A Shoot and Run Art Show
The idea came slowly and simply.
“Now that it is over – how does your story look?” Except they didn’t want to hear it – they wanted to see it with a camera in hand. And they wanted it hard core – not sugar coated - for victims of violent crime - suitable for a victimology course in Ottawa.
Hard core meant my confronting the horror - fifteen elements, I was sure. Visual would mean Cliff’s art. How to combine these two?
We had never done that before. I had at one point adapted a few of my fifteen elements to Cliff’s art - but it had been a draft, a talk to an audience of about 300, and I had very little feedback about it. I had thought it a dud presentation.
Did we dare do it again?
They had already said yes to my 15. Their eyes lit up at the thought of Cliff’s art sculptures being used to illustrate them. Yes! They said eagerly. “Yes. Yes. Yes. We will fly over at the end of July and film you both for two days.”
But now how to do it?
First of all, did we have enough sculptures - and even more important, would they fit my journey? What a test of our marriage and of our combined story?
It took about a week for me to condense my fifteen and hold them up to each sculpture pictures. It worked. We had 15 sculptures that illustrated the 15 issues that crime victims face – and even two left over to capture “forgiveness.”
But then the harder question – how to display the sculptures? We have learned the hard way that pieces of art don’t show very well if they are haphazardly displayed in a living room. So, we wondered about our lovely garden – which has already been captured on a video. I loved the garden idea. Our garden has already become quite symbolic because of the book, David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, it would be perfect. But we are fixing our foundation this summer – it’s a mess. And it’s too late to try and book a gallery – besides they are expensive.
The crew had said something about capturing Winnipeg as well. “Yours is a Winnipeg story,” they added.
That’s when the idea came to us. Why not do a spontaneous pop up gallery, a kind of shoot and run show?
It took us another two weeks to drive the city matching the 15 issues with the 15 sculptures with 15 story spots that are relevant to our story!
We visited Candace’s grave again. We walked her walk. Visited the nightmare. Journeyed again through the conflict. Landed at the Law Courts buildings. Paused at the Red River…. It was all meaningful – profound and inspiring.
There is an amazing fit! It works! It is a wonderful plan!
The Ottawa crew is coming Monday and Tuesday.
I am praying for good weather.
“The key to understanding any people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture.” - Louis L'Amour
“Now that it is over – how does your story look?” Except they didn’t want to hear it – they wanted to see it with a camera in hand. And they wanted it hard core – not sugar coated - for victims of violent crime - suitable for a victimology course in Ottawa.
Hard core meant my confronting the horror - fifteen elements, I was sure. Visual would mean Cliff’s art. How to combine these two?
We had never done that before. I had at one point adapted a few of my fifteen elements to Cliff’s art - but it had been a draft, a talk to an audience of about 300, and I had very little feedback about it. I had thought it a dud presentation.
Did we dare do it again?
They had already said yes to my 15. Their eyes lit up at the thought of Cliff’s art sculptures being used to illustrate them. Yes! They said eagerly. “Yes. Yes. Yes. We will fly over at the end of July and film you both for two days.”
But now how to do it?
First of all, did we have enough sculptures - and even more important, would they fit my journey? What a test of our marriage and of our combined story?
It took about a week for me to condense my fifteen and hold them up to each sculpture pictures. It worked. We had 15 sculptures that illustrated the 15 issues that crime victims face – and even two left over to capture “forgiveness.”
But then the harder question – how to display the sculptures? We have learned the hard way that pieces of art don’t show very well if they are haphazardly displayed in a living room. So, we wondered about our lovely garden – which has already been captured on a video. I loved the garden idea. Our garden has already become quite symbolic because of the book, David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, it would be perfect. But we are fixing our foundation this summer – it’s a mess. And it’s too late to try and book a gallery – besides they are expensive.
The crew had said something about capturing Winnipeg as well. “Yours is a Winnipeg story,” they added.
That’s when the idea came to us. Why not do a spontaneous pop up gallery, a kind of shoot and run show?
It took us another two weeks to drive the city matching the 15 issues with the 15 sculptures with 15 story spots that are relevant to our story!
We visited Candace’s grave again. We walked her walk. Visited the nightmare. Journeyed again through the conflict. Landed at the Law Courts buildings. Paused at the Red River…. It was all meaningful – profound and inspiring.
There is an amazing fit! It works! It is a wonderful plan!
The Ottawa crew is coming Monday and Tuesday.
I am praying for good weather.
“The key to understanding any people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture.” - Louis L'Amour
RSS Feed