sue clancy – artist

As they say in show business “the show must go on”… the week of my opening party for my series of paintings inspired by Edward Lear’s poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” I had a severe allergic reaction to some eye medication. Went to the doctor the day before my big event and got new medicine to combat the allergy. And the very next day, June 6, was the opening party for my fine art exhibit.

So yes. Great timing for a severe allergy.

The pics are me at the doctor’s and then wearing sunglasses to go home… The gist was, from the doctor, that it’d be good to wear sunglasses during my opening party at the winery Burnt Bridge Cellars, First Friday, June 6 2025…  So I posted on social media about my allergy and that the sunglasses will be due to the eye allergic reaction pain-in-buttness and not – I repeat, NOT, – due to any hoity-toity fancy-pantsy artistic-diva extraordinaire-ness.

I share about this here just in case anyone else needs to hear it: the creative life is seldom smooth. And that’s normal. The point isn’t the smoothness or ease – the point is to live fully, deliberately and… creatively.

So I went to my opening party wearing my sunglasses and looking forward to seeing friends!

Friends make everything better. And that’s what art and creativity are for: community.

So you can get a sense of the fun of my art exhibit opening party – here’s a video I did when the evening was barely starting! It’s also an example of the way I make art exhibits that are stories or poems you can walk around inside. And yes, I was grateful for the autofocus on my camera/phone

Despite my blurry vision I gave mini-tours of my exhibit, reciting the poem by Edward Lear and talking about how I echoed colors and shapes from painting to painting using them to foreshadow the poem events. I also told about researching old fashioned wedding colors, patterns and motifs for visual  allusions within my artworks.

I enjoyed seeing people take themselves on a tour through the poem!

And I enjoyed seeing everyone sitting to listen to music and have dinner!

Here’s a photo of two of the 3 musicians – Jesse Schaffer and his Celtic trio –  as they were setting up at the beginning of the evening. (Hear them on YouTube here)

Chef Em (in the front) did an outstanding series of Spanish inspired dishes: 3 courses each full of bold playful flavors! I swear she was echoing the poem and my artworks with her choices of food!! I was totally impressed!!

I only managed to get photos of two of the courses because people wanted me to come talk about the art! But between conversations I managed to clean all of my plates!

The first photo is of the savory salad of cantaloupe, chorizo, artichoke hearts, Manchego cheese and quince. The second photo is of the torta de Santiago with fresh strawberries. Not pictured, because I ate it right up, was a beautiful plate of spiced chicken pinchos, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, patatas bravas with garlic aioli and tomato sauce.

The wines went very well with everything!

As the light of the evening got darker I felt comfortable going without my sunglasses sometimes and my wife was kind enough to hold them for me. It made my heart happy to spend time with so many dear friends, meet some new friends, and see so many smiles!!

And literally every chair and every table was occupied… except when the people were getting more wine, second helpings of dinner or looking at my artworks!

It was a wonderful evening – eye issues aside – and a beautiful reminder of why I do the work I do … for friends and community!

P.S. during the opening party all of the copies of my art album for my exhibit were sold I have ordered more copies to be printed but it’ll be a while till they come. If you want a book sent directly to you please use this link https://www.blurb.com/b/12431156-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-art-album
However, if you want to get a book, have really good wine and see my art in person while enjoying the fun company of others at the winery – the new book copies should be there at the winery by the first Friday in July!
https://www.burntbridgecellars.com/

For more information about my art please contact Caplan Art Designs https://caplanartdesigns.com/