Redwood Assemblage

it never occurred to me that my wood trays had so many uses. while it may not be the most practical of laptop trays, theoretically you could use it as such.  it hadn't even occurred to me that it looks great as a wall piece until a few weeks ago when the art center here in town wanted one of my wood trays for their gift shop and to my surprise, hung it on the wall where it promptly sold.  so now you have three choices...table or laptop tray or wall art.  i still have a few bucketfuls of these redwood 'slats' that have been discarded from the build site via the phoenix commotion.  their original use was for the redwood deck doors and studio doors.  i was happy to get the remains and have to date made three trays as well as 62 redwood assemblages from this and other redwood refuse.  it's limited, this wood, so i of course think it is extremely valuable.  get it while you can.

building?

i was lucky that a few years ago when i was making art i still had some savings, lived rent free as i care took in a home and the economy hadn't dived into the ditch. plus i was actually making money selling art!  all of that has changed.  my $$ tank is on E.  i've moved and have rejoined the renters world and my art is taking longer to sell in this economy and new surroundings.  the obvious answer is a real job (we all know art isn't a real job right).  so i have my new part time job cleaning vacated apartments which i should be grateful for seeing as there aren't many jobs i can find let alone perform.  i still need help understanding how i will ever get anywhere.  i have no energy to make art right after cleaning and if all i do is work, i think if i'm lucky in a year or two i could have money saved and make art again full time.  i dont see myself living like that.  i just dont. i'm not that patient and i go nuts if i dont make art.

it's been a possibility since we moved here that we would scoop up a remaining plot of land for $8,500.  thats right, not 85,000 but eight thousand, and build our own house.  since we came here to work/volunteer, get involved with the phoenix commotion dan has offered this land to us.  it's taken us nearly seven months to figure out if we want to do it, if we CAN do it and if we should do it.  it seems daunting and exciting.  right now some other people from the phoenix commotion are just now starting to build on the plot next to where we would.  a mom and a son.  he is out there in 95 degree humid weather digging holes in the ground by hand.  i wonder if i can do that.  the good news is we would have help, there are always volunteers coming and going willing to work hard just to learn and get experience.  technically we could build this in 6 months if we hauled ass. 

the miracle of it all is that tod went to the bank and we actually have a CHANCE at getting a loan.  i guess this is one case of where poverty is useful.  the whole point of the dan phillips houses are to aide poor people in getting their own home.  with tod's remaining savings and current min. wage job for dan, and my scanty art sales and now cleaning income, we have a good chance of getting the 30-35K loan we need.  thats all we need.  that buys the land and whatever supplies/mentoring time we are going to need.  much of the material for our 450-550 sq foot print will be free, offered via donations to the phoenix commotion, plus whatever we find ourselves through the re-store (which is run by the habitat for humanity).  we probably aren't going to make this a typical looking dan house...none of the mosaic and all the whistles and bells.  we need a frickin house up YESTERDAY.  if we can get in there, the payments will be, with tax, under $400.  that is $200 EACH.  we are good at not wasting energy, our last energy bill was $26 and we are in a 900 sq foot apartment.  i know we can do this if we can do this.  tod knows it too. right off the bat we wont be able to build a studio for me so i kind of feel like i'm going to stop being an artist and disappear but tod assures me we will find a way somehow.  the goal is get it up and done and move in and cut costs.  we will live in a tiny house, hopefully two stories, but it will be ours.  hopefully after that is done we get another loan for under 10K from our equity and build an art studio.  we dont want grass/landscaping and would have just enough room on this small plot to build a place for me to work.  it is unimaginable not having studio space or making art but the way it is now life as we know it can't go on much longer if we dont make some drastic changes.  if we DONT do this the alternative is move to another smaller apartment and i wont have space anyhow so why not go for it and have an affordable mortgage instead of pissing away rent?  moving to another city where there are more jobs would just mean working all the time to pay for rent forget about space and time to work on art.  i'm not NOT going to make art and survive.  i'm just not.  but realistically speaking, i don't really know what i am or am not going do to.  no one does.

i am open to any suggestions anyone has per a creative way to get art selling online to help procure $$ for this venture. it's not 100% we are getting the loan but the more money we can come up with now the better.  as it is we need to have 20% up front which tod has in savings but i want to be half owner with tod and need to come up with $4000. i say 'we' can get the loan and 'we' can do this but unless i can pay for at least half of the land i'm really just along for the ride and will have no ownership.   he needs my income to secure this loan. seeing as our mortage wouldn't start until we were done building and moved in, it feels like a once in a lifetime chance here to get a leg up and not be in the rent ratrace forever.  i really want to do this and gain some independence once and for all.  the cost of living is so low here, once we move in and lower our bills i know i would have time for art even if i had to work a part time job.  feels exciting to think of eventually having my own studio and living next to a few other artists.  an artist already lives across the street in a phoenix commotion house, and those people who just started building are both artists too.  it could be a really cool little supportive community and a good enzyme for huntsville! 

pipes and tubes, you get to choose

in my despair over not being able to find free found scrap of any significance here in huntsville, i finally went to the local scrap/recycle center a few weeks ago and took a quick look around.  its a small place, one clump of stuff piled yay tall, a few bins filled and thats about it.  there is another scrap yard on the outer edges of town but it's lacking big time by paula standards.   

so imagine my delight when i saw one longish square tube/pipe of steel that was bright yellow pencil colored.  so cool, and square!  i'd never seen these types of pipes even though i now know they are used in structural building, it's not anything i've come across before.  i also found three larger rectangle tubes that are super thick and have what appear to be plasma cut slits in them as well as some other pipes of various and sundry types.  tod and i walked back home with aching arms and i went straight to work. 

i've made these into waterproof vases. you can use them in or out of doors as i've used rustproof enamel paint on the interior.  these are sold in sets of three, the first set just sold so theres just two more left.    if yellow isn't your thing, don't forget i've got some contemporary aluminum vases for sale as well.  these are interior containers for pencils/paint brushes/dried flowers or anything you might deem container worthy.  they are lightweight, incredibly affordable and they won't scratch your furniture.  Eight out of eleven are left and available here.

i love these things.  i love making containers/vases out of materials that no longer serve their original purpose.  not sure why i like pipes so much, you could get all Freudian if you wanted as i seem to remember having vivid fantasies about somehow morphing into the drain pipe of our bathtub and escaping into some unknown world.  i remember playing in parks when i was a kid, they had these large concrete 'pipes' or tunnels with various little exits and entryways.  i would spend hours in them. i loved laying in there and hanging out. while i can't crawl into these small objects,  there is something delicious about holding them in your hand.  grabbing them.  hefting them around.  finding things to put in there and lining them up like an army to safeguard your vertical possessions.  off i go, time to cut the next pipe.  this one is green!

ugh

suddenly i think shut up paula.
just shut up.
louise worked her mad ass off.
am i?
she was in new york city.
she had cronies and i can barely connect with a magnet here. or maybe anywhere.
times were different then and i suppose i can't compare myself.  i do.
i feel diminuative. exceedingly.
who do i think i am thinking i would even warrant a notice right now.
you have to think you are doing something wonderful
and yet, you have to know you aren't
i'll go clean some apartments i guess.

louise louise you did what you pleased

so i'm reading a biography on Louise Nevelson.  it's been eye opening as i didn't know anything about her, in fact until a year or so ago i'd never heard of her until a blog friend mentioned her.  i think i steered away from knowing more about her because what little i heard wasn't good and i didn't have room in my head for another fucked up artist. i guess for whatever reason, i have room now.  there are a few things about her life as an artist that is relate-able and much that is not.  i'm here today working on my little wood assemblages and keep thinking about her struggles and entry into the art world.  i'm hearing words i've recently read....someone asking her how she got into certain art shows and her response was 'why, fucking of course'.  i'm visualizing her constant moving from studio to studio, living in utter poverty and yet wining and dining with the best of them. her beauty lent her many opportunities she might not of had otherwise.  her friends and family were constantly supporting her in financial and material ways.  i'm realizing i have no beauty to fall back on.  which is probably a more honest way to get through life.  nor do i have a whole lot of support, which again, probably just as well as i want to make my own way and unless someone wants to buy my art i don't really want sums of money shoved into my pockets with some unspoken onus hanging in between us.  it does leave me a little hopeless feeling, i keep hearing that artists need patrons.  philanthropists.  and i look around at the few online artists i know who are 'making it' and they seem to have connections and contacts that leave me in the dust.  

got me wondering if i should try to find an agent?  anyone ever done that?  i know nothing about this and don't feel a pull to do it but i also know sitting here in huntsville isn't exactly being perched at the hub of it all.  i hadn't thought about this until last week when i visited an artist out of town who was showing me her portfolio and made mention of 'this was when i had an agent and got lots of jobs'.  she was commissioned to do murals in homes.  when she said that i thought huh. is that a possibility?  do unknown emerging artists get agents?  i suppose i'll have to get on my google.

some other interesting things about louise that leave me humbled is learning that she too had storage issues and after one particularly large show (of which nothing sold) she had her son help her destroy and burn most everything in the back yard.  she would go through intense periods of paralyzing depression after a show.  she started binge drinking in her late 40's.  it sounds as if she refused to live on anyone elses' terms but her own and she paid dearly for it.  i have to respect that.  as i sit here avoiding calling the office and saying yes i will clean those two apartments today.  i dont want to clean and make thirty or forty dollars.  its gross work and wears me down.  i'll avoid it today.  i just want to work, MY work.  am i insane that i would spend a week working on pipe vases that i can never recoup the time in worth, but i would rather do that than work for someone else doing something that makes me want to kill myself?  i keep thinking something must be wrong with me.  perhaps that is why i'm enjoying reading louise's bio.  she found a strength that i've yet to find in her decision not to bend.  she was on a journey, a search for herself as a person.  right or wrong she adhered to it.  she knew she shouldn't have kids but she had one during her brief marriage.  she knew she was a horrible mother and she probably lived a much harder life than she needed to but art was what seemed to make her heart beat.  i guess it's good my big drinking days are over.  my bar days gone.  i'm too fragile to live a corrupt life anymore.  i hope i can live honestly and cleanly and not use or be used by others in order to fulfill my hearts desire.  i think it's important.

it's also fascinating to read how she grew as an artist.  her diving into 3-D works, how she yearned for that dimensionality over painting and to learn of her journey into that world, the why's and how's of it all.  i'm still reading the book and i think it's actually good for me right now.  a little daunting,a little depressing because even back in the 50's and 60's her work in wood was considered antiquated, unfinished and awkward. wood work even back then was considered DONE TO DEATH.  and here i am, my wood assemblages in their nascency. feeling like i've just discovered the secrets to the universe.  makes me realize there probably isn't much chance of anyone giving a horses ass about what i'm doing but fuck me, i have to do it.  better than cleaning a filthy apartment.  at least today.

speed bump

in between doing and knowing and wanting is where i'm at right now.  i have my puzzle projects to begin if i want but i keep putting the brake on them because i'm waiting for my little sign.  i need signs sometimes.  i haven't sold a puzzle piece in awhile and while people seem to love them when they see them in person, loving and buying are two different things. they are a lot of work and aren't something you just wrap willy nilly and throw into a corner.

i do find it interesting the speed bumps along the way of art making.  sometimes you blast through it all, jolt the hell out of yourself but you go ahead at full speed. true you can cover a lot of ground going along like that but you can also tear yourself up.  sometimes its worth it, sometimes it aint. sometimes, like now for instance, i come to a complete stop at each bump and slowly roll over it.  not a good way to travel.  gotta decide if you are going for it or not at some point.

it sounds so awful to say it, but most of my not wanting to go ahead with it has to do with the accumulation of it all.  the packing and storing.  i've said it before; it's nothing new.  i don't like it when i question it.  a thread of some perceived responsibility is what dangles in my peripheral and i question myself. i look ahead and think what the hell am i going to do with all this stuff.  is it good to think about this if all it does it paralyze me?  i dont think so. maybe i should step on the gas pedal like there is no tomorrow.

boat loads of trash

well school is out the university kids have no reason to stay here and i guess its just too much to ask that they take their unwanted things to the mission or thrift store.  i mean, they do live 5 or more blocks away from it and who can ask them to drive their bst's (big stupid trucks) all that distance to unload trash right? 

tod and i dont need much, dont want much but its irresistable to not take a peek inside the dumpsters.  i thought it was fitting that last night while students and parents were all dressed up walking on campus for part one of graduation that tod and i were on our bikes racing to dumpster after dumpster before the storm hit.  i have never gone dumpster diving such as i have here in texas.  and to tell the truth it is a little intimidating and sometimes demoralizing, especially when you hear the voice in your head rattle on assumed thoughts of those who might see you.  i could just hear those students' thoughts....glad they have an education so they dont have to be a middle aged dumpster diver.  tod had no shame and i aspire to that.  after all, we are smart yes for getting nearly brand new shoes for free?  and when i reached into a bag and found this hand stapler i felt waves of undeniable joy.

i wish i liked super perfumy shampoos and body care products because those items were tossed out by the basket full.  you name it and we found it.  i found a nice lightweight blue blouse and rolls of unopened paper towels as well as pens and little containers to hold stuff.  it truly boggles the mind what people throw away.  we are still a  hugely wasteful society, if this much stuff is thrown away just at this dinky university imagine all the other schools this time of year, what they must throw out. i understand the students have a limited time and they have to be out of the dorms.  i understand they are zooming home and can't take all this shit with them but how is it possible they are so clueless or the university is so clueless or careless that measures aren't taken to at least TRY to recycle this stuff?  one guy saw us looking through the dumpster and walking towards it as we were leaving, he yelled, hey do you want a printer?  HUH??????  it looked new and perfectly good but i already have two.  perhaps if i weren't on my bike i would have taken it myself to the mission. 

The Linguist

never took proper pictures of The Linguist.  finally got around to it.  i'm really happy with this one, and as usual pictures do not do it justice.  i have two more puzzle heads percolating in my own head.  remember those puzzle towers i was working on last summer?  rather than have them be stand alone towers or sterio speaker stands as originally intended, i'm thinking they will serve as puzzle head bases instead.  they will be monsterous. 

self taught exhibition

so i went to the show last night at the wynne home arts center where i got to see three REAL THORNTON DIAL work.  WOW!  some of his pastels similar to what is on the left.  i like his mixed media assemblages and sculptures the best but i'm happy to see whatever i can from his hand.

the Dial work was part of a private collection. it was interesting to hear a talk about the work of 'self taught artists'.  i sometimes get a little ruffled about all that talk, as i am self taught but sometimes i think i'm not considered a 'real' self taught artist by the 'true self taught collector' and why? i've been told its because i have a website, because i've been in galleries, because i'm relatively normal and sane and wasn't making art when i was truly fucked up.  because i am familiar with other artists and the general art world.  and mostly, because i want to make a living from it.  as if that somehow dissolves my self taught standing, as if self taught artists are supposed to be totally blind or ignorant and willing to suffer miserable lives instead of making a living from what they create.  god knows i'm just as poor as they are.  i dunno.  its best i dont think too long about it all.  i dont belong in that world i guess but i also dont belong in the taught artist world.  it's all just semantics to me and rubs me the wrong way.

i couldn't help but feel a little ruffled too hearing the definition of a self taught typical artist:  someone who wasn't educated in art (me).  someone who came to art later in life due to an accident or some big change in their life (me).  someone usually a little crazy or obsessive compulsive  (used to be and some might argue still am)  someone who usually works with found materials because they can't afford to buy things (me).  someone who usually has one person interested in their work who helps them/supports them/ a patron if you will.  (i have tod but not a wealthy patron). 

neither is better. art is art, whether you learned it yourself, learned it from a school or a mentor or your pet pig.  i think it sucks to be judged by your education or background.  i got a little exhausted there, the lower back was tired of standing, the body on alert as this was the first real art gathering i'd been to in huntsville and i was finally able to see that yes mabel, there ARE real people here who like, appreciate, and buy art in huntsville.  matter-o-fact i sold my little wood tray twice.  i hear before they could put a SOLD on it someone else tried to buy it.  go figure.  my little dinky redwood tray made from cast off wood from a build site.  the woman who wanted it for the gift shop loved it on the wall so i loved it too.  and apparently so did a few other folks!  its a good sign, i'm ready to dig my hands into my piles of scrap wood again.  maybe make another tray or two and definitely more wood assemblages (see post below). 

tod went out afterward as we were invited out for drinks.  i just wanted to come home and be alone.  i had a smile plastered on my face for 1.5 hours and had exceeded my small talk limit.  besides, i have more art to make.  i'd like to think that i can get lost again doing what i love and not what i hope/think/want to show/sell.  recently i had that epiphany that it is all to easy to lose site of the direction your art heart wants to go, case in point that wood tray that sold.  the first one i made was small and i messed it up.  called it the fuck up.  gave it away to a friend who apparantly loved it while i was hard at work on a larger, better one.  then i got all judgy about it.  didn't even put it on my website and had it on etsy for awhile but thought nah, no one will buy this.  and then i take it to the art center and the woman loved it and wanted it on the wall.  when she put it up i realized it is more art than a tray and it looked pretty damn cool.  i have to stop defining what something is and play again.  do you know i didn't even sign that tray that sold? i find that quite wonderful.

bat guano wafting in the wind and here i go again

i feel like a moron most of the time.  yesterday i finally decided with tod's help, to trudge over to the gallery space and find a way to take pictures of all my wood assemblages at once.  so while the clueless could glance at this and exclaim oh wow lookee at all those, what i see is bad photography, bad set up and double bad execution.  its GREAT to see these puppies all together but what you might not know is, they are on the floor.  i still haven't found a way i want to hang/present them as the majority of them look just as cool on the other side and i didn't want to screw hangers into them.  these are small, keep in mind the largest is about 8" long and the average size is just 3-4" W and L.

the first trip over we took both boxes and after realizing there wasn't an easy way to hang them without putting over 120 nails in the wall (2 nails could be spread apart and the piece rest on them i suppose) we dragged the three doors that jared put together as display walls outside in the light and i stood up on the outdoor 'bar' looking down at them.  didn't have a ladder and i really wanted a shot of all of them.  this is just the first batch, the 2nd batch we went back and did later because after unwrapping each one and writing down the number on a little piece of paper and laying it under the piece so we could re-wrap in the same numbered wrapping paper we were spent. i didn't take the time i could have to arrange them because once i had that little number under it it became even more of a chore to pick them up and catch that little piece of paper before the wind blew it away.

it got comical when i had a burst of energy and wanted to capture the same cloudy day lighting and begged tod to go with me again.  we walked over and started doing it again and tod just laid on the deck and had a meltdown. he got kind of pink/pale/ill looking and started shaking uncontrollably with a kind of anger/humor/laugh.  he was exhausted and it stunk of bat guano over there (the wafting shit from the bats at the prison a block away) and frankly we know this is crazy.  all of it.  the lugging of STUFF back and forth and over and over and making and doing and lugging and showing and lugging and storing.  it gets to us.  when tod's mom was here she had one little space to sit in and most of the time i had to move boxes and bubble wrap out of the way.  we live like hoarders even though we are not.  we just dont have space for our art stuff.  it goes against everything that seems logical, especially to tod.  there is a love/hate relationship with this art life.  i'm not complaining as much as just feeling as a loss most times for how much longer this can go on and what is necessary in order to live sanely.  what we NEED is an industrial building to work/store everything we collect.  what we need is a nice little place to just eat and sleep and not have to see the boxes and the tools and everything else.

anyway.... here is #2.  these are actually the first 30 odd pieces i made, the vertical photo is the latter half.  it was darker by then and without even thinking about how mismatched it would look this time i had the brilliant idea of doing it horizontally so when i stood on the bar thing i could just point down and shoot without later rotating the photo.  what i realize now is that i'm an idiot because not only are these blurry when viewed as 1:1 viewing, it just isn't right to have one vertical and one horizontal. not to mention the color is OFF, these have so much more character in real life i can't submit as is.  i took these mostly for an upcoming art proposal i fantasize about submitting to.  ugh.  i will have to do this again.  it'd be easier if they were all numbered in some cool way and not individually wrapped in layers of tissue paper.  i dread doing this again but i will.  its what i do.

revival

so yesterday was a big day, an unexpected one at that!  remember when i did the angel show (1,2,) at the Katy and E. Don Walker Education Center on campus last November? (of course you do right?)  well a woman there had really liked one of my photo mixed media pieces but was on the fence about one of the photos in the piece.  i'm happy to say that has since sold and even happier to say she went to our temporary gallery space yesterday with her son to meet me and have a look see at our 'show' and ended up buying my little bone table for her deck!  they made up for everything that didn't happen saturday night, meaning: i got to talk about all of our art for over 30 minutes to people who were interested and loved seeing everything in there.  And they were interesting as well so i feel like i made a connection with people who got what we were doing. 

as if that weren't enough for one day, i then stopped over at the Wynne Home Arts Center just down the street (to the best of my knowledge it is the only art place in Huntsville not counting the university) to drop off a few things for the gift shop.  i had tried in december to get some work in there but for one reason or another we were always missing each other as there were two people i needed to contact to make it happen.  i let it slide.  here is an interesting thing about timing, because i felt this little tug to NOT force it.  something was telling me to not do it right now and it made no sense to me.  i let a few months go by and checked in with myself and still felt like NO not now.  and then suddenly last week it hit me to contact them and finally it all just happened at the perfect time because as you can see in the postcard above, next monday they are showing an outsider art/self taught artist collection of works. it's extra cool because initially i was only expecting to get a few clocks or candle holders into the gift shop and the woman putting together the next 'mini show' in the gift shop was so excited about my work she took way more than that.  she took the warrior puzzle sculpture, the mystic, and a few mixed media assemblages as well.  and in the next room all the crazy outsider art is exhibiting so maybe, just maybe some of my work will get a glance too!

i have to say, the Wynne home is pretty cool.  its a huge old mansion filled with quite remarkable art from what i am gathering were or are all the local artists that i've yet to meet, sounds like many of them live elsewhere now or a bit out of town but it gave me hope. i guess the main exhibit space is spoken for a year in advance so as you might guess being in that little gift shop is quite the gift to me!

more from our show

Tod's 'depurposed tools'.  Amused many and got plenty of study time.

Pedestal that Jared made with broken tempered glass and grout.  It was a hit amongst the female viewers.

 Tod's obtuse sculptures.  This one right above was called by one artist 'the ballsiest piece here'.

My puzzle table and puzzle sculpture.

Shelf with Tod's miniature found object sculptures.

will have another batch in the coming days.   again, these aren't showing well, its a cave in the daytime with a few fluorescent lights and if i use a flash it makes everything gross looking.  this is as good as i can do right now.  i think my favorite works that tod has done are the two wiry things on the yellow background/door.  i have to laugh, a professor at Sam Houston saw that one and announced it was the balliest piece here.  i said i'm glad you like it.  he said i didn't SAY i liked it.  i said it was the balliest piece.  what can you say to that?

i also noticed many people eyeing Jared's pedestal as well as the small sculptures on tod's shelves.  it really was interesting though how few people seemed to genuinely be interested in the majority of the work, especially mine...least as far as i could tell.  all the openings i've been in/attended people asked me questions ~ good thing i have had many good experiences in showing my art, this show could have crushed me if i were more insecure about my work.  huntsville, you is a hard nut to crack.

the art we showed saturday: tod's daddy dolls

its really challenging to take good pictures of art, and it was more so because this is a space with only one garage opening that faces north and the lighting is horrible. excuse the blur, the bad, i do want to share some of the work we had in there.

starting with tod and his daddy dolls.  dolls made by reversing coffee bags, putting Styrofoam in the 'heads' and using all found objects (no adhesives/glues) to both decorate and assemble the work. (they have yet to be named or priced ) 

reclaimed pipe vases

i'm excited to show off my new waterproof pipe vessels! i brought this old orange pipe with me to texas from vermont and finally had the inspiration to cut it, cut and shape metal flashing to fit the bottom and apply water proof marine stuff to it.  i also ground down all the gunk on the inside to reveal beautiful shiny steel so i could paint it with rust protector. does it get any better than a reclaimed pipe vase?  will put on etsy soon, i'm still reeling from all the hard work put into last saturdays show!

good night

the good news is, we didn't get the purported severe thunderstorms and people showed up!  i will admit i didn't think that that many people attended, but tod assures me that easily 50, possibly 75 humans dropped by so i must have been focusing too much on one conversation at a time.  you know how it is at an opening, faces and time fly by and you are unaware of the big picture. 

the big picture is what i must keep in mind, you see, tod has always bragged that at every event i've ever exhibited i have always sold at least ONE thing.  last night broke that record.  it was a big fat zero for me and i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a little disappointed.  yeah i had my big ticket items there but i also had all my candle holders (starting at $25) as well as other affordable pieces on display. i am disappointed but not surprised if that makes sense.  i can't dwell on it or else i will lose sight of the overall experience which i found to be pretty damn good. 

and i have to say, it was pretty exciting that the one person who did sell something, jared (see the photo above) had never made assemblages let alone show them and he sold that piece within the first 10 minutes of us opening up!  the woman whisked it away and that was that.  glad i took one picture of it while it was still on the wall.  both jared's and tod's work generated a lot of interest all night long.  all my pictures of the evening/art turned out blurry; we only got a few good shots of the crowd.  i'm gonna go back today or tomorrow and take proper photographs of the work before we dismantel it.

as for the crowd:  the guy that rents the office next door works for some local tv station and he was there video taping us.  he asked us all to do an interview but no one was interviewing us, one at a time we all spoke and when it was my turn i found myself squirming and BABBLING about nothing to this huge lens 4" from my face.  seemed too ridiculous just talk about yourself with no prompting from someone else.  i ended it and hope to god i never have to see myself let alone hear myself. 

i was happy that the gallery owners who exhibited my work in march showed up (he can't wait to get his hands on my 'warrior' puzzle piece) as well as most of the crew from the phoenix commotion.  cool to recognize so many faces and to see new ones as well. would i do it again? i suppose so, gotta keep building up steam even though right now it feels like a lot of work for literally nothing.  i'm really not thinking i made any contacts but one never knows what goes on in peoples heads.  i'm sure you know how it is, the thrill of getting ready for an opening usually clashes with the letdown of it all being over and having to find the next venue, the next thing.  i dread bringing all that art back and clogging up my living space. 

funny, i think the best part about all of this was helping tod and jared.  getting the show ready and watching them get their work finished and up.  it was the typical 'last minute' for everything.  literally 10 minutes before we opened jared was still working on his pieces.  tod was also slaving away for 3 or 4 hours yesterday afternoon to finish his work.  reminded me of my first show, and brought back good memories.  it was exciting to see how it all came together somehow at the very last minute.  a HUGE thank you to tod's mom for slaving away with food preparation in the most ungodly heat and humidity we've had to date.  (gee i think it really will be as horrid here in the summer as people make it out to be!!!)  thank you to kristie for bringing us portable chairs and home made salsa and chips.....thank you cynthia for bringing that box of wine (kathy griffin's mom would be proud!) and inviting some of your friends to come as well!  all in all it was a supportive experience and you can't ask for much more than that!

this way. that way