been working on the paintings and sculptures since September.
I’ve been thinking about the installations and planning and re-planning them in
my mind since then as well.
I would love to hear your reflections
about the show. You can record them on the colored pages in this book.
Special Thanks
I wanted to include a special
thanks to the Columbus Arts Council for awarding me their Artists in Community
Supply Grant to complete this show. The money was extremely helpful!
I also want to thank my family for
all their support for my artistic pursuits over the years.
