"Mask for the Bereaved" aka "Holey Face" exhibiting at the Bexley Arts Trust Summer Open Exhibition (and the 'joys' of being trapped unidentifed next to your art for 3 hours while people look at it)

I managed to find an 'outing' for my slightly disturbing holey face. I think that is sort of my metric/philosophy now - I want to find at least one chance to exhibit each piece that I consider finished.

I suspected this piece would be hard to exhibit as it's quirky, slightly disturbing, and probably not beautiful in many people's eyes. I was pleasantly surprised when it was accepted, but I think they have a fairly open policy, crave 3d work, and (to be fair) maybe wanted something a bit different to spice things up.

Everyone who exhibited had to do two shifts of stewarding, which seemed very fair. However, as a result, I had the dubious pleasure of sitting about 10 feet away from piece for most of a morning. Anyone who fantasises about sitting, undetected, within ear-shot of people as they view their work should try it! It's certainly character building. I think one person said it was 'nice' (although they might have been talking about the piece next to it), one person looked at it and just shook their head sadly (which sort of made me laugh), and the vast majority appeared to completely ignore it... 

I think I'm actually ok with that... I'm not sure my 'purpose' is to make art that people 'like' any more, and it wasn't a particularly conducive context for it to challenge people - most of the people visiting were there to visit the (very beautiful) Hall Place and gardens, and happened to wonder it. A few were half-looking for something nice to hang on their walls. Most of the pieces that received admiration where quite traditional and 'technically accomplished' paintings. The piece next to mine also got a lot of positive attention because it was quite witty, and I think that's totally fair!