"The Spontaneous Vernissage"

"The cuckoo", by KK

When I was at the wedding on Saturday I chatted with someone who is social pedagogue, artist and musician. He had been playing the relaxing music while we ate. Although we have known of each other for years we never really knew each other until today when we talked about art, music and life in general.

Suddenly, a while after our initial chat, he came rushing back and said "Susie I have an idea! You are an artist!"

I wondered what I was going to be asked to do next! The last time it was my "sort-of-step-son" who had said something like this, and I ended up painting a blood-stained dress for him!

This time it turned out to be something quite painless, needing no artistic input from me. It was something that has taken only a couple of phone calls and a meeting to organise.

The first exhibition!

Yes an exhibition. I have organised the first exhibition for one of my art-therapy clients, a young man who is autist. It is an idea that I have had in the back of my head but with the plan for sometime next summer when we had a few more pictures to choose from and at a time when we had got to know each other better.

But given such an offer it was hard to refuse.

Always happy to be spontaneous

The social pedagogue at the wedding told me that he has a six-week empty slot in the exhibition area at the centre where he works that he needs to fill very quickly. The private view had already been planned for Saturday, yes this Saturday 26th September, and he had no artist!

Now he has!

The artist, me, his carer and his family are all over the moon. As many people as possible have been asked to pull together to help us as it is such a last-minuite job.

We are pulling out all the stops

I am informing as many people as possible. I was up well into the night making name tags and price tags for the eighteen paintings and sculptures that are to be displayed, searching for a few more frames and trying to organise my other work for the week.

I shall unfortunately have to miss the private view on Saturday but will be having a look at the exhibition with my client when next we meet. Dad has promised to take lots of photographs.

My client will be there with his parents and his carer and I hope lots of arty supporters with a few pennies in their pockets!

I am sure that my client will have, then as now, a big, happy, smiling soul.

It has been such an achievement for him to now be able to spend two whole hours each week painting with me, concentrating and full of wonderful ideas. It is even more of an achievement that he sat with us all as we had a meeting yesterday at the exhibition site, talking, over lemonade and coffee, about all we needed to plan.

For my client this is a first big step into a new arty world. It is also myfirst step to working together with:

Der BUNI - Kultur- und Freizeittreff -

http://www.bunitreff.de/