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Imagine is set in the Suffolk village of Long Melford.
This is an attempt to record the daily trials, tribulation and pleasure of running an art gallery.

Friday 12 March 2010




I think that this evening is the first time that I have been "on top of things" and back to normal for a long time. At last I can concentrate on where I'm going instead of where I've been,
if you know what I mean.
That isn't entirely true though as the Jim Malone magazine article is still hovering over my head,
after many alterations [not with the text] we are now discussing the captions to go with the pictures. I think that they have whittled it down to eleven photographs, I thought they would use about three but they kept asking for more until I said that there "wasn't any more", at that point they must have got serious and started to vet them.
I know that one day in the near future I will be very grateful for what they have done but at the moment every time the name Jim Malone is mentioned I want to scream,
"I haven't got any more pictures".
Which is a bit silly because last time he was mentioned I was asked 
"could I have an invitation to his exhibition"?
That aside, as I say I'm on top of things.

This gives me the opportunity to mention two new sculptures that have just arrived from
Antonio Lopez Reche.
It seems like only yesterday that I mentioned the hope of having some of his work here, now
he is almost part of the gallery furniture. A permanent fixture.
I hope so anyway, I find his work really powerful and dynamic, it really tells a story.
One new piece is a Minotaur and is titled
"Bring  It On!",
one look at it shows why it is so named, it has a real undercurrent of violence about it yet at the same time is very moving and gentle.
The other sculpture is "Morning Love", which doesn't make a lot of sense but it does when you look at the piece.
I really don't think that it will be here long.
Still, until it goes it "is mine". I can look at it and admire it every day.
I hope it sells so that Antonio has a reason to send me something else, but, I will miss it when it goes.

Other things have been arriving, exhibits for the ALICE exhibition.
This feels good, as with a month to go before the opening I can start to gauge a feeling for how the exhibition will look.
Today's arrivals may surprise some people, in fact it may not be deemed as "ART",
but it certainly is to me.
These are Dolls, yes that's what I said "Dolls".
These are by the award winning artist Ankie Daanen, who comes from Holland but spends a lot of the year in Spain where she teaches her art.
Holland, Spain then America.
America is where she is most exhibited, and I was fortunate enough to have approached her while she was on route to Spain where she was going to pack work for the USA, before leaving herself to exhibit there and in Canada.
She really is a lovely person and became very excited when I invited [begged] her to be involved
in the ALICE show. She told me that she had no time to make something especially for it and invited me to choose from what was already made and that I felt would fit in with the theme.
This I was very happy with, but today when her work arrived I found that she had made 
something especially for us. I haven't had time to photograph this but I will include it in a posting nearer to the event.
It was a very kind thing to do, given that she was under pressure.
Some artists are like that.

Here are the sculptures by Antonio, plus one innocent 'Alice at play' doll. 

1 comment:

  1. John,once it's published, you'll no doubt love the Malone piece. But it is a little bit like being pregnant for a long, long time. And a difficult pregnancy at that. Meanwhile, "Alice" looks very cool.

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