Retrospective Exhibition
In my first blog I mentioned that I’d never had a retrospective exhibition of my work. Well, my bucket list is now complete — late in 2019 I was invited by the Hilltop Gallery in Nogales, Arizona to display my collected oeuvre for the month of February, 2020.
The show encompassed the entire gallery, over 30 works, watercolors framed and unframed and a nook featuring all three of my illustrated children’s picture books. The Nogales International promoted the 25-day show with a front page feature:
Preparing for the show was a scramble of framing, mounting and assisting with publicity. We have to thank skilled framer Scott Kochert of Arroyo Framing Studio for his great work and putting up with our steadily rising panic level. Gallery Manager Janice Johnson put her 30 years of picture hanging expertise into play and the result was an impressive display of professionalism.
Opening Day, Sunday, February 2, 2020 was the highlight , not only of the show but of my artistic career — the apogee if you will.
Nogales has a dwindling community of Korean-American merchants who serve the residents across the international border with imported consumer goods. Crossing the line for casual shopping has been curtailed for some time (first by 9/11 and now by Trump) so the mini-Koreatown on Morley Avenue is dying. But the survivors were greatly supportive, arriving in a group the following Sunday with a dramatic orchid display and staying for snacks and careful study of the Korea-themed works: Blue Dragon-White Tiger, taeguki, and King Sejong’s original hangul alphabet.
In retrospect the timing was fortunate. Shortly afterward the gallery was closed for the pandemic and remained so for the rest of the year.