In late March, I was approached by Julie Spalla and David Lookingbill, who had seen my work last year at Charlotte's Art and Soul of South End festival, to be one of the initial group of artists in their brand new gallery called The (R)evolving Arts Gallery in Hendersonville, NC. I was very flattered, and over the course of the following month, learned a great deal about Julie and David, their mission, and their vision of the diverse gallery they want to create.
One of my long-range goals for my work is to have it displayed and sold in a gallery, and I've talked about ways to go about making that happen, especially with my Art Salon group. I've had several less than satisfactory experiences with galleries, and have been hesitant to approach others, instead I've been selling my work at shows. But, I've had the gallery goal in the back of my mind for years. In fact, during one of our recent meetings, we made 'vision boards,' and mine included the phrase, cut out of a magazine: "Something Amazing is Coming" and a photograph of people in an art gallery. Okay, maybe it was going to happen anyway, but I'm now a vision board convert: we did the boards at our March Art Salon meeting, and at the end of the month, Julie called me! The most gratifying thing for me is that she had kept my business card for over a year, and called me based upon what she'd seen at the Charlotte show. We clicked immediately during our initial 90-minute phone conversation where she described her vision for the Gallery, the historic building she and David have renovated, and her philosophy about how art should be displayed and sold.
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Three weeks ago, Stan and I made the 4-hour drive to Hendersonville. We took in 22 pieces and 18 of them were selected to be my first work in the (R)evolving Arts Gallery, including bamboo wall hangings, clocks and Ancestress shadow boxes. The snapshot at left shows two of my bamboo wall hangings hung on one of the small walls of the gallery. I should say that I was wowed by the space; it's huge, open, and airy, with reclaimed original wood floors, walls painted a lovely shade of gray which will be a wonderful backdrop for the art, and soaring ceilings. The front windows let in a great deal of light, and the location is in the heart of the downtown Hendersonville Art Walk. I have very high hopes for this venture, and we will be attending the official grand opening, which will be on August 7th (better photos to come after that!). Another great thing was to be able to recommend the work of Gaff Pearce to Julie and David. Now his beautiful pottery will be part of the initial group of Gallery artists too! I'm excited by the prospect of being in a "real" art gallery, and to participating in another of Julie and David's missions: donating a portion of my proceeds from my sales to a non-profit organization of my choice. I chose Camfed, the organization which promotes the education of girls and the empowerment of women in Africa. I first blogged about Camfed in 2007, here.
The website for The (R)evolving Arts Gallery is not live yet, but when it is, I will post the link. I'll also post any advertising which includes my work; we sent Julie a CD for this purpose, and I hope there'll be something to show, soon!
