Thursday, May 29, 2008

Opening Reception in Hudson

Clustered at the Turn, 2008, Oil on Panel, 20x40

OK folks. Here's the official info for the opening gallery reception at Carrie Haddad Gallery. It's this Saturday, May 31, 6-8pm, and the address is 622 Warren Street, Hudson NY. Just two short hours by train from NYC.

And just a note about the images on the gallery's website. I neglected to load my jpegs of the work onto a disc and give it to the gallery when I dropped off the work. I was busy trying to get all the paintings finished and wrapped and I just didn't get to it before I had to leave. Not only that, I photographed the large painting, 40x60, the centerpiece of the show, AND DID NOT LOOK AT THE IMAGE BEFORE I DELIVERED THE PAINTING. Bad, bad girl. The next day I sat down at the computer to photoshop the image, and email it and the rest of the images to the gallery for their website. Of course, the photo was very bad, irretrievable even in photoshop. Large pieces are difficult to photograph anyway, but if I would have looked at the image I could have tried to photograph it again. So I decided to send the other images that were ready but when I checked the website to see if they had posted any of the earlier jpegs I had sent previously, I noticed that all of the paintings for the show were posted. The gallery had photographed and posted them within a day. Agh! At least someone is efficient! The images look OK, but they aren't quite right, there's too much contrast and the colors look harsher than they really are in real life. Probably not so noticeable to anyone but me, but they just don't look quite right. However, the gallery obviously took some time to do this and I will not be asking them to reload a bunch of images all over again, especially not now, right before the opening.

So let this be a lesson to you all and maybe I will get it this time too. Make it a priority to ALWAYS include the jpegs along with the work when delivering work to a gallery.

But jpeg issues aside, I am very proud of the work I did for this show. The big piece that I mentioned freaking kicks ass, if I do say so myself (actually I wasn't sure how it would look outside my studio, the lighting I had on it was BAD and frankly, I wasn't too sure what the heck it would look like under better lighting) and Doug stopped by the gallery yesterday on his way to the city and he said it looks great. Not surprising since Carrie and Melissa always do an excellent job hanging the shows. This is my third show at Carrie's gallery and is the first time my work has been displayed in the front room so that is way cool.

But before I get too obnoxious with how great I am, I must remind myself that this is the last big exhibition that I have scheduled until next summer. I suppose things will come up, but one never really knows, huh?

5 comments:

Melody said...

How exciting to have your show opening on Saturday. I just love the piece you posted "Clustered At The Turn". If it looks that good on your blog it must be outstanding in person. My show opens next Friday night and I'm just a bundle of nerves. Good luck but I know you won't need it. Your work never fails to inspire.

Unknown said...

When I die, I want to come back as you.

All the luck in the world on a successful show. Wow...so much work, kids, husband, pets, gardens. Amazing.

Natalya Khorover Aikens said...

good luck with the show despite the jpegs... wish i could come to the opening, well maybe one day...
ps got barn photos if you are interested

Anonymous said...

I took a look at the images on the gallery site...and they do look rather garish. I definitely prefer the way they look on your site, more intense and moody.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Thanks Melody, and I am sure your show be be great! I used to be really nervous about the shows and openings but I'm not so much anymore. The openings especially, nothing like talking to a bunch of people that are there to see me, me, me:)

Thanks Jayne, but I hope you'll come back as a much better version of me, one that remembers to supply her galleries with jpegs, and without a nasty sugar addiction:)

Thanks Natalya, I hope you can come by sometime too! And I'd love the barn photos if you don't mind, thanks!

Veronica, yeah, they are a bit over saturated. That's where photoshop comes in handy.

I do want to add here though that my work is really difficult to photograph, even under the best circumstances and that I really should have been more diligent about getting them the jpegs. This is now a new goal for me.