Three quick impressions from tonight's opening at Plenum Space Gallery

1. Doing poetry along with the paintings was a lot of fun, but a little disconcerting because I was working from memory and didn't want to fluff the words. It all seemed to go well, although I'm sure some people were a little baffled to walk into a gallery and hear someone spouting verse.

2. I forgot my artist's statement, which was both a blessing and a curse. The latter: I missed a chance to explain the show in a way people could read on their way into the gallery and come back to as they viewed the pieces. The former: I enjoyed visiting with and explaining the concept (color / shape / symbol / communication) to people.

3. It seemed to be an all-or-nothing proposition as to whether people were willing to come in and engage with the works. Either they came halfway up the stairs, saw blocks of color and turned right back around, or they came in, looked at pieces and started talking about the titles and/or colors (which gave me an opening to interject myself and explain the show). There wasn't much middle ground. It might sound strange, but that's not a bad thing. I'd rather have an honest "not my thing" than the kiss-of-death "I don't have anything to say, so I'll just say 'This is nice.'"

Images soon, I hope. I have to get the right cable/adapter/reader to hook up the camera and the computer.

Thanks to all who came out and sent well wishes. The show's viewable for the next three weeks, by appointment. Email plenumpacekc@gmail.com to set something up, if  you'd like to see it.

Four Series, One Closing

"This is Love II"

Time's flying.

This coming Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m., I'll have the closing reception for ONE7one and The Nighthawks Show, at VALA Gallery in Mission.

(That's 5815A Johnson Drive, for those of you keeping score at home.)

It's going to be kind of strange, taking the One Tube Project pieces out of show rotation for the foreseeable future after this show. Then again, how can anyone miss them if they don't go away?

I'm having fun with the One Tool Project, though (or will be again, once I get everything done for the Wordless series show in May (more on that later).

What's really going to be difficult is taking down the Nighthawks photos. Having them up on the walls, in the space that used to be Nighthawks Coffeehouse, brought back so many good memories.

I love VALA. I loved Nighthawks, too. It's not mutually exclusive.

Okay, enough looking back. I'm looking forward to Saturday, seeing friends and ending on the proverbial high note. Hope to see you there.

Misty Clarity

This gray wrinkly thing inside my skull is constantly firing off thoughts. Nice for creativity, not so great for focus. Hard to be in a moment when there are so many moments going on, if that makes sense.

The strange thing is, low light has a way of bringing me into the present. Perhaps it's because there's less information (see also: potential distraction) coming in through the optics.

So, night walks help ... especially if it's a bit misty out, as was the case last night on the way home from Poetry Speakeasy at VALA Gallery.

I didn't have my mp3 player with me, so I could hear far-off sounds ... and somewhere along the way, this popped up:

walking home alone;
   a train's horn sounds 
   through the mist

I can't judge the worth of the piece yet; too fresh. But it's nice to have those small moments of clarity.

Welcome

I've been putting it off long enough, but it's time all the creative endeavors (writing, painting and photography) had a shared home of their own.

I'll be updating with show dates, works in progress, random musings ... no real plan beyond whatever happens to be going on at the time.

Feel free to drop in, leave comments, etc.

-SB