My New Favorite Words

What exactly are my new favorite words?

'Made possible in part by a grant from the City of Houston
through the Houston Arts Alliance.'

I'm loving those words. Now I can use them when I talk about Second Seating. Late this afternoon my cell phone rang when I was right in the middle of a nice long shower. For whatever reason, I emerged from the shower with wet hair and much dripping on the floor. And with wet hair and much dripping, I received a call with the news that the grant application submitted on my behalf by Neighborhood Centers, Inc. had just been approved for funding. On this very day.
I am really happy about this funding. And I am breathing deeply, one breath after another. I'm enjoying every one of these deep breaths. The estimates of expenses for production that I poured over weeks ago? Now, I can pay for them all. Not that Second Seating was ever in danger of not opening on September 24, exactly one month from this evening, by the way. But funds would have been tight and I'd have thought twice about postage for any extra invites that needed to be mailed. I might have fretted if the paint color I chose needed to be covered over with a better shade of green. The exhibition's signage will be classy now. The electrician's fee to make the place ready for a dozen incredible chandeliers doesn't seem as scary as it did earlier this morning.
This particular funding didn't come out of thin air. I had lots of folks championing Second Seating. Folks went out on a limb to support this endeavor. Not one person really knows what to expect. And yet, they do know some things. They know the tenacity and salesmanship I bring to bear on a project. They know I am both responsible and creative. They know I'll pull it off and surprise them. And the folks who supported this particular funding understand that Second Seating is about inclusion and collaboration, the most important things to know.
One never, ever, does anything alone. At least, not in my experience. People see that common goal, jump on it and play a part. Second Seating has eight participating artists and quite a mix they are, each one talented and contributing something unique to the whole. We're all telling our stories about community and the visual narratives are what makes Second Seating.
So, my thanks to each of you who supported this special opportunity funding and who believe that Second Seating is truly 'a one-time offbeat arts destination in downtown Houston' as the most recent press release states.Second Seating is just blocks from the George R. Brown Convention Center where, in October, 55,000 quilters will wend their way through miles of quilts. These visitors to Houston not only get to see Second Seating, should they choose to take a break from those miles of quilts, but they also get to eat a Second Seating Lunch Special at Irma's, winner of a 2008 James Beard American Classics Award.
This is a lot about marketing. Special opportunity? You bet. What a combination. And today, Houston Arts Alliance joined the list of underwriters of Second Seating. At last.

Making Art, Making the Space Ready

Making art, scrubbing oyster shells. Art is spilling out in the form of painted plates and chairs, collages with photos, fabric, paper cuts and odd spoons.
Adding golden words on oyster shells. That would be why I am scrubbing more and more shells. Suddenly I can see a great pile of shells with golden words.

Also seeing, once again, just how much work is ahead. Still fund raising. Wish I could just stop making calls for funds. But in order to feel truly comfortable, I need more dollars.
Now is the moment to get the postcard invite designed, printed and mailed - in three weeks time. How did it come to this?
I see the city inspector on Monday for the final look through of the space. We've done everything the city asked and we should get an 90 day occupancy permit.
Then the space will be cleaned and the floor power washed, we'll put up a few wall/panels here and there and paint them mustard, terracotta and chartreuse. Then I'll call back the electrician to make ready for the chandeliers. Oh, I need to nail down some stage lights and talk what sort of music and sounds will play on a tape in the space.



Oh, and then there is everybody else's art. Victor Rodriguez' parrot chandeliers, Aggie Eyster's etched metal table tops, Jesse Sifunetes' coffee mug mosaic, Gonzo247's aerosol art table and chairs. It's all going to more than anyone anticipated when all is installed.
Hey, I've managed to secure beer and bottled water and munchies for the opening reception. Still working on a source for cases of Chardonnay.

Looking Ahead

Today is August 1 and a very good day for taking stock. I'm in a post meltdown state, which means I am back in the zone. The month of August stretches ahead, each of its thirty days as long as a month. Artists are at work and Modelle and I are making the exhibition space ready. At this point, it is taking a lot of coordination and money. Modelle is helping with the coordination and I am still raising money. Another grant application will be submitted toward the end of next week. I have an appointment on Tuesday afternoon with yet another potential underwriter and I still need to round up a couple of stragglers so that their names can appear on the postcard invite.
What I realized when I talked through my latest application verbiage and budget with a friend is that Second Seating is a production. I've always called it an installation, but now that Irma's is not the 'finished space' we'd anticipated eight months ago, a 'production' is required to make the most of that metal building. In other words, it needs to be transformed.
An installation is a setting into which we enter and move about. An installation requires place making, ambiance and lighting. Those items require money and sound like a production to me. So I'm on it during these days in August. And in between the production moments, I'll be making art and collaborating with the other participating artists so we deliver a coherent mass of work. It'll be quite a trip.
I've been drawing on glassware again and baking it in the oven. These beveled glass strips are from a salvaged chandelier.
Gonzo247 is spraying the structure on which they hang Chinese red. I've written and drawn on all twenty of the strips of glass. I'll reassemble and see if it sings, or not. If it doesn't, I'll add more color and more stuff. My kitchen table is covered with dishes that still need to be drawn and written on. I am hoping that Mercedes will work with me on these so we have a true bilingual wall of plates. I did bake a dozen with phrases in Spanish, but more is better.
Found three more of those red glass compotes at Value Village last Thursday. Scooped them up to go with the two from at The Guild Shop that I bought months ago.
I'll add metallic glass paint to the three new compotes and bake them. I am wondering just what I will put in these vintage vessels. What sort of fruit? Or should they hold vegetables? What kind? Or should they be piled with objects? What objects? Christmas tree balls? Rocks, stones, shells? Should each compote hold something different? Yet each related to the others? So many options, nuances, relationships. This is the kind of stuff that filters through my head all day long and I love it. There is always something interesting to think about.
So, this morning I've had steel cut oats with yogurt and fresh sliced peaches for breakfast, am contemplating a cup of black breakfast tea and then I will head to the studio to make a wide ruffle for the base of this fabric covered chandelier. It needs to be finished this weekend and carted off to hang in the Harrisburg studio with those chandeliers made with filigreed Clorox bottles, Houston Dynamo balls and Valero oil pipe fittings.
I think another good job for this weekend will be to begin the making of dozens of hang tags that will hold text and bits of images. Text draws folks in emotionally, offers additional layers of meaning. Text can make folks sad or make them laugh. Random phrases, words that conjure up feelings. I love text.
I love Second Seating. I thank heaven that Second Seating appeared in my mind and that I can see this vision of what can be. Today, I am thanking heaven that the project needs a lot of work and attention because it's fun to do this work so others can see this panorama of chandeliers and dinner table too. I love the work. Most of the time. This morning.

Second Seating On Facebook and Other Good Stuff

If I were truly good at this social networking, I'd have a link right HERE so you could see the new Second Seating Houston presence on Facebook. I'll need to get with Q to solve that one and to create a live link to Facebook on the right hand side of this blog page. Suffice it to say that I've had another busy and, it turns out, a very good day, plus allergies run amok. Two running eyes and two running nostrils required that I carry a roll of soft paper towels under my arm all day. I used most of the roll. Actifed and Claritan failed miserably.

Even with this temporary disability, I managed to make a Second Seating Houston Facebook Group and added photos and a pretty good new description of the project. Already have responses. Rushed off to lunch at Irma's with a packet of Second Seating materials and made a friendly request for $2500 of underwriting. Incredibly, the request was granted without a pause in the conversation. Except that I paused, amazed. Little discussion. Just a yes over tacos and mole enchiladas. I consider myself lucky indeed, especially during these economic times. You just never know until you know.

After lunch, I headed off to the Harrisburg studio where I met Irina and we set about a developing a system for stitching portions of what is an ever growing table cloth made from those fabric samples salvaged from a garage flooded during Hurricane Ike.


We stitched and visited and drank coffee and decided that 'sewing bees' can be scheduled on the screen porch at home and then we can visit with a whole group of friends and make this cloth ever larger. Sort of works in with the spirit of this installation too.

Now, late in the evening, after I've added more Second Seating photos to Facebook and am ready to publish this post, I know very well that all this uploading stuff eats away a terrific amount of time. I could have stitched all evening. Or read a good book. Or figured out how to put a photo image on a ceramic plate. Any number of things. Yet here I am typing away. Where is the right balance?














Good thing about photographing some of the fabrics is that I am liking these fragments as wall pieces and so have a new idea to follow. I liked looked down on the whole 'pinned together' table cloth and imagined it on a wall, well embellished. It could turn into that later on. I suppose it could float from the ceiling too.