One spectacular thing I did in preparation of my very first art reception was to invite four dynamic female artists who had performed on The Austin Writers Roulette to read some of the chapter openings that accompanied my paintings. Fortunately, three out of four came to the actual rehearsal and the fourth rehearsed with me on the phone. As an added bonus, I pointed to the paintings they were emoting since I had not taken them to the gallery yet.
I’d taken the sight of my paintings hanging in my apartment for granted, but once I walked into the Link & Pin Art Gallery, I was nearly driven to tears. To see the paintings professionally hung and lit in such an intimate, yet public space made all the effort worth it.
I previewed them the Sunday before the official reception on Saturday. The 24 chapter openings of my second novel, The Adventures of Infinity & Negativa: An Adult Fairy Tale, unfolded around the room.
As one walks around the room, reading the opening of every chapter in which the title characters feature, one learns of Infinity’s and Negativa’s adventures.
Yet the main story is still to be discovered.
In this spatial context, I saw a new beauty in the paintings and their openings.
In one adventure, Negativa tells Infinity about how candy, AKA “women bait,” are used as symbolic logic. So, Mom and I arrived hours before the reception to set up the candy display.
Despite the labeling, this was the biggest crowd pleaser. I don’t truly believe most people were into S and M. This was the “good” candy. Even men, who didn’t bother to read the labels past the bold print, made a beeline to the pricey stuff.
The most enthusiastic eater of these non-chocolates mixed a small cup of blueberries with Reese’s Pieces and made his own candy-fruit mix.
Honestly, I was impressed how many people gravitated to Twix. Again, I’m sure it wasn’t the labeling.
If the popularity of Twix impressed me, I was flat out flabbergasted how the Almond Joy goblet stood empty at the end of the night.
Poor Hershey Kisses, which I thought would be the bell of the ball, stood the most full by the end of the night. Not so much for the labeling, but compared to the other chocolate-rich candy, was demoted to ugly stepsister status.
Only the second non-chocolate choice, these little dandies were popular among peanut lovers. As a matter of fact, when an Australian visitor looked at all the choices, she chose a Payday since she’d never tasted one before. Then, she took a second one, remarking she had to branch out and try more American candy.
As much as people giggled about its labeling, KitKats were the second least favorite chocolate choice.
By contrast, Special Dark were the second most chosen chocolate. People were somewhat familiar with it, but it still stood in the shadow of Dark Chocolate with Chili.
Although the actual candy received a mediocre reception, its painting depiction, a mostly nude, buff medium-brown hunk, was nearly everyone’s favorite for painting #17.
Logically enough, the candy display stood underneath its motivational painting, along with the “key” of what each candy symbolized in the book.
As a wonderful surprise, Link and Pin Art Gallery owner, Debra Watkins, arranged a blueberry, cheese, cracker and muffin display underneath its motivational painting, where Infinity tells Negativa of her favorite blueberry pancake recipe, using ingredient ratios.
I even loved the sign Debra placed between the painting and the display. I zeroed in on the fresh blueberries and the blueberry-laden cheese. As big of a cheese fan as I am, I’ve never had it with embedded blueberries. I put a chunk in a cup with a cracker for Mom.
For a rare moment, I thought like an entrepreneur and brought a few of my first novels to be sold at the reception.
All the dramatic readers who I’d rehearsed with two weeks before the reception showed up at least an hour ahead of time–my usual call time for performers.
Here’s just one example of how effective the “women-bait” display was. To be fair, men hovered around this table just as much as women did!
The evening was filled with a lot of my fellow artists and a remarkable showing from my fellow yogis, who I practice with four times a week.
Before the dramatic readings began, I brought a chair in the center of the room so the woman of the evening, my mother, who sported my tiara in honor of her birthday, and let the crowd know I chose my mother’s 76th birthday to have my reception. The very reason I’d chosen that date was to lure her and my father to visit me since the excuse was always, “But, Teresa, you’re the only one in Texas. It’s easier for you to come to us.” Unfortunately, at the last minute, my father wasn’t cleared by his doctor to fly.
For the dramatic reading of Chapter One from the Adventures of Infinity & Negativa, Donna Dechen Birdwell (in black) read the part of the Narrator, Mackenzie Irick (in yellow) read the part of Negativa and Udelle Robinson (in purple) read the part of Infinity.
For Chapter Sixteen, Stephanie Webb read the part of Infinity.
Although we’d rehearsed reading the parts, the artists couldn’t help but add some acting and blocking. I’m actually happy they got into the reading.
After all, the audience could read the words for themselves.
They brought the colorful energy from the paintings and the power of the words together in their performance.
Afterwards, this concluded my first production inside my first art reception. What made this experience even more significant, this was my Mother’s first art reception. What a way to spend a birthday.
Here’s the results of my unofficial candy survey. Can’t really tell anything about women’s relationship choices, but the crowd loved the pricey candy and barely touched the most popularly known candy.