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The 23rd June, a Wednesday, is the official non-opening of my exhibition.
Last year I signed on with a Melbourne art gallery, Dickerson Gallery. They offered me a solo show which was to open on the 23 June and go until the 10 July 2010.
The title of my exhibition was/is Locutions.
I have spent the last year working towards this show.
In April I was rung by the gallery and was told that the gallery would be closing in a couple of weeks, and that my show would not be going ahead and that I could come and collect the work that I had in the gallery.
I have been shocked at how very upset I have been about this.
I can let go about not being represented by that gallery.
The upsetting thing for me was that the day that I was rung by the gallery I stopped working on my art work. My Locutions exhibition. A body of work I have been researching and developing for two years.
I had decided to devote as much time as I could in the last couple of months to making the work and had not looked for paid work aside from my own business, so that I could devote myself to realizing my work. And then it all stopped. And I started questioning myself and what I was doing. Really questioned if it was worth pursuing this creative life. Questioning the choices that I had made the last 20 years that have led me to where I am now. and wondering if it was worth it.
The people in my life that I love helped me through this. My parents and sisters showed me how much they support me and what I do, they did this by just being there and simply saying that I should continue on with my work. Anna, Jacqui, Gemma, Robyn, Michael, Stacey, Belinda, Polly, Ramona,Vikki, Ange, among others, also encouraged me to keep going.
And then I started to miss my work, my Locutions.
So 2 months later I am back working on it. And have found a new home for it.
This body of work will be exhibited next year in September, a long way a way, but I can exhibit it in its entirety and that was most important to me. I have also lined up a solo exhibition of my jewellery which will be exhibited in November this year. Vikki Kassioras and I are collaborating on an exhibition as part of the fashion festival in September this year. I suppose that I decided to write about this here because a number of people have been asking about my exhibition in June and until now I had felt embarrassed talking about it, and found it hard saying that it was not going ahead.
And so my creative life continues. So the moral of this story is that there is no moral, only that life goes on and that this life I have is a beautiful life, and most days start with a walk at the creek
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