Intramurals isn't even a word.

For the past 8 months or so I've been slowly putting together this show for a gallery I used to lick envelopes for 15 years ago. This is the first exhibition I've organized for anyone, and although I'm constantly organizing exhibitions I'd like to see in my head making this real, it seems, is a real task. Not a task I mind, it's been a pleasure to be in the company of so many real artists and a disappointment to not have worked with the many more I really wanted to include but couldn't for lack of space or lack of organizational acumen on my part. I really wanted to include everyone I've ever known in this show.

I titled the exhibition Intramurals because I am, or was, so very bad at group sports as an youngster. I never had the skills or passion for a team effort, I never really got the whole idea of being a cog in a functioning wheel and I made many embarrassing mistakes trying to be that cog. There was the one time when I was playing indoor soccer, I was right in front of the opponent's goal and instead of heading the ball out of the way I tried to set the ball, volleyball style, to a teammate. And before that (here is a clue) were all the times I tried unsuccessfully to kick a home run in kickball and failed because someone in the outfield caught the ball. I wasn't an awkward kid, just bad at what seemed to come naturally to other kids. Honestly, when a ball came at me I tended to duck, dodge or get out of the way, I wanted nothing to do with balls. I gave up because constant softballs to the face kind of sucked.

"Curated" as it is from the pipe dream museum in my head Intramurals is by default about me, which is what I dislike the most about “curators”. I like to say that I “refereed” the show instead, because that's all I'm really doing. I'm not curating here, that takes thought, and a PhD, and millions of hours of reading art texts and history books. All I'm doing is calling some plays as I see them. Rounding up some loose ideas I had, herding some cats, getting them to be in the same room together. 

Art became my group sport in about 1988, back then I was good at sitting still, looking, thinking and daydreaming, still am. Much less demanding than piano lessons, painting and drawing lessons were my parents after school babysitter. They were busy running a business so I got busy making pictures when I wasn't at the library (my other sitters were Encyclopedia Britannica, Judy Blume, Richard Adams and Stephen King). I didn't get really serious about making things until about my senior year in college and I didn't start making things that were really mine until about 5 years ago.

Why do I tell you these things? Because the silly ball I bought at Paragon to use as a model for the card made me think of all of that. I'm putting the ball in the show, not as an artwork by me but as a ball by Tachikara. I bought the classic red one, I thought it was an appropriate illustration of what artists do within the walls.

So anyway, yeah, here is the thing:

Exhibition: Intramurals, an exhibition of painting, drawing and sculpture featuring recent work by Matthew Fisher, Stacy Fisher, Gina Magid, Sarah Mattes, Lucy Mink, Brent Owens, Heidi Pollard, Garric Simonsen, Ryan Steadman and Adam Thompson, refereed by Christopher Moss.

Where: Afa Gallery, 514 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503

When: May 3-26, 2012, a reception for the artists will be held Friday May 4, 6-9 PM

Intramurals: From Latin intramuralis, from prefix intra-, meaning within and murus, meaning wall.