A Whimsical Exhibition of How We See Our World beyond Cerebral Palsy
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Listening to Richard Galbraith |
| At the opening |  |
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Mel and me |
| For two weeks in February, 2007 I had the opportunity to show case some of my art works with another artist who has Cerebral Palsy like me, Melinda Smith who is also an accomplished poet.. In leading up to the event, which we started late last year we had to organize our theme, design an invitation, printing, and mail out’s, media coverage, guest speaker for the opening, nibbles and drinks, friends to get our paintings there and back. (And more) over a few coffees at Eastland Myer and over the internet.
We combined our thoughts for the theme and invitation. We came up with “A Whimsical Exhibition of How We See Our World beyond Cerebral Palsy”. Melinda and her friend Kerry who unfortunately just recently in April 2007 suddenly passed away, found a wonderful gallery in Box Hill early last year and made a booking for February 2007. It is part of a church and the venue is delightful with stained glass windows adding picturesque light to our exhibition. Melinda asked artist/cartoonist Richard Galbraith to be our guest speaker for our opening and he accepted. He did a marvelous job on the day and was very encouraging to both of us. The opening was a big success, with many of our family and friends coming to support us, and celebrate with us our accomplishment. We started the day very nervous, hoping someone would turn up, and ended feeling relieved and over the moon so decided to celebrate with a drink and take it all in after everyone had left. The next few days were busy and tiring, we were still floating in the clouds with our success. Going every day to the gallery was exciting as we spent most of time talking to lots of different people who came off the street, also old friends that we haven’t seen in years. The first week I used my attendants to come to and from Box hill, the second week I ventured on the train by myself to Box Hill station. There is a lift to use to get off the train station and I was a little nervous when I got there for the first time as to how I would go with using the lift buttons myself. Luckily I didn’t have any major trouble as I usually do, not like in the past by using a lift by myself. During the first week I had my attendant do other jobs that came up during that first week of our art exhibition such as help cut out book marks for me. I came on the idea to make book marks out of my art work and laminate them. People loved them. I didn’t know how popular they would be. It went off like hot cakes, so for the next couple of days I decided to print more at home some nights. The two weeks went by too quickly, but we were sad and happy to see the final day of our exhibition ending because we had to put our other business commitments aside to do this. From my experience of the whole event I got a feeling of what people want from me as an artist and am looking forward with excitement to another exhibition in the future. I’m hoping this was NOT just a once in a lifetime experience. I’m hoping for many more. Several years ago I did a course called Certificate in Work Education at Tafe that introduced me to painting, in 2000 and for the next five years, I did a Visual Arts Diploma at Swinburne University where I learnt to plan for an exhibition like this one. Because of the course, I came up with an idea for an all abilities studio for adults 18+ who want to be an artist in the Eastern Suburbs eg; Knox, Maningham, Maroondah and Whitehorse, and it is happening at the moment over in a community house in Bayswater on a Monday afternoon between 12:30 till 2:30. If you want more information phone Glen Park Community Center on 9294 7525 about the Inclusive Art studio. If someone else is thinking of having an exhibition then start doing something about it not just sit back and dream about it, everything is possible if you set your mind to it |
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