sue clancy – artist

At Burnt Bridge Cellars, my wife, Judy, Mark Mahan, the winery owner, and I installed my one person exhibit on Tuesday. My exhibit opening party is Friday, June 6, 2025 and the exhibit will run through the end of July. The gallery that represents my work, Caplan Art Designs, will handle questions and sales.

I appreciate other people’s ideas on display of my work because by this point I’m “too close” to all of the art and almost can’t “see it” objectively. Thankfully, they can! I think of all of my art exhibits as “stories you can walk around inside” so in my way of thinking the arrangements on the wall, how it exists in a space, is part of the art.  As I create all of the artworks, I do give a lot of thought to how the art might be displayed and what the viewer might experience.

Since my current exhibit is of one entire poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear, I wrote the stanzas on each painting (which became it’s title) and numbered each painting on the back so they could be placed and seen in reading order. Even being labeled and numbered there were many ways I could imagine my works could be displayed.

Here’s Mark and Judy in the process of hanging one of my paintings.

Judy thought of displaying it all in a clockwise circle around the winery beginning to the right of the biggest piece that has the entire poem as handwritten by me. (Video of me handwriting it is here.) Judy’s idea was a delightfully surprising way to display that I’d not thought of!! So we did it that way!

Here’s a look at the biggest piece and where it starts on the right side …

I put my exhibit statement there at the beginning. (You can also read my exhibit statement here.)

Here’s a sequence of photos following the poem around the winery

Here we are at the beginning again.

Here’s the three of us, happy with our work, and on our way to have brunch together and celebrate! I couldn’t have done it without both of them – and with the gallery’s help! My exhibit may be called a “one person” show… but there’s so many more people than just me who are essential to my exhibits existence! And I’m very grateful to them all!!

As seen, written on the blackboard in one of the above photos, the winery is encouraging reservations for dinner Friday night. The live music will be outside on the winery patio but it will be gently audible from inside the winery.

There are a few copies of my exhibit art album at the winery – primarily the album is available as a printed book or ebook online here. I like to make exhibit albums, and make social media posts like this one, and put all of my paintings online (here) so that my friends who can’t come in person can still enjoy it.

That’s what I think art is for – community.

Now I have the fun, between now and Friday, of imagining the winery filled with smiling people looking, listening, eating and drinking!

I do plan to attend the opening – for at least a short time – and I look forward to seeing long-time friends and meeting new friends!

I hope you’ll enjoy my work however you experience it!!