Art and such.: Booze, art and old friends

Opening night of exhibition, faffing entails.

The day began with stomach churning nerves, As I only had one day to set up and that was on the same day as opening night the pressure was immense. I set off for the union with my roll stuffed away into my bag. I arrived and frantically tried to source a section of someone elses room to deploy my work. I chose the largest room leading off from the stairs, I was sharing it with Rhia and Hannah, After much faffing and pootling around with how I wanted it arranged I left it and went home to prepare for the night.

An hour before I was due to leave I cracked open the 'good' vodka and necked back three or four measures out of sheer anxiety. I felt like I was about to be judged, judged as a person. People whom I cared about dearly were coming to judge my creation, coming to view what I was working on to obtain my degree. If they rejected it, it would be like a personal rejection. Especially as my work was purely self indulgent and encompassed my own selfish attributes. Needless to say my premature alcohol intake significantly reduced my nerves, whilst also increasing my clumsy factor ten fold.

The overall response to my work was positive, people were intrigued by my words and their meaning. I had people approaching me actually referring back to me what they thought my work was about and why I was doing it and they were completely right. It was a form of acceptance that I sorely needed, to know that people actually understood what I was striving for with this process felt fantastic.

The free booze and numerous snacks helped the crowd along their way to happiness, as 11pm slowly crept up I was completely exhausted, mentally that is. I'd built up this event to such an extent that the relief of opening night being almost over felt amazing.