Exhibit Opening: a photo diary [panel discussion]

Art Show on Main Opening
part 2: the panel discussion


description:  an opportunity for aspiring artists to hear the stories, daily work and struggles of the shows' featured artists


the questions:  how do you place a value on your art?  how do you set goals for your work?  what does your daily work look like?

an evaluation:  So far, this is the piece of the event I'd most like to fine-tune before next year.  Of course, there will always be merit in hearing the stories and daily disciplines of the artists we feature during Art Show on Main, I want to make sure we always provide time for that; it's just that there are so many deeper questions I'd like time to talk about and learn together.

For example, I had to bite my tongue to keep from inviting Brian Moss to let loose on one of his passions: the Church as patron of the arts.  He and Jason and my husband and I had a great controversy heating up on the topic as we drove out of Brooklyn on Friday afternoon.  Brian sits on the board of a non-profit organization called By/For that purposes itself to encourage churches to support artists in their communities and reclaim their historic role as patrons of the arts.

As it was, I only had time to casually suggest for people to try to get a few minutes to talk with Brian further sometime later in the day.


Since the opening, I've had more conversations about these pieces of art from Julia Dean than any other piece we've ever displayed during our four years of the Art Show on Main exhibit.

I wish we'd been able to take some time to talk not only with art-makers but art-appreciators about these pieces, specifically, and the theology of the human body in art, generally.


I'm also quite certain Kevin and Dan would have a few things about the genre of horror fiction and in what ways that intersects with the viewpoints of the Church.

And, heck, while we're at it -- Jason's got an interesting story about the original lyrics to his award-winning tune, Messed Up Everywhere Blues.  My own family is split on what we would have suggested to him had we heard the song in it's original R-rated version.  It would have made a good conversation about the tug-of-war an artist has between authenticity and accessibility.

To round out the day, we could have added to the mix Erin's strong views about the ecology of an artist's tools of the trade.  What does it mean to care for the earth's resources in our artmaking endeavors?  Not only in the content of the images, concrete and metaphorical, but also in our raw materials.  This, too, would have been an interesting discussion.

Were you there for the discussion?  Do you have any feedback that would help us with the evaluation?  Please do tell...