Lisa Pope, Stage 2, 2009

I wanted to complete my time at TLC with a bang and what better way to do it than to have my first solo exhibition!

I never thought so much work went into having an exhibition. I’ve helped out over the past few years with the end-of-term exhibitions at TLC, but there is so much to do when having your own, especially having just moved to a new town a couple of months before. I didn’t know anybody, I was working two part-time jobs, studying full-time, and taking care of my eight year old daughter Ruby and our home. How on earth was I going to find the time to put an exhibition together? Where should I start?

I thought the best place to start was probably by finding and securing a place to hold it.

I had been going to a particular café since moving to Kaikoura and it had loads of space, could supply nibbles and had a bar where people could get a nice glass of wine and look at my work. I sat down with the owner Mike and we talked about what I was after and we set an exhibition date.

I set to work at the local photo and frame shop where I was doing my creative work experience with photographer Doug O’Callahan. I went through my photos from Fiji that I took as part of my study when I was there conducting workshops and helping in the Nadi Kindergartens. I decided to choose photos of the children we spent lots of time with in the local village – they were beautiful kids and had a somewhat hard life. Doug and I went through my photos and after his advice, I chose 10 that had the best exposure. I printed them out in black and white as this seemed to give more drama which is what I wanted to achieve. Framed in thin black frames, they were my first pieces for the exhibition.

Now I was on a roll.. parent-hood, work, study.. who said it was impossible! My brush dipped into many pots of paint over the following months and I also dusted off some favourite pieces that I had not exhibited before and the exhibition started to fall into place all by itself.

My next stop was to get some exposure and what better place to start than with the local newspaper, The Kaikoura Star. I set up an interview with Emma Dangerfield, the local reporter. As I was new to town and planning on starting a business providing art classes for primary school-aged children, Emma was happy to do a profile on me. Perfect!

At this point, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that I was putting my soul out there for everyone to see. As my art is a reflection of how I view the world and how it makes me feel, I was scared. I also had that emotion that all creative people have, that my work was not good enough. I was putting myself out there as an artist that would hopefully be teaching their children about art and creativity. It was a wake up call to get this exhibition right!

I got on the computer to create some invitations to the opening night. This was harder than I thought. With very little computer skills it was going to be a challenge. With the help of Photoshop software, I put text onto an image of one of my paintings. It was not perfect but it worked. I gave these out to family and friends before realizing I had made a mistake in the text. I wrote that the RSVP was 15^th June instead of 15^th May. With the exhibition opening night being 6^th June, this was a dumb mistake. My family and friends thought it was quite funny and thankfully I managed to fixed the mistake before the invites went out to the Kaikoura business community.

Next I had to write an artist statement and create a business card. My artist statement was written about five times over – two versions were lost while learning how to use my new laptop. But in the end I was very pleased with the outcome. I also used this to thank people for their support.

The biggest hurdle was financial. Putting an exhibition together when you are broke was the hardest thing I have ever tackled. My family’s support was amazing. I can’t thank them enough.

I had several meetings with Mike, the café owner. We discussed where I wanted to put my work and how I was going to hang everything as I was not to put any more holes in the walls. This was challenging because I had 10 framed photos, a Tapa and a few diptych paintings to hang.

The day before the opening was spent washing and preparing the café walls, measuring, making changes, shopping for last minute things like stick-on hooks and blu-tack (just in case).

The hanging itself was great. We couldn’t start till 4.00pm on the day of the opening, but with the help of a local artist I got most of the paintings up and about four photos. I couldn’t hang the Tapa yet because it was still not finished or framed. I raced home to greet friends coming for the opening (with brush and paint in hand), got changed and finished the Tapa and framed it, all while woofing down fish and chips! Then the worst happened… it started to rain! And I don’t just mean a shower.. it hosed down and I had to get the Tapa into the car and out again at the café without getting it wet! Thankfully, we got it there covered in a sheet, hung it and I finished painting it on the wall.

Finally, with all ready and after a quick swap around of a couple of paintings, I had a last glance around and was suddenly hit with a wave of pride. It looked great, and so was opening night – I sold three paintings and four sketches!

On the last day of the exhibition I had a call from the café. They wanted me to pop down as there was a lady passing through from Christchurch who wanted to buy my Tapa. Yay! Great news, although a little poignant – it was made by me in Fiji and painted back here – a very sentimental piece which I almost didn’t include in the exhibition. It can be hard, if you get attached to your work, knowing you’ll never see it again… unless you give it to someone you know, which I’ve done too often!

By the end of the exhibition I sold nine pieces of art (out of 16). Over half sold! The owner of the café has now given me his walls to fill again, which I have done. It’s almost like my own little art gallery. I pay only 20% commission and I get free coffee too! It may have been stressful at times, especially trying to juggle everything, but the experience was great and it has given me huge confidence in my ability as an artist.