This week, I had Monday off from SAA as it was Memorial Day. I continued onto Wednesday with our weekly meeting. I talked a bit about my duties as well as everyone else sharing their progresses. After business and a few laughs, we all went into our separate work areas and duties. I grabbed a large stack of Radius 25 application submissions and headed upstairs to the intern work station computer and got busy away on plugging in their location and email info to the artist spread sheet. I also took all of their CD's full of images and loaded them onto our computer's file folder as well as putting them into the Jury PowerPoint. Every time I would finish a stack and take it downstairs to file, I would get another small stack of applications from Jennifer at the front desk to add in as well. The due date for submissions is May 30th in two days and more and more artists keep sending in their submissions. My Wednesday was pretty much full of Radius 25 applications and sorting as well as one David-Douglas entry I filed in as well. It rained hard outside today and so it did as well in the Bush Barn with Radius 25 application submissions. 

For more info on Radius 25 applications before the due date, visit SalemArt.org

~Slide Shows of Art~

Today at our usual meeting, we decided we sit in the same spots every time and we played musical chairs as we changed locations from our norm. With a dog sitting on my lap and us passing around childhood photos, it is comfortable as usual. Then after departure, I head up to the nest and fire up the intern computer as I start plugging away on uploading Art Fair images (artwork pictures I chose last week) onto an online database so the Statesman Journal can have access to showcase and advertise some of the works that we will display in the summer. Next, I started on working on the David-Douglas show that I got a feel for about a month ago with the nature walk. I sorted through the artist files and CD's of images for the botanical artists and created a similar Jury Presentation as I did for Radius 25 through PowerPoint. We as only have some of the submissions, I just got a head start for the September/October show before I worked a bit more on Radius 25. The artwork submission deadline is May 30th so by next week, I will have all of the materials to finish plugging in the artists as well as polishing up the jury's slide show. Then as James will always have tasks for me to do, (it is busy, busy marketing season as Art Fair approaches) I helped and shadowed him on Photoshop as he needed to extract and cut images for a different layering appearance to put art images up on ours and other websites. I then ended my day as I was going to help with an InDesign task, but then our program stopped working so it seemed like a good time to end my day. 

Last week, [since I am doing this internship as college credit for Chemeketa Community College,] my instructor for the class came to the Bush Barn to do an evaluation for a school grade. He met with Catherine and visited with me as I showed him the facility that I work in every week.  Here is a picture of me in the A. N Bush Gallery as I look towards my favorite painting in the Watercolor exhibit. 

This image was put up on Chemeketa's Cooperative Work Experience Facebook page!

t r a v e l S A L E M

This week, I finally started working on Radius 25 artist filing and PowerPoint documentation. Catherine started me on a stack of early submissions as they had their application and info sheets as well as discs with images of their artwork. Plugging away on the intern computer on the quiet Monday, I entered all of the artist information into a spreadsheet as well as saving all of their art images onto our computer in their own files. I then started making the Jury Presentation PowerPoint for the exhibition that included slides for each artist with their process statement as well as their art images along with the info and pricing with every submitted piece. There was separate stacks of filed and artists not filed and soon after a few hours of working and typing, I sorted through all of the submissions and organized the first steps towards the summer show. Being a curatorial assistant in the Radius 25 show, I will be in charge of creating the PowerPoint for the jury as well as helping out in every aspect of planning the future art show. After that, I watched and helped James for a while as he was sending out marketing emails and creating InDesign advertisements and show cards for Art Fair planning/advertising as well as helping out with renewal card designs. James and I then drove to Travel Salem downtown as there was going to be a marketing reception to advertise Salem Art Association to other organizations as well as hotels in the Salem area. As hotels are dealing with travelers and people foreign to Salem, we wanted to provide hotel staff and representatives with knowledge of Salem entertainment and local organizations to recommend to other exterior people of this capital town. We set up our half of a table in the friendly lobby of the Travel Salem business building as we were warmly greeted by the staff and friends of our non-profit organization. We displayed many stacks of the Bush Barn Art Center's current exhibition, Bush House Museum, and the CAE program show cards for others to see as well as a newsletter for SAA and a flier for our upcoming Color Run that will be a precursor to our annual Art Fair in July. Then along with snacks on the tables and booths with wine tastings and other organizations throughout Salem, hotel representatives flooded the lobby and listened to every table as we talked and glorified our individual organizations and event locations. Giving a similar introduction spiel to every curious citizen, we had the chance to introduce many people to what SAA does and I was interested that many Salem residents have never heard of/been to the Art Fair & Festival. I have been an attendance to the Art Fair ever since I was a little kid and it was great to spread the word of SAA to others as they would put our show cards in their hotel lobbies and hopefully influence Salem visitors to stop by the Bush Barn and support the arts with Salem Art Association. The long reception was great as there was food and interesting people to meet as I was curious on the Salem events as well as the guests of the Travel Salem reception. There was even a prize drawing for the guests of hotel stays, wine tastings, and even our SAA "swag bag" full of a membership, tee-shirt, bumper sticker, poster, and other great SAA goodies. Then after staying there for a few hours, my internship day was then ended as we packed up the remains of our flyers and unused pamphlets. Afterwards I felt glad to be helping out this organization I am now apart of and was proud to represent SAA in this event.

To see information about SAA on the Travel Salem website, look here to see our organization along with other fun things to do in Salem if you are ever bored of a place you call your hometown. (like myself) :) 
http://www.travelsalem.com/Arts-and-Entertainment/Art-Galleries

-Documentation of Artwork-

This week I only technically came in once since Catherine was gone on Monday out looking at other galleries.  I came in for an hour mainly looking at the new exhibitions and helping James sort Fine Art Friday pictures. On Wednesday after our normal meeting, I went up to the Nest and created the Young Artists' Showcase poster with James as they will be printed and handed out to participants. I then started a long project of cataloging the artists participating in Salem's Art Fair & Festival 2014. They were already organized into a database online with more of their information but this time, their works needed to be projected onto the website for further promotion. I cataloged over 200 artists involved by their medium. I put their names, websites, and one of their best pictured artworks on a document and saved onto our computer. Then hours and many word document pages later, I finally finished. Next week I will be able to help put them on the website so people can click on a pictured image of someone's artwork then it will direct them to their name and website URL for further promotion before Art Fair. A mini break in between work, I helped assist in a photo shoot for a picture for the poster/advertisement of our "Hip to Be Square" barn dance pre-Art Fair celebration for helpers and volunteers. It included our normal photographer James and volunteer Tabitha dressed in simple button ups and plaid as they posed in a white paper backdrop. With lipstick and a red flower used as props, they posed in many silly ways laughing and being serious to help give us a wide variety of great pictures to choose from (after Photoshop of course). I can't wait to see the finished result of them advertised for people to see but here is a picture of the goofiness that they exhibited for only a few to see.

(James, our photographer, does not like his picture taken)

||Vertical Art||

When I got to the Barn in the morning, the fragrance of coffee filled the air of the break room as we all gathered for our usual meeting. At the conclusion of farewells, business, and conduct, we all departed to our own separate conversations and duties. I went to the gallery and hung up some amazing and personable animal head art. They were of many species and personalities as I arranged them vertically on the wall in the gift gallery. Afterwards, I assisted Catherine in going off site to Maps' Credit Union (our sponsor) as we hung up some remaining children's art from the previous show. They were Perrydale school's that I mounted earlier that week. The hanging system at the credit union was a corner with vertical wires and metal clips that made the mounting system slightly difficult and unusual. But the end result made the corner look delightful and angelic as it was filled with animal/nature art, paper collage, and still life drawings. Getting back to the Barn, I then proceeded to put stamps on around 300 envelopes to later get sent out to SAA's VIP members. After that long process, I went back to the gallery and hung up the new exhibition's vinyl lettering with volunteer Tabitha. Getting stunted up with a ladder, we evenly put up Jon Colburn's exhibition title on the wall with careful cutting, pressing, and tearing. The Bush Barn is was open but still in exhibit rotation as it should be done by the end of the week. I got to peek up at the Watercolor show and even though still unfinished, it will look beautiful especially with the added partitions to make more space for the art. I even got to chat with the artist Jon Colburn about his elephant art and how he wants to donate some proceeds to save the elephants in the wild, the growing endangered species. I then ended my day with one more art hanging project and even buying a gift for my mother in the gift gallery. There is an immense amount of jewelry in the Barn that will be great for Mother's Day and I was happy to help out SAA as well as doing an errand I probably would of procrastinated to until the last minute. 

Here is a picture that the gallery assistant, Robin took of me while I was hanging the vertical animal head art on the wall of the gift gallery. 

Tasks and Flights of Stairs

Tasks upon tasks, the whole upstairs gallery was undergoing a massive change. Blank walls, fresh paint, dusty floors, and the constant aroma of paint fumes, I walked into the gallery about to help the transition from children's artworks to the Watercolor Society of Oregon's traveling award winning show. I started the morning with fresh pearl paint as I painted the beams of the gallery. James then needed me to help measure the gallery's length and width for a future exhibit. I then was going through the plastic tubs of remaining children's art and calling the parents of them to see if the framed pieces can be displayed at Salem Electric in West Salem. They are one of our sponsors and we have been piling the artworks of the parents that agreed to the further exhibition. After making a massive amounts of voice mails and dial tones, the paintings were delivered and we all carried around 80 watercolor paintings upstairs to the gallery. We took them all out of their protective cardboard carriers and laid them all against the wall. Then the tricky part was sorting every piece to where it should go on the wall, what painting it is near, and the orientation of its hanging. With multiple minds and at times different opinions, we took a while placing and arranging the many art pieces. Soon before our minds exploded from over analyzing the paintings, I went on to my next project of mounting some children's art to poster boards for display at Maps' Credit Union. I then finished parent phone calls (feeling like a teacher) and realized I finished all of my duties for the day. The day was a frantic one that involved many tasks and many flights of stairs. Solid day at SAA. 

To learn more about our new exhibitions to be on display throughout May and June, check out our website for more info!

salemart.org

Busy Weeks for Busy Bees

This week consisted of the present transition from our old exhibitions to the new ones for our Spring/Summer display. We will be featuring pastel works by Debbie Robinson and direct our Focus gallery now onto the new prints by Jon Colburn called Endangered Species. We will also include many works from the Watercolor Society of Oregon in the Bush Barn during this sunny season. 

On my arrival on Monday, parents and teachers were coming in and out picking up their child's artwork from the previous showcase. Catherine just got back in time for the chaotic atmosphere of exhibition transition and I helped her prepare her slideshow for her upcoming lecture on the History of Watercolor. I set up a Power Point presentation and gathered informational text and beautiful examples of watercolor works throughout time. After preparing the start of her lecture slides, I then looked at the templates on the InDesign program for the vinyl lettering I once stuck to the wall in the last focus show. Changing the lettering, I then got to browse around on dafonts.com and explore the world of many creative fonts. I had fun trying to match fonts with the styles of the upcoming art shows and playing with fonts in general. I then finished up the day wandering around Willamette University's campus on the sunny day finishing my distribution route for Radius 25 posters. I took five more and walked to a few popular buildings and hung them up hoping they reach out to the aspiring college students like myself.

Combining my usual two posts of the week, I was only at the Barn for a little over an hour on Wednesday due to busy future planning with PSU representatives as I was setting up my future degree in Art History. 
I then walked in and smelled the heavy paint fumes from upstairs as some helpful volunteers were re painting the upstairs a new shade of white up overlap the prior marks from the last display. I did some simple tasks with the gallery walk through with cleaning as well as changing burnt out light bulbs and re tagging some jewelry in our gift gallery. I then shadowed Catherine on editing a member donation card with picture editing, text aligning, and the many parts of complicated computer programming. We looked at that as well as letter editing as it is important that everything SAA does is clean, unified, and neat as it represents our organization and promotes more money flow in this amazing non-profit organization. 

Here is a picture of my intern computer at the front desk of the Bush Barn.