Thesis + Exhibit = Running on Empty

This past week has been a complete whirlwind. Last thursday I spent the afternoon-early evening cutting the windows for all my mats. I ran a fee tests in scrap board before starting on mine. I made a few mistakes on the first few, but quickly got the hang of it and sliced through the rest (haha). It felt really good to cut my own mats. My professor had warned me against doing my own because of the stress it could cause, especially as I was nearing my exhibit. But since I'd finished my printing I decided I had enough time to not stress and would do it myself. Thurs night I continued to work on my thesis.

Friday I worked and took off a couple hours early to work on my thesis. I'd made a lot of progress, but also had a ways to go so a couple extra hours was great. I took a short nap when I got home and then set up Jeff's computer with our tv so I could have multiple docs open at once on a larger screen and be more efficient. It was great. I put in a solid 8+ hrs of work.

Saturday, I got up early and put in some time on my thesis before our landlord arrived to renew our lease. Then it was off to Reno. I spent the day assembling my prints and mats into frames. Framing took all day. It's a much longer process than sticking the print into the frame. You have to align the print in the matte window and adhere it to the backing. Then, carefully, I cleaned both sides of each sheet of plexiglass, and then put the plexi-mat-print-backing sandwich into the frame. It took forever because dust LOVES plexi and so no matter how well I cleaned it - more dust always appeared. Plus I had 12 frames and although I got
into a routine, it didn't speed up the process. I had forgotten about tieing the hanging wire to the frames and so that was an entire additional process after the prints were framed. Saturday night I spent more time reading and editing my thesis.

Jeff and I went to church and then I dropped him at home and I headed back up to Reno to install my exhibit. Everythingalways takes longer than expected and despite this understanding I was still frustrated at how much time it took. After I laid out the order of my images I got advice from photog friends on the hanging height- distance and starting blocking out and marking my installation. Unfortunately, during this process I discovered scuff marks all over the split wall of my exhibit. It is gallery practice and courtesy to patch and repaint the wall when you take down your work. The artist before me had done this, but since they were only on the long wall, they only redid the long wall. There had been a student group show the week before and so they must not have painted. I figured I'd paint over just the scuffs and did a small test patch to ensure it was the right paint... But it wasn't. And the second can wasn't either. I decided to stop wasting my time and took my friend's suggestion to sand the scuffs instead. After my images were hung I moved on to my lights. With ducktape and zipties I secured 7 clamp lights to the old track and positioned them to light each print. I forgot to purchase extention cords and didn't know the gallery had extras, so I left them to finish on monday. Sunday night I read through more of my thesis.

Monday I was up bright and early and was able to finish my thesis. I printed it and headed to school. Of course I forgot to turn it in (must have been due to a lack of sleep).

Monday and Tuesday I finished the final details of my exhibit and Thursday I hung a shelf and some artist cards.

Thursday's opening was really fun. Tons of people came - lots of pepole I invited (thank you thank you for coming!!) and lots of people my fellow artists had invited.

I've been running on no-to-little sleep, finally catching up with me. Tonight I went to bunko - and offered to give my friend Joleen a ride home when her sister-in-law needed to take her car home early. I didn't realize until we were getting ready to leave that I hadn't even driven to Bunko! I'd caught a ride from Ariel! (Major oops - but we were still able to give Joleen a ride to her car) It was a clear indicator that I need to get some sleep.

So I'm really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow! It will be the first time in months I'll get to sleep past 7 or 8am.

;]