I'll take a little tiny break from today to talk about last year a bit more.

I think I started a week or two ago to get to the first days at the gallery. Let me set the scene again.

Months and months had passed after talking about this gallery coming together. We finally, FINALLY made it happen with a group show starring my core five artists that I work with collectively. It was a busy opening, filled the entire time with friends to celebrate and support us. They REALLY enjoyed the complimentary oyster bar we had going.

But there we were, it's mid-winter, the sun sets by about 4PM, and we're in the concourse level of the mall. This mall has been dead for maybe the better part of a decade, and the lights have mostly failed. As soon as natural light fades outside, the hallway darkens. There's a beacon of light from the upper floors, spilling down from the cathedral ceiling of the escalators and the elevator shaft. The only other light is from the gallery, and the kitchen, and the final few unbroken pot lights spotting the ceiling.

Aside from us, there is a small church unit whose Sunday sessions are often boisterously loud, populated by folks who live in the social housing upstairs, and then also the sole surviving business for 25 or more years on this level, Linda, our neighbour, who's shop floods videos into the hall in milk crates stacked atop each other. If you can imagine a scene from the slums of Final Fantasy 7, messy and raw but somehow also warm and familiar. She sits there with her thousands of film disks, watching a tiny TV playing soap operas and breaking news in, I think maybe Mandarin.

What I didn't realize until many months later is just how much of her business' survival is thanks to porn. Looking back, it seems obvious, given the frequent creepy male visitors who would gawk into the gallery on their way by.

I digress. The scene is just about set by now, I hope.

So yes, our first show ends, and we strike it to make way for the next. A solo show for Vashty Hawkins. The image above is one of her encaustic pieces, which earned her a commission from her opening. In fact, I got to interview and collect video of her making this piece. Unfortunately, a good deal of the audio is no good, because I placed the microphone poorly. But that's OK. I still have the footage and when I have a couple minutes to rub together, I'll try to do something meaningful with it.

Untitled Madonna, is what she called that piece. I think it's still available, but I'll have to check with her if any of you decide to inquire. You can also reach her more directly through her website, I think. https://vashtyqwac.wixsite.com/artbyvashty?fbclid=IwAR0yw46hvPx1wYQUK5EzCEJumXKWg_qRxYRuXZe0CamDpaibI6KZoq3IVRg

For fun, we made a bunch of little Oscars from Barbies. Cut the hair off, burned it down, spray-painted them gold and stood them on little pedestals. We had Vashty give them out. I think a couple of the categories were 'best-smelling' and 'the Vashty-est'. She felt too awkward awarding herself, so our friend Jody turned out to be The Vashtiest after all.

She also did two small live paintings, which she auctioned off for charity to The Rainbow Road, helping LGBT+ people escape persecution.

We didn't sell any originals for her that time, unfortunately, but I count the commission as a 'sale', and she did quite well with postcard prints. Here are a couple of the other pieces we had up for her show.

One of Vashty's acrylic on canvas pieces, with added gears attached.

Encaustic on panel (made with wax and heat. One of the oldest forms of painting in history)

Acrylic on canvas, and attached by a small chain normally. THIS one was a fun story, because these are Violet and Daisy Hilton, British-born conjoined twin entertainers. Les, the owner of the gallery space called me when he saw this diptych up and thought I was pushing some weird bondage thing. The same day I had this conversation and explained what was actually going on, he found a conjoined oyster - two oysters bound back to back. Kismet.

OK. That's enough of me rambling for now.

As ever, we have tipping options if you find yourself inspired. It's under my name, but I share all proceeds with the current artist by the end of the show. Vashty will be having a follow up later this year.

https://ko-fi.com/rachelsvparry