One of my favorite things in life has become working on art projects with my dad. We do different types of art, I’m a photographer and he’s a painter, so we don’t really work together so much but we show each other our work and talk about things we like about each other’s work. From time to time one of us will have an art exhibit and we often help each other hang our exhibits.

I love spending time hanging an art exhibit with my dad. It’s time consuming and it can be tedious at times but it is just a nice occasion to hang out and talk about art and specifically really boring things about art. Things that probably no other humans on earth could care about, except maybe other artist. My dad is a much better planner than I am when it comes to putting up an exhibit. He completes scale drawings of the exhibit space and then maps out where he wants each peace to be before we even arrive. We unpack the art together. We set it out in the exhibit space according to where it is planned to be hung.

Then the real excitement begins. We start hanging paintings on the wall!!! Conversations center on, how high should the artwork be hung from the floor to make it easiest to look at. This painting, Higher or lower? Is this painting level? Do we need to adjust the spacing of the paintings on that wall? Are they too close together or too spaced out? What about that one? And we have the same conversations over and over. We talk about all kinds of little minutiae surrounding the creation and presentation of art.

I also love hearing my dad talk to others about his work. His passion about his art is evident when he talks to others about his paintings.

I helped my dad set up his exhibit and then I went for the exhibits opening. One thing that I like to do is photograph our art exhibits. I often take some standard shots showing the art on display. Then I like to take some more creative photographs to alter the perspective of the art on display or focus in on one aspect of a larger painting and isolate a small detail as if that was the entire image.

I always enjoy talking to my dad about art, his art, my art, other artist’s art. It just comes so naturally between us. I wish I had this level of comfort talking about my art or artwork in general with other people. I often feel like this is one of my biggest struggles in my creative pursuits. I love photography and have real passion about what I do and the subjects I photograph but I am completely uncomfortable talking to most people especially people I do not know about just about any aspect of my creative life. I don’t know if I have ever even referred to myself as a photographer when talking to someone I did not previously know. This is one of the biggest ways I struggle with anxiety in my everyday life.

I don’t think I would ever call hanging an art exhibit fun, but it can be enjoyable and it was just the kind of day I needed.

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Local Flyers: A Solo Exhibition by Rod Reynolds will open on Friday, February 7, from 5 – 8 pm at Tioga Arts Council, 179 Front Street, Owego. On Thursday, February 20, Reynolds will give an “Artist Talk” at TAC beginning at 7:00 pm at 179 Front Street. That evening, the artist will share his artistic training, motivations, and processes. This talk is free and open to the public.

Local Flyers will be on display from February 7 – 29 on T. – Sat. 11 am – 4 pm or by appointment.