When you start learning how to make visual art, no one tells you how it will take over every surface in your house and some of it will be wet. Contrast this with writing where books stay on shelves and your desk with its computer and printer is generally all the space a good story needs. Back it up, shut it down, no washing or mopping involved.

The other big difference is that writing goes into books which go into shops or online magazines, it doesn’t hang around where you can trip over it, and it certainly doesn’t need bubble wrapping and manhandling into the back of a vehicle to go meet its public. Art is a young fit person’s game!

So how do you exhibit if the thought of somehow transporting your best works safely to a gallery then finding you have to hang them yourself when you get there makes you want to curl up and pretend you’re six years old?

One solution is the virtual gallery; navigable and accommodating of text such as labels and titles. In some instances, you can (or have to, depending on your disposition) build it yourself. This is the case with Artsteps which is a free platform but has premium gallery templates that offer extra facilities. In this space, I can place images where and how I wish – including photos of earlier iterations of a finished piece where this adds to the narrative.

This is the link to mine https://www.artsteps.com/view/63cc3569c0a4cb48a02c254e, otherwise go to Artsteps and search for Strayfish Gallery. The sharks are free 3D models which somehow arrive without textures.

With this experience, I am building and curating a gallery for my peer crit group which will include a tour for anyone not familiar with moving around in 3D space. I expect this to be completed soon once some issues with ‘camera’ placement (for the tour) are resolved.

Clearly, this is not the same as eyeballing paintings, to borrow Hockney’s term. But it makes it possible to have a public virtual presence where there are obstacles to having a physical one.

SCH 2023

For details of courses, discussions, group work, and other activities undertaken, please visit my dedicated page.