Speaking at Kwartzlab on July the 8th

Last night I gave a short speech about some of my work:
the “peg board paintings”. I have six paintings hanging at Kwartzlab until the end of July.

The cool part is that it was given at Kwartzlab, a unique “makerspace” in Kitchener. I expected a very small audience but to my overwhelmed surprise at least 25 people were there. Professional speakers will tell you that it is important to know your audience, and I knew I would be speaking to an intelligent group of people with strong academic and technical skill sets, scientists and engineers and designers among the group. BUT I had forgotten how instructive and developmental preparing a talk can be for the speaker. Making a presentation forces you put into words what you have been creating
in your private thoughts. As an abstractionist, it made me test some of my symbolism.
What the heck am I doing, really? Am I doing an OK job communicating?

Artists are seldom asked to make speeches or asked questions about their work. The first question from the group was “Why do you use pegboard in your work?” The second was “do you paint to music?” Fortunately I was semi-prepared for both questions.

I got to think on my feet and to answer them both. I also got to talk about the paintings and some of the thinking behind them. To mention in public that I am trying to paint what no one else has done before me is a challenging task. The knowing nods at times made me realize that some of those in the audience at a makerspace were also trying to invent concepts, things, and images.
I found it to be very self instructive, and thanked the audience for the wonderful opportunity.

Above all I had fun doing this. I left feeling lighthearted. It reminded me not to take myself too seriously, and that is a good thing too.