New Works: at the Herb Young Community Center

Herbert C. Young Community Center

101 Wilkenson Ave.  Cary, NC

NOVEMBER 23 - JANUARY 24

Exhibition hours

Monday - Friday 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Saturday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sunday 1 - 6 p.m.

Let's talk about goals for a minute. I make short term and long term goals for my creative/business life each year. They are part of my business plan and keep me focused on spending my limited studio time wisely. In case you are thinking I'm a super-organized amazing person - I don't ever make personal goals farther out than a day or two because I never meet them and it's depressing. Instead I say "today I will go to the gym. (or not yell at my children.)" and that seems to work.

So I keep it simple. This year I wanted to: 

1-turn my blog into something worth reading and find some readers. (Hello all you lovely readers!) 

2-have a solo show with work that looks cohesive.

I think I made both goals. Hooray! I have learned, however, that one must be pretty specific about goals. I did not say "I want a solo show in a nice gallery." I am very happy with the community center and the show will be up during at least two very heavily attended town events. But - the town has other much nicer venues. They have concerts or events here every once in a while but mostly basketball games and exercise classes. The thing I am very happy about is that now I have a larger body of work that is fairly cohesive and can be used to apply to future shows.

The main lobby is crowned by a large and lovely glass pyramid, letting natural light flood the whole area. For a community center, it's quite a lovely space. I'm pretty sure they'll have a big Christmas tree in the center of the room during most of December. It was fun to challenge myself to work within a holiday palette - without creating holiday themed works.

The back hall does not have a gallery hanging system. They have three hanging hooks on each side and are adamant about not putting any more nails in the wall so it often looks a little odd. I had intended to put two big quilts in the hallway, one on each side. They hung down far too low though so my flying ladies line the hallway. The town's art director really likes Malachi's promise so I hung that in the spot they were going to reside in. 

The artists reception for the show is Saturday, December 4th from 3-5pm. There are a number of big events in the building that morning so I think I'll go mingle and meet people for a while then. I'll bring hand work during the actual reception hours to keep me busy as I have the feeling the place will clear out a bit. Stop by and say hello any time!