I entered Marblehead Variations Show this year and had one piece (I wrote about it in a previous post) accepted. I am not a huge fan of openings, but my son, wife and daughter came up for the weekend and were eager to return to Marblehead as they had a fun time going there last year. Our son loves the ocean and I think misses it living in the upper valley NH. It was a miserable cold and rainy day and if they had not been here I am pretty sure Roy and I would have talked ourselves out of going.
Now the show this year had a different feel than the previous year. It felt somehow “safer” and the art work more generic and less interesting. Last year in addition to my piece that won the award two other charcoal drawings I had made were chosen. Neither of those drawings are what I would call conventional. In my opinion they are very emotional works of art. Also chosen last year was one of Gay’s work about a woman’s prison. Amy’s unconventional crab painting also was chosen and won a prize. Both Amy and Gay are in my peer art group. Last year I remember seeing several works that really had me excited and the show felt like it was capturing where art was going rather than where it had been. It was exciting. Maybe it was just post-covid excitement. But everyone in my family who was at the show this year (Husband, son and daughter-in-law)agreed this year’s show did not hold up. Gay was at the opening as well. In fact our pieces were in the same room on either side of the door. And she also agreed with me about the show.
Oh well. On a positive side sweet Nikko loves “The Little Mermaid” or at least certain parts of it which she has watched over and over again. When we took her to see the ocean the waves were crashing against the rocks and at first she was scared. But then mom said, “That is the ocean. That is where Ariel lives.” and at first she got a surprised look and then a huge grin covered her face. It was very cute.
