the artist in the spotlight

You'll have to forgive me if I sound a little proud of Evangeline here, but if I do, it's because I am.

Evangeline's art teacher at the Academy of Art of Hoover Point and Gallery has invited Evangeline to exhibit her original artwork at the gallery. This isn't in conjunction with other students or a tack-on to a larger exhibit that includes other exhibitors. This is an honest-to-goodness art exhibit of Evangeline's work, and she has it all to herself.

The exhibit kicks off with an opening reception from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Jan. 28, where people can come and go as fits their schedule and munch on age-appropriate snacks while they're there. Evangeline's instructor, who runs the studio and gallery, gave me a guide to hosting an art exhibit that suggests wine and cheese or something similar. I'm guessing grapes, crackers and other nonsugary snack foods are a good idea.

In all seriousness, I have my work cut out for me. In the next two weeks, I have to sort through Evangeline's work with her, pick out the ten best pieces of art to display, frame them, help set them up at the gallery, get invitations to all her friends and other people we want to have come, write up brief descriptions of each work, create a brief amusing or serious bio, avoid mentioning the exhibit to people who are going to think I'm putting on airs about how great my daughter is and continue with my normal litany of chores and responsibilities like housekeeping and helping Evangeline with her homework. (Plus, I want to get some honest-to-goodness writing done each day.)

Still, as you can probably tell, I'm excited about this. In my more fanciful moments, I have visions of an artist's bio years from now that begins, "Evangeline Learn held her first art show when she was only six years old" but I'm not so completely caught up in this that I can't see the other side of the equation. Essentially, for no fee, we're going to be advertising the art academy to a group of Evangeline's friends and classmates. The ones who actually come to the opening will get to see the academy, their parents will get some of the literature, and some of them may even start taking lessons. So it benefits the academy.

On the other hand, from what the teacher told me, she's never actually done a display of any work by children before, and she's said in the past that she considers Evangeline to be her finest student in that age group. And if Evangeline's a good artist for her age, a lot of it's because of the classical instruction she's received at this studio. So if the teacher wants to use an art show to attract some of Evangeline's friends, I'm fine with that.