Task: Gathering

It's been a very good few days for 'Second Seating.' The letters I sent and the phone calls I made two weeks ago are reaping return calls and appointments. As CK used to say, "We've moved the meter." Hurray for that. I am assembling more packets of information about 'Second Seating' and I'll get them in the mail before I fly to Seattle. I'm hoping that most of the recipients will be having a couple of quiet days between Christmas and New Year's, meaning that they just might take a good look inside those packets and be responsive when I call for a visit.


On Tuesday I drove over to the Valero Refinery on Manchester to look at scrap metal that they sell off or leave to rust away like these old flanges. Those flanges also look like skillets or chargers so they may make it on to a table.

I think we can use the nuts and bolts for a chandelier, albeit a very heavy chandelier. All of this stuff will be fun to show to the several other artists who will play parts in creating 'Second Seating.' In fact, after the holidays, I need to write more about each of them and what they will bring 'to the table(s).'

Made a visit to Maximus Coffee to discuss a 'coffee' table constructed with hundreds of mugs and vintage coffee percolators. Response was so positive that I'll begin work on that table in January. Right after New Year's, I'll pick up dozens of coffee cans from Maximus and Irma and I will take them down to Jose Solis in the valley. We'll be talking chandeliers.' Big chandeliers'

Trish has a collection of old percolators that may become part of an elaborate stacked centerpiece on the coffee mug table. I never really looked at old percolators before I photographed Trish's last Sunday. I have the feeling that I'll be haunting Value Village, The Guild Shop and garage sales in search of many, many more.


I have to say it's tough to write about these conversations and visits with East End businesses. They are all leading to something, but conversations are part of a gradual process during which folks become excited and eventually want to play a part in the whole. Writing about anything until there is a commitment is premature. Like a wine, relationships need time and the right conditions to blossom, reach fruition. Am I mixing metaphors here?

Mixed metaphor or not, I am making a decision right now to talk about funders and partners only AFTER they've signed up. For now, this blog will focus on the 'hows' of making the art. There will be more than enough to talk about.

By the way, my clothes dryer has been non-functioning for several weeks. Service man has been here and we thought it was fixed, but it isn't so I've waited another week for a second service call on Friday. You ask, why am I mentioning my clothes dryer? Well, I think the vent and all the insides were clogged with velvet lint from all the washing and drying of those mildewed and sodden brocades and velvets I salvaged from a garage flooded by Hurricane Ike. My dryer couldn't take it and succumbed. Expensive salvage job - is that a business expense of 'Second Seating'?