Open Studios

I'll have to write more later but the first Open Studios where any of my work could be seen went well. 207 mostly features xpdm photography, but some of my pieces got noticed.

"Lucky Ducky", which I showed in my previous post, even was snapped on cell phone cameras by a couple of teens to text to their friends, which makes me smile.

The unusual occurrence with my artwork was with "Premordial Party". It is a good sized acrylic on canvas that is actually still a work in progress. This particular piece is much like a plant in it's need for tending and growth, but in a paint and floating canvas form. People kept touching it! The first woman to touch it made me chuckle because of the look on her face when she did so. The second woman to do so was just younger than myself and whole handed, flat palmed put her entire hand on my painting. She "palmed" my painting as if she was a child making a card of her handprint for her grandmother. This irked me. I mean, I don't know how clean her hands are, she didn't know how set the paint was, and really, YOUR WHOLE HAND?!?! Adults should not have to be told not to do these things. The third person to do so was a teenager, who did so extremely gently and may have been accidentally as they were "tracing" movement in the piece while talking to the person they stepped in with.

Now, two days later, I'm even more amazed by this. Really what the hell is with people these days? In all the cases I had made eye contact with the person at some point before they touched the painting. None of them were as young as my son. Young children touching something I understand and expect. I do not expect adults to do this. It wasn't a three-dimensional painting (if you ignore the type of canvas), there was no "touch me" sign ANYWHERE in our studio, no one was considering buying it, yet 3 people actually touched the painting. Wait, let me more precisely word that. 2 people touched the painting and one grown woman groped my artwork. Seriously, she was like a teenage boy who lays his hand on a breast for the very first time and then doesn't know to take it away. And... it looked every bit as awkward and annoyed the owner almost every bit as much.