What If I Can Do More

Art Is the Medium, Connection Is the Message

This week has been an interesting one, and I’ve been sitting with a topic that’s been on my mind for a while. The idea of doing more as an artist.

Let me start by saying I wouldn't be exploring this path if I were already an established artist with work hanging on gallery walls and selling. I'm not represented. I’m an emerging artist, and right now I’m trying to level up my display skills.

I think I’m already pretty good when it comes to traditional display. I care deeply about printing, framing, and gallery layout. I really mean deeply.

For every series, I test different papers and finishes with my printer to get the best results. I do the same with my framer. We go through every detail. How we can frame the images. How I’d like them to look. The border thickness, the frame width, and the colour, which is a new step for me. I plan my layouts carefully. I think about the space, how people will move through it, the music, the labels, everything.

So, today’s question. What if I can do more?

I recently started a visual journal on this topic because I want to document the process for myself and for other artists. I want to show that there are ways to elevate your display that aren’t strictly tied to the artwork itself.

I keep coming back to a question I’ve asked here before. What business am I in?

We’ve already established it. I’m in the connection business. That means connection with clients, with subjects, and with the audience when they encounter the work.

Connection is my north star in everything I do with these pieces. So if that’s truly the case, am I not selling myself short by presenting the work in only a traditional way?

The series I’ve shared glimpses of here is called Gaoth, the Irish word for wind.

So, a series about wind, presented in stillness?

That doesn’t make much sense. So let’s see what else we can do. I don’t think these works need to become a full-blown interactive exhibition, but even improving the display by one percent feels worth it to me.

That’s why I’m here.

So, let’s play a little imagination game.

Imagine you arrive at an exhibition opening and you’re not just walking through a door. You’re entering a tunnel. The tunnel is lined with flowing material in multiple colours, the kind of surreal blend you’d expect from an AI-generated image.

Now imagine it’s slowly moving in the wind. You reach out and feel the fabric between your fingers. You hear the wind ripple through it. Then, ahead, an opening appears. It’s darker this time, and you walk toward a projection.

It’s showing beautiful images, slowly shifting across canvases. They’re massive, towering over everyone in the room, demanding attention and presence. You sit, and you watch as they slowly move, shifting slowly as if directed by a light breeze.

And then, through a final door. You step through it into a calmer space. A room full of colour, framed prints lining the walls. Stillness, but with an energy that makes you stop. It brings you into the moment. It asks you to see differently than you thought you could before.

This is Gaoth. Or at least, my imagination of what Gaoth might be like to walk through.

An exhibition on wind that doesn’t just reference it, but makes you feel it. One that moves you through the chaos wind can create, and into the stillness of a single moment captured by a photograph.

This is why I believe I can do more. This is why a traditional exhibition alone doesn’t feel like enough for this body of work.

I don’t want my exhibitions to only speak to people who already understand and love art. I want them to be for anyone who walks in, so they can get something from it.

Will that result in sales? I don’t know. But I do know what won’t. Doing exactly what I’ve been doing so far.

It’s time to level up. To create the best possible chance for art to do what it does so well in so many other mediums. Connect.

I’ve always had this idea in my head. How can I make work that feels like a concert from your favourite band? I think this is how I get closer to that.

Let’s see how it goes.

Love to all,
Adam

(example of how they’ll look framed)