Social media is an important part of most artists lives these days. It's a way of showing what we do to friends and family, and promoting it to potential buyers. Yet social media also offers us a poisonous world, and one that was beginning to effect what I do. When I post it's very hard to avoid the 'reels' of celebrities talking nonsense, or other people selling vacuous lifestyles. Before I can scroll past their subtitles are upon me and into my head. Then there are the ads, and mean spirited, thoughtless posts that crop up without much warning. I have many decent, thoughtful 'friends', who post great work, yet it's invariably sandwiched between a variety of soul pollutants. As is my work. So I've decided to pull away from social media and instead just put my work out via this website and in person events (as for staying in touch with online friends, I'll make a blog post soon about how I'm doing that free of social media). The first of these events was held in my back yard, and this blog post shows a few photos I took on the night, and a very short film tour of the exhibit. There'll be more of these events, if you'd like to come, you are welcome. And if you'd like to see more of my work as I produce it, please get in touch with your email address and I'll be in touch when I put new work online here (I aim to update once every month or 2). My email address is drwise100@gmail.com
I consider food as part of my creative work. I'm constantly experimenting in the kitchen. I also understand that many people don't have much idea of vegan food so a center point of the exhibit were a few dishes I've refined recently. It gave me a chance to present them to the world, and for guests to try plant based eating free of charge. The free of charge aspect is important to me. Nothing at the exhibit was for sale. I made that clear. I'm as in need of money as most - I don't draw state benefits at all, I'm out of work, and I'm not selling much art at all recently - but it's important to offer people a mental respite from the constant bombardment of the world trying to get them to buy things. Many folks have it tough these days so this was my way of saying put your wallet away, nothing is for sale tonight, relax and forget about all the hustle for a few hours. Try some new styles of food, ask me questions about it if you like.
Plus, I really enjoy making food for others. This table load took me most of the morning to create and consisted of avocado sushi, leek and tofu flan, banana, corn and jalapeno bread, citrus slaw, Italian guacamole, and no-tuna salad.
Here are some photos of the exhibit, and at the bottom is the short film. You'll notice that the paintings and photos are all hung at different levels, not straight at all. That was on purpose. I have a spirit level but I didn't want to use it. I wanted to work with the space, collaborate with it, see what it needed, and present a visual example of relinquishing a certain amount of control and getting more in step with nature. I also wanted to say to guests, you can relax here, this isn't a stuffy gallery where everything is dead straight and fussy. The pictures are only resting on hooks, you can see them moving in the breeze, take them down if you want, have a closer look, put them back however you like. Interact with it. Become part of it.
This corner by the willow was my favourite. It emphasized a collaboration with nature
Painting on bark and reclaimed card, inspired by cave art
Me explaining to a guest that this beer was from a farmer's market in the Adirondacks, where the top row of paintings were created. We could canoe from our cottage to the farmers market.
One of my pinhole cameras
Paintings, Pinholes, and Leporetto Albums
Another one of my pinhole cameras, and images it has produced
Thanks for reading and watching. Your comments or emails are always welcome.
