March 22, 2017

I'm Working Away on an Upcoming Show!

Something I didn't really expect this year was to be putting on a show, but a new art friend inspired me to do just that!  We'd met at a women's event at the National University of Ireland -- where both our husbands are this year.  We exchanged our details and agreed to talk later.  Then I went off to Valencia, Spain and spent a month working mainly on sketching.  She was following me on Facebook and really liked my sketches so she suggested we do a show together.

"Abstract #1", 20 x 20 cm acrylic on
Canvas by Adrienne M Finnerty.
The idea intrigued me, but at first I was confused about what we could do together since her work and mine are so different.  As you can see by her piece at the left, Adrienne does abstracts, and I'm a realist.

Work in progress for show -- Oil on canvas
Night View of Galway Cathedral, by Tracy Feldman
But her enthusiasm, and our realizing that we had so many other things in common, changed my mind.  We both have a similar sense of fun.  We share a spiritual point of view.  And we were brought to Galway because of our husbands' work. She's from Ireland's East and has been in the area for  three years, while I've lived here going on four years, but the time has been split up between sabbaticals -- with us coming here for one year at a time (with 5 year absences) when Arny is on sabbatical doing research at the National University of Ireland Maths Department.  Our last commonality, and the title and theme of Bill Bryson's book "I'm a Stranger Here Myself", suggested the name of the show:

   "We're Strangers Here Ourselves: Love Letters in Paint to Galway and the West."

    Another wonderful thing that convinced me that this show really is meant to be is the fact that we found a great venue in downtown Galway, and not a year from now, but in May of this year.  Our work will be on display at the Portershed off Galway's Eyre Square, and we'll have an opening (with all the work in our exhibition) on the evening of the 4th of May, from 6 - 8:30 pm.  We are so grateful to the Portershed, and their sponsors (AIB) for welcoming us, not only for the night of the opening, but for all month.  At other times, you can visit the venue and see some of our work any Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 5 PM.

     If you can make it to Galway in early May, you are invited.  If you want to see more of the work that will be in the show, check out my homepage, or my or Adrienne's Facebook pages and instagram accounts.