Fresh Arts Inc. celebrated the opening of its 19th show, Alchemy, on Sunday at Jayes Gallery in Molong. Twelve of the 15 artists in the show were there to bask in the glory of being in the public spotlight…an uncomfortable experience at best. Given it is a an “out-of-town” show for us, it was a good turn out of about 50 people. The kind words were said by curator of the show, Joy Engelman, and introductions made by Freshie and exhibiting artist, Lara Scolari. But the worst of it was listening to the glowing comments about the “bat” – my digital photographic print on acrylic titled Vespertilian. Plagued by production problems and blighted on its journey to the gallery I’ve had dreams every night leading up the opening that it had fallen off the wall – which makes it so hard to smile politely and say a simple “thank you” in response to kind comments about it. The nail in its coffin was seeing a reproduction of the bat in Art Guide Australia’s May/June 2011 issue where the title was spelt incorrectly. As one fellow artist commented, it’s a strong, iconic image that works well on the surface. Just don’t delve too deep or you will indeed open a can of worms!
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