Deadlines would seem to be contrary to an artistic endeavor. I like deadlines. They add structure.
However, there are times ......and this was one of them.
I contacted my gallery 8am on a Tuesday to let them know the first set of paintings was shipped the day before and would arrive on Monday. The owner said that was good because she was hanging my show on Tuesday, the day after they would arrive. In one week. Unfortunately, this was the first I heard of that.
If the gallery was across the street, the next state, or even in the same time zone, this would not be quite the issue. But, I am 3000 miles away. I have three more paintings to ship and was planning on bringing the last four (small ones) with me for the show for a total of nine pieces.
Time to make some calls. First I called my framer here (before she opened - handy to have her cell number.) She could join and fill the three frames and have them ready by 2:30 pm today. Next call was to my shipper. He could have the custom boxes ready before he closed at 3 pm. So far, so good.
One of the three paintings was still in my studio and it was time to varnish it after I scanned it. I have a 12" X 18" flatbed professional scanner which unfortunately only works on a Windows 7 machine. It's set up in a separate room for ease of scanning. When I turned on the computer it decided it wanted to run a disk check. Tick, tick, tick. Time is slipping away. 45 minutes later disk check complete. Restart and Windows 7 comes up and ..... black screen. Tick, tick, tick. Restart - same result. restart, restart. It will not work for me today.
That leaves the deadline and a choice. Do I varnish the painting (giving it 2 hours to dry before leaving the studio) and have a chance to get the shipment moving today? Or, do I only get two of the three paintings shipped and bring the non-scanned painting to my professional printer guy to scan which would take a few days? This painting would be too big to bring with me on the flight so it would arrive late and not be there for the show opening.
I decided to forego the scan. Varnish. Wait. Drive to framer. Take paintings in their frames to shipper. Get labels printed all by 2:50pm. This did miss the 2:15 pm FedEx pickup at the shipper but I was prepared to drive the boxes to the main FedEx Spokane office.
In hindsight, my decision seems to have been a good one. This shipment was delayed because they put the trailer from the semi on a train ......in Ohio. (no idea why.) The three paintings arrived safely on Wednesday and the gallery owner had already pushed the gallery rehanging a day later to accommodate the arrival of my paintings.
This story is probably a familiar one to many artists.
The below is a photo I took of the completed painting. It's not as good as a scan but probably having it at the show opening is more important.
16" X 12"
Original Oil