It’s the Toronto Art Expo 2014 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I know I need to do stuff like this, but I feel like dragging my feet. The pressure I put on myself— stupidly, unsurprisingly— makes it difficult to paint. Performance anxiety at the studio table ties my head and hands. I look down at what I have managed to accomplish and I am not even sure if it is artwork. Is it painting? Is it sculpture? Is it craft?
At my best, these things don’t matter to me. At my worst I want to curl up with candy and a book and pretend I do not have a room in the basement filled with expensive paint and a commitment in April to sit between my work and thousands of strangers for four days.
This weekend, I went to a show of Emilia Perri’s paintings. You can find her new work in the galleries here. The paintings— 38 large boldly coloured canvasses— looked outstanding in the rooms of the old fashioned house where they were shown. Tons of work: four car loads of paintings hung for one weekend show. We agreed though: you have to suck it up and do this. Good things will happen. Don’t be afraid of the work, the uncertainty, the public and their reactions. Right.
I am trying to communicate something, after all.
andrea trace 