As a photographer, I understand the joys and fears that come with photography as art. There is a great deal of joy and satisfaction for me that stems from making an image that tells a story and draws the viewer in. There is also dread and fear that needs to be faced when you are pushed out of your comfort zone – it’s terrifying but that’s where you learn and grow the most.

I have a great friend who lives in Woodend, about an hour from Melbourne. Jen, her husband Alan and their girls live that idyllic country lifestyle – classic country house on a rambling block, set amongst the trees. They have stables, tennis court and animals. Jen has her finger in every “tree change” pie you can imagine, including the development of a studio in one wing of the house, where she creates a range of paintings and sculptures. It makes me tired just thinking about it, but they love it.

A few weeks ago Jen rang me in a fit of pique:

“Shane – I need your help. I’m having a real exhibit of my polymer pieces with two other women and I need some pictures of my work.”

It was clear that Jen was stepping into that fear zone. Having a website and blog, I know a little about putting your work out in the public arena, but an exhibit is a different story. You are physically there, standing among those who are appraising your effort (not awaiting a comment from someone who probably lives a world away and can’t look you in the eye and smell your nerves). And some of them may be there with a cheque book in their pocket, ready to snap up something that resonates with them. There can be little more daunting and / or affirming to an artist than having their work held up to such critical light and potentially passed by the placement of a “red dot”.

I turned out that time was against us and I was unable to help Jen with images before the exhibit, but we have a standing agreement that I will drop down and take some of the actual display, so look out for that.

So if you have the chance, let me commend the exhibit to you. It opens this weekend at the Mad Gallery in Lancefield and runs until 29th April.

Good Luck Jen! Grow and Learn!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 6:34 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.