my show

my show, originally uploaded by robayre.

On Saturday my art show was installed. Thanks a million to my sister and Matt for helping. I was able to do it with minimal meltdown-age. In fact, I’d say the only time where I was near meltdown was when my sister and I were working on my frames. I found this great link to making beautiful/quick/easy wooden frames for canvases. We modified the wood to fit my needs and in the first step of the process you need to glue two pieces of wood together. The glue was not setting (IMMEDIATELY) and I had only a few c-clamps. Right then, I wanted to throw the towel in. Screw the frames, I didn’t even want to do the whole show. My sister calmed me down and the glue started setting a few minutes later. After that I was pretty good, even when assembling the frames turned out to be a flop and I decided to just scrap the frame idea all together.

So the show is up and I’m proud to say it looks good. Not everything went as planned: I didn’t design and send out invitation postcards, the pieces aren’t framed and my original vision for the show was comprised entirely of mailart. As I usually work, I get distracted easily, and next thing I knew I had to include this kind of piece, and then that kind of piece. I am glad that I will be able to include a small handful of pieces of mailart though, so that makes me happy.

The show is titled “i couldn’t be more me” and it came from a conversation with Erin, who is having a solo show concurrently with mine. We both struggle with recognizing our own talents and seeing a style uniquely our own run throughout our work. As we progressed towards our shows we saw more and more that when our individual works are grouped together it really can be recognized as a cohesive work by one artist. When I was younger and in college I really struggled with the idea that I felt my work didn’t have a style. I realized that just by nature of who I am, what I am inspired by, and what I create, that no matter the medium, or type of artwork, as long as I made it, it will be very “Robyn”. That, even if I tried to be more “Robyn” it wouldn’t be possible. Hence the name, “i coldn’t be more me”. Later, not knowing the meaning behind the title, Matt remarked to me that it was so interesting that even though some of my work differed in type and medium that it was still very recognizable as my work.

The opening reception for the show is this Sunday at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center from 2-4 p.m., and will be up for the month of December.