On and Off the Page begins at Exeter Academy

Tomorrow, September 9th, On and Off the Page begins at Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy. ALL of my calendars, THE calendars, including this current year, will be on display.

That’s NINETEEN.

Yes, I have managed to pretty much maintain this daily documentation of my life for nineteen years. It’s hard to describe my feelings when I left them on August 16th. Don’t know this part of my artistic practice? Go HERE.

• Nervousness: were they going to be okay without me.
• Trust: were they going to be okay without me.
• Fear: were they going to be okay without me.

Really, was I/am I okay without them. (Can you imagine how I would be if I had children? Seriously, these are only pieces of paper, right?) While they are away, I am continuing the practice of creating an entry for the previous day in the morning while I drink my coffee. I am using a Moleskin sketchbook and when I go to Exeter for the opening on September 20th, I will arrive the day before so I can enter the past days into the calendar. If you are in the Exeter area the morning of the 20th, come to the gallery to see me update the actual calendar.

From now until the end of the exhibit, I’ll be posting the daily calendar entry to this blog. If you go to the exhibit, there will be a QR code for you to scan to bring you to this blog.

Here are the past 23 days:

In the 23 days since I left them, I have thought of something I wanted to check nearly everyday, for example, what year did I ___________? What was that time of that walk? What weekend were we in New York? That being said, I’m excited to share all of them. And the installation of them might surprise us all. Rumor has it they are going to be hung in the middle of the gallery so you the visitor can walk through them like you are walking through time. I can’t wait to see them.

The opening is Friday, September 20th from 6:30-8 pm. If you find yourself in the Boston/Portsmouth area do come or come Saturday, September 21st for the artist talks at 10 am.

I am honored to be in an exhibit with such incredible artists. They are:

Peter Beaman and Elizabeth Whitely will exhibit Deck of Cards, a collection of 52 cards that visually and texturally describe a spring day in Pittsburgh. (I love this deck and remember seeing it at a Pyramid Atlantic event while in grad school or somewhere along the way and have fantasized about making something like it ever since.

Lesley Dill. I’ve made pilgrimages to see Lesley Dill’s work, gone to conferences because she was the keynote speaker, and look to her as a role-model for artistic practice and being in the world.

Liz Maugans who is Zygotes Press co-founder of an amazing printshop in Cleveland–where I am from originally. I CANNOT wait to meet her. OMG.

Juan Manuel Echavarría, an artist whose work I am learning, and look forward to seeing in person. I am particularly interested in La “O” and Requiem NN. On his website, Requiem NN is displayed as a massive grid–the kind of overall installation that draws me across galleries to examine.

I know my friend Leslie Ferrin would love Maureen Mills ceramic work. Her integration of text onto the three-dimensional form will be a sight to see!

Lisa Occhipinti creates sculptures out of books that mix color, form and texture, but she also makes book portraits by playing with pages, heads and tails of books, foredges in ways that create identities. Like so many book object works, best seeing in person–yet she captures the essence in her photographs, a definite feat!

Nicola Vruwink will not be at the opening, but her work transports me back to my youth and making mixed tapes for friends and family. She uses that tape to construct phrases and text through knitted and crocheted forms.

What a line-up. You know you want to see this show. I don’t know how I am going to make it until September 19th when I get to see it. Maybe I’ll see you there.