mca alumni gallery

mother. 2013

maiden.(detail) 2013

shadow drawing. 2013

climb inside my skin. (detail) 2013

southern gothic. 2013

most of the above work was completed during the month of october, in an attempt to have a primarily 'hanging show'...as it turns out,i'm rather happy about that gentle nudge in the direction of wall art, after all.

meh. now that it's over, i can laugh about it, but at the time, i felt like i must have done something really shoddy in a past life...

this was my first solo show in quite some time. i had taken a 7 year hiatus from the studio, and i was admittedly a little rusty...you tend to forget the little details like "how will i get this large body of work to that far away city?" and "what sort of back up plan do i need, in case a freezing rainstorm happens on the day that i unload the show?" and most importantly, "how much is this sh*t gonna cost?"


INSTALLING THE SHOW:
well, i won't go into the details, but you may assume that it was most definitely the trip from hell. seriously. everything that could go wrong went wrong...from horrible weather to finding the gallery full of student work propped against the walls and in stacked piles all over the floor...and there then there was the 'other drama' [the above mentioned details of which i will not be delving]

all of this, in a mad rush, before thanksgiving holiday.  we got in, we got out. i got an earache.  i was never happier to get back to my very own bathtub. 

at least i could look forward to the reception. 


or maybe not.  

THE RECEPTION:
as the reception approached, i was worried about being too tired to drive up, alone and in silence. (did i mention that my almost paid for car has decided that i don't really need that stereo/dashboard system? yeah.) also, my entire family was either out of state, or at hospital:/

as luck would have it, i never had to make the decision to drive or not to drive, because winterstorm 2013! hit that very day. yep. mca classes were cancelled...the works. so, NO FREAKING WAY was i going to drive to all the way to memphis. in an ice storm. without a radio. 

me and pretty much everyone else...a quick thank you to the three people who came to the show...

BREAKING IT DOWN:
now, fast-forward to a few days before christmas, (when no one really has anything much to do, right?) and i've got to go and pick up the work. 

FYI: renting a uhaul from memphis is double the price of renting a uhaul from florence.  

this time, we got the work moved super fast--almost, but not quite missing the impending rain--and head to urban outfitters to get some last minute stocking stuffers.  

[here is where i would describe the incident involving an 'undies sale' which proved to be a completely humiliating experience- but i'm not going into the personal details] 

in a rush to get home, we miss the better food exit and decide to just eat lunch from a second-rate subway/gas station on the road. nasty. we reminisce about all of the "bad luck" involving the show, and feel so thankful it is finally over.

then i get the email.

"hi tara, is there any reason you left one of your pieces hanging on the wall?"

um-hum.  life's a stinker sometimes.  and i'm an idiot most of the time.  i will say, that the singular shining moment of the entire experience was meeting the president of mca, dr. ron jones. he is certainly a gracious host, and he made me feel that it was totally and completely worth the effort.  for the most part.