Gallery Hop

Last night was First Friday at Railroad Square where I ran into many of you guys there. I always look forward to visiting art galleries for a few reasons, but mainly because I like to see the final result of days and weeks of an artist’s effort to express his/her message. My painting teacher in high school always reminded his class that artists spend hours on a piece that people will glance over for a few seconds…if they’re lucky, stressing the importance of putting your best work out there. This advice is applicable to us ad kids because we will put so much time and effort into devising a great campaign in hopes that it will stand out from the clutter and receive some attention.

Anyway, the point was to talk about a performance piece in 621 Gallery by Matthew Borgen (the image on the right); there was a rack of angel wings available for people to strap on and do as they please. A friend and I were there in the beginning when there were just 3 or 4 people. We tried on the wings and pranced around with them and took pictures and laughed and then moved on. Towards the end of the night, we stopped at the gallery once more to see the wings again and the place was packed. A crowd had gathered, but no one tried the wings on because everyone realized that people were looking. My friend and I both turned to each other and said the same thing; “I’m glad we tried them on before anyone saw us.” I even heard a little girl next to me tell her mother that she wanted to play with them, but she was too shy. It made me think of our inhibitions and how we tend to get shy when there is a huge crowd and we know people are looking. To tie this in with the creative process, I think we need to let go of our inhibitions and see where that takes us. Of course it would be great if we could all adopt that attitude, but that is much easier said than done.