Joint Exhibition

with Tracy Keller Nickolaus

Exhibition at Aquae Nguvu Gallery in Milwaukee, WI

Thank you to Kevin Hansen for capturing all the photos for this article.

Last night was the opening of a joint exhibition for my Seeing Dementia series and paintings by Tracy Keller Nickolaus entitled Chasing Moments. We have both been working, through our creativity, on our emotional connections to loved ones with dementia, sharing our stories and theirs. There is so much we have in common. The most amazing part is that we met for the first time last night!

Tony Nickalls, owner of Aquae Nguvu Gallery, had the idea to combine our work in one exhibition. I had heard of Tracy and have wanted to meet her for quite a while, so I was very excited by this opportunity. Finally, there she was in person.

Tony did an excellent job of curating and hanging our work. He was still hard at work with the last details shortly before the 5:00 opening. Kevin and I helped with putting gallery labels on the walls and assisting Annie the caterer with opening and arranging the food.

Tracy (right) and her husband Mike (left) discussing my Caregiver portrait

Tracy’s paintings are much larger than my photographs, but Tony hung everything in a way that kept the size difference from being too noticeable. To give you an idea of Tony’s challenge, the portrait of mine below is 25” tall. There is some distortion with the camera lens.

In the photo above, I’m looking into the eyes of a husband and wife. The husband is waiting for his wife to go to sleep before he leaves the memory care facility for the night. It amazed me how Tracy was able to capture the alertness of his gaze and give a more vacant inward stare to his wife. The emotions are there.

Tracy (with the flowers) is talking to a friend. It was a good turnout!

Tony, Marjorie, Abigail and me

Despite the deeply emotional work that Tracy and I put into our images, there is always room for light-hearted laughter! Side note: I love all the textures and patterns in this photo.

Near the end of the night, Marjorie told me that she had purchased one of my paintings! Tony let her put the red dot on the gallery tag herself. She bought Masters in Memory Care #2, the one with Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol having lunch together at a modern memory care facility. That was my first exhibition sale.

What an exciting night!