Adoring Husband and I had to arrive at the gallery two hours earlier than originally planned because The Chronicle newspaper journalist wanted to take mine and The Artist's photos at 3.30pm to meet the newspaper deadline of 4pm in order to make the Saturday edition.
That was quite inconvenient because we had to leave my brother and sister at home. It meant two hours of valuable family time taken away from us, and considering that we've only been together as a family twice in seven years, this change in plans was a touch annoying.
The advantage to it was that there were a few loose ends that I needed to tidy up with the gallery staff, who had made a couple of mistakes in my catalogue.
The Artist and her husband had spent many hours preparing finger food that could be reheated on the night, so they were busy in the kitchen from the moment they arrived at the gallery.
Friends volunteered to carry the food on platters through the crowd during the evening and they did a marvellous job.
My family all arrived quite early in the evening and they had the chance to look around at The Artist's paintings and my photographs before the crowd grew. They hadn't seen any of my work framed before and I think they were a little surprised at the size of the gallery.
I have to say that it was nice to see the pride in their faces and to see that they were impressed. That made me feel happy.
What made me feel even happier, was Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet making a brief appearance just before the formalities began. It was lovely of them to come such a long way at night with Chicklet to offer their support. I love you three :o)
Then the crowds began to arrive. Lots of people from our community, some of whom had provided me with photo opportunities, looking forward to viewing the final product of their offerings.
People from the local community who see me riding around town every day on my trike with camera in hand, who have always been curious about what I photographed and whether I was any good.
They were all suitably impressed and all of them made the effort to greet me and offer positive feedback. I got the impression that they weren't expecting my work to be as good as it was, so they were gasping in awe and offering me congratulations.
They were very generous with their praise and it was a huge boost to my ego, which, by that point in the process, was in desperate need of boosting!
When it was time for the speeches, my tutor, The Master, was first cab off the rank and he had written a two page speech that was funny and entertaining and full of praise for my photography.
I was surprised by the nice things that he said and by the time he'd finished, I was feeling a little overwhelmed! Which didn't help me with my own speech.
I hadn't prepared anything because I knew who I wanted to thank and I also wanted to keep it short and sweet. When I attended last month's exhibit opening, one of the artists babbled on and on, and I didn't want people to get bored listening to me do that.
I remembered to thank everyone except my Adoring Husband. He was the one who had to put up with my moody, stressed and obsessive behaviour for the last 6 months (in particular, the last 2 months).
He has put up with my 'absence' while I worked at my desk for 10 hours every day.
He has done the cooking and the cleaning and the running around between The Bay for printing photos, the gallery for organising and also driving me to various locations to take photographs.
He has always been the 'organiser' in our house and he does that job extremely well. I know how difficult it was for him to step aside and allow me to do this without him taking charge.
So he mostly stayed in the background and gave me emotional support.
Adoring Husband, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart :o) You have been wonderful and I appreciate that you have had to cope with a weird and difficult routine over these past months, but you have coped admirably and made all of this so much easier for me.
After forgetting to thank AH, I finished my short, nervous speech abruptly and handed the mike over for the other Guest Speakers to have their turn.
One of those speakers was The Artist, and in her speech, she included some lovely words about my photography.
She has been so generous offering me this opportunity and I have learnt so much about myself in the process. I am trying to figure out a special way to thank her - it has to be 'just right'.
Adoring Husband then handed me the camera so that I could take a few happy snaps. He had already spent the evening walking around the gallery taking photos of the guests and patrons as they wandered around. (another big thank you for that!)
So I have sold quite a few photographs and I have to get a quote for one of them to be framed as well.
I consider the whole experience to be a huge success. I've had no expectations for what might happen beyond the exhibition and the biggest thrill for me is getting to share, with other people, the thing that I love to do most.
Whatever happens after this will be a bonus!
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| The Artist and some of her work. |
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