One crazy month

Picture of framed pieces for "New Faces" at Recoat Gallery. Taken right before packing up and shipping out.

It's been a pretty crazy month so far. Next month will have a lot of stuff happening too. Three shows opened this month for me (Recoat Gallery's "New Faces", Tribute Gallery's "Play For Keeps" and the annual art benefit "Postcards From the Edge"). I also completed and sent out work for two shows (WWA Gallery's "The Devil Made Me Do It" and Launch Pad Gallery's "LOVE" show - both of which will be opening middle of next month). I just finished my piece for "The Portland Project" on Society6.com and uploaded it today. They are going to be printing the prints and having a show of them in Portland in March. Also sold one drawing to a friend, did 3 zine submissions, an interview and finally got postcards made.

I had some snags in sending my work to Scotland for the "New Faces" show at Recoat Gallery, which presented a somewhat stressful situation, although it ended up okay. I had to order frames for the work online because 1.) I wanted a discount price to save money. and 2.) I wanted to get frames that did not have glass fronts in them to reduce the risk of damage on the way to the show. I had previously had problems with broken glass with a show I did in San Francisco this past summer where one work got damaged, and I didn't want this repeated. So I ordered the frames, but should have left more time for this as it took a little longer for them to deliver than I expected. The day I got the frames I packaged up all the artwork immediately and sent it off the next day. There were 2 boxes (one of 3 large works and one of 5 small works). The price of shipping was astounding to me. I could do 2-4 day delivery, which would have gotten it there in plenty of time, but the cost was TWICE as much as the 6-10 day. 6-10 would get it there just in time for the day they wanted to hang it, and as that was more affordable (yet still expensive) I opted for the 6-10. Only problem with this was there was no tracking option for the 6-10. If I wanted tracking I had to do the 2-4 day massively expensive option. Well, the 15th passed, the day I had wanted the work to be there, and still nothing. The 20th came and I finally heard that ONE box had arrived. The gallery said it had been held in customs and they had to pay to receive it. No sign of the other box. Keep in mind the show is set to open in 2 days. The next day nothing arrives. Finally, the day of the show, the gallery gets word that the other box just arrived at the post office, where they rush to get it. The work goes up on the walls hours before the reception, and the rest is history. During the whole thing, I kept going back and forth at feeling angry at UPS, customs, and myself, not really knowing who to place blame on, but it all worked out in the end, so I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm really learning some lessons from these types of things though.

When I come across some pictures from the opening, I'll post them on here.