Week 7 of the Windgate Residency is all about the final touches before the install of the show. It is an exciting, sometimes nerve-wracking, always fun, race to the finish for both the Resident Fellows and the folks at the Center for Art in Wood.
On the resident side, we were finishing all of our pieces, giving them titles and prices, and thinking about getting all of the work safely to the gallery. Meanwhile, at the Center, they were moving walls, painting and patching from the last show, printing up labels and information, and beginning to install the work. Long before week 7, Alex Felix, Manager of Exhibitions, gathered information about what was happening during the residency – planning the layout for artworks that weren’t even finished yet, writing up all of the informational signage for the exhibition, designing the title wall and the pamphlets that went with the show. All of that needs time to be worked on and printed! No one was slacking this summer, I promise.
One of the things that the break due to Covid allowed for us and the Center to do was to make some changes to the way the residency is titled. At the very beginning, Navva asked us to think about an exhibition title that might reflect the new aspects of the residency, and after some thought we settled on Overlap. We all liked the idea that the residency allowed our artworks and lives to overlap for the summer, and the idea that there is a lot of overlap in terms of woodworking in our practices, but with such diverse outcomes! And the subtle reference to a lap joint in woodworking was a nice….um, overlap. Ha. Couldn’t resist.
This crew is magical! Chris, Kailee, Katie, Janice, & James
I think this is where I admitted that I didn’t know what to do with my arms in photographs.
As for the art works, Chris was packing up all of his treasures and starting to move them to the Center already!
James was wrapping up all of his works and doing a little bit of assembly where needed. 
Janice was finishing her wall-hung shelf and painting!
Kailee was working furiously, both on wooden parts that needed final sanding and shaping, and on the patina step for her cast bronze pieces. 
And I was in Sanding Town, also sometimes called Nightmare Village. I will admit that sanding is not my favorite part about woodworking. After a long stay in Sanding Town, I was able to travel down the road to the Port of Painting and Patterns, and I like that place a lot better. 
We were ALMOST DONE!!!! The Center scheduled a Uhaul for us on Tuesday of week 8, so at this point there was no going back…