Heavenly Beverley : The East End Gallery is open for business.

Sunday 14 September 2014

The East End Gallery is open for business.

We made an executive decision this week. Shop 3 at the Forbes Building, being finished and operational for Marlene's workshop, was at a loose end. An influx of tourists were arriving for the choir extravaganza at the Railway Gallery just across the railway line this weekend. In a few days, we cleaned Michael's sculptures, the desk and other objects and moved them into the shop space. Yvonne had donated a tea set. I set up tea, coffee and biscuits for visitors Shop 3 became the East End Gallery.

We opened yesterday. I updated and printed Michael's artist profile and mounted the information on one of the walls, along with his personal history and all the site and induction cards he had collected from his years in the mining industry. I wrote a notice for ordering purposes of his red back spiders. These Michael can produce fairly quickly for clients. However, each spider will still be individually made with its own rare earth magnet, which can hold over half a kilo on the fridge.

I had a variety of people walking into the gallery over this weekend. Some visitors, some locals, all interested. I so enjoyed sharing the stories behind Michael's sculptures. They are all individual pieces and will never be replicated. Most of them are constructed from found metal objects or recycled metal. Some of them represent Michael's resilience and fortitude. "Gears" took a year for him to create. All are a labour of love.

He will finish the building's renovation in due course, but he is craving a break from the relentless dust and sweat of the hard physical work. So he has returned to his life's passion - producing metal sculpture. He has started on a piece commissioned by a local lady. In addition, he has begun a sculpture for us, for our gallery. Its provisional name is "Unhinged". I'll leave its appearance to your imagination. For the time being.