Vanished, Gone, Over

Well, it took more than a week, but Second Seating has vanished from 20 N Chenevert. The place, on the inside, is once again a stark grey metal building. Once again, it is all potential and ready for a new vision.
I had little idea of how much work it would be to move everything from the space, largely because I just hadn't thought it all through until the process was under way and I always underestimate the time it will take to accomplish tasks. The day after Thanksgiving, Bobby Schlitzberger arrived to haul off the 1000 pounds of compressed aluminum cans that made that wonderful table base for those sensational light fixtures made with salvaged oil drilling pipes. Irma moved her truck back into the space the afternoon after Bobby hoisted those 30,000+ cans onto his truck and drove off.We continued our efforts to dismantle Second Seating on Monday when Craig and Luis came to remove all the painted walls and cart them off to a warehouse where they'll rest until I find a new place and make a new space. They also took down Ted's painting that stretched over the ceiling and we rolled it up in plastic. We packed for two days, endlessly it seemed. There was just so much stuff in the installation that we'd put there over a month's time. I mean, it took Jeff and me over a day to Windex all the dishes and assorted bric a brac from the big banquet table and then wrap each item and pack away in boxes. Everything was layered with dust - no glass in the windows, so the Windex part of packing was essential. Pretty gritty in the space. Jeff and I shook the giant patchwork tablecloth out in the middle of the street during a red light and then folded it up. It weighs a ton and filled the back seat of the car. Offenhauser folks carefully wrapped and carted off that stunning table base they designed as a play on the chrome arches they fabricated for the Galleria's Post Oak Blvd.The place began to look worse and worse as things were boxed and made ready for moving. Looked like a random dump for awhile. I spent a lot of time with a pair of leather gloves on picking up what must have been several thousand oyster shells and tossing them in plastic crates. Victor Rodriguez and Victor, Jr. came and took down all the marvelous parrots.On Wednesday, the electricians cameto remove the track lights and conduits, plugs and wires. Another crew arrived with their ladders and down came all the big chandeliers. I'd untied the ropes of filigreed Clorox bottles and packed them away in big trash bags.We got a late start moving things out on Thursday. Irma's truck was in the front of the space so we carted everything that was left through the patio and on to Craig's trailer. Hey, and the port-a-can was picked up while we were loading the trailer. Everything happens at once. While we delivered a trailer load to Sonny's warehouse (thank you, thank you for the warehouse space), Jeff and Moises vacuumed the entire exhibition space. Sonny asked what I was going to do with all the oyster shells. I said I wasn't sure and he said, "Those shells are for road making." So he called his neighbor and asked if he'd like to fill the potholes in his parking area. The answer was yes and so the shells have already found a few home in a warehouse parking lot off Telephone Road. Not that I didn't save a few which are now covering a table on my screen porch.
Irma's building sure looks different than it did for most of this fall season. Second Seating is now totally gone. Just a memory. Amazing what color and light can do to transform a space and make folks want to return and linger.That may be the biggest lesson about all of this. It is possible to create a very special space that draws folks in again and again, just because it makes them feel good. Inspires me to do it all over again. And again.
After I write thank you letters, many, many, many thank you letters to all the people who made Second Seating possible.

Lists and More Lists

It's often instructive to look back over a day and see exactly how you 'moved the meter' toward a goal. Often the day is filled with many little shoves in the right direction. Another day there will be a terrific leap forward on one front and then, of course, I think I can sit back and relax. Yet another kind of day can be all about laying plans and setting a course, taking stock, regrouping.
Every single day I make a list and print it out. The list is then overlaid with penciled in items. Or I renumber the list and simply follow the numbered tasks. Lately, I've topped the list with goals for the week. Here are this week's goals:
1. Finish with the electrical contractor. He was in the space today and will be there again tomorrow. I've been lucky enough to borrow lights from HCCS and they'll be put in place by following my rained soaked mat board on which I drew the space to scale, but have covered it over with so many sets of numbers and circles etc. that any electrician looking at it should throw up his/her hands and ask for a real plan. This electrician had the sense to move right ahead after a few questions about my chalk marks on the concrete floor. I gave him my cell phone number and didn't hear from him all afternoon so I assume all is well?
2. A second goal is to get all the materials to Mark for the kiosk at the City Hall Visitors Center. I pick up the poster tomorrow sometime after 10:00.
3. I've got to spend time finding a good contact on the quilt festival staff. Who wouldn't want to eat lunch at Irma's and see Second Seating if they're teaching at festival for a week? Lunch hour is a good time for an arts destination.
4. I need to send out press packets to a couple of radio stations, the Houston Chronicle folks (what left of them) and local on-line arts websites.
5. I need to buy sheets of plexi for my collages. I can drill holes in them this weekend for little brass tacks that will hold the plexi to the frames. I want those pieces finished. I am still getting parts of collages mounted on mat board so I won't run into another gluing mess.
6. Finally, I need to finish all the text for this show and there's plenty of it.
So those are the week's goals. And here's what happened today after I took an early morning walk and saw pecans everywhere. The squirrels seem to take one bite and then toss the nut. You could hear them up in the trees and then a pecan would fall to the street. But I digress. Here's the day:
1. The painters returned to repaint the chartreuse wall and it's much better now.
1. I spoke with the electrical contractor early this morning and then was there to meet the electrician and his helper just before noon. While in the space I measured for Jesse's batiks, Aggie's metal pieces, my collages, montages and searched for space for Jose's wall pieces. We are literally running out of space. I'm going to have to be a stern editor for all eight of us. Amazing that suddenly there is so much work pouring in.
2. I called Bobby Schlitzberger to see when he can pick up that ton of compressed beer and soda cans and it looks like we'll do that on Thursday at 1:00.
3. I called Spectrum Metal Recycling to confirm that Thursday is a good day to borrow a bale of cans and it is. Except they'd like me to choose the bale tomorrow so they can power wash it and make it beautiful. How nice is that?
4. I met with Mark Lacey this afternoon and gave him a pile of CDs and we talked about making a sound track to play in the space. Snippets of songs will be interspersed with city sounds, trains, feral parrots, traffic, wind, rain, church bells, street music, whatever.
5. I went to Fiesta and met the assistant manager and asked if I could have lots of boxes. Yes, I can, but I have to pick them up on alternate mornings at 6:00 a.m. because they stock all night and then every other morning, they compress the boxes and they're gone.
6. We scheduled construction of the plate shelves for late Wednesday afternoon. I'll be glad to see them and wonder how I'll paint them. I called Jose and asked if he'd mind if we used his totem wall piece as a part of the plate wall. I think it will be wonderful as a fulcrum of sorts.
7. Before I left the house for the day, I sat at the kitchen table and paid bills and dropped them off at the post office. Done for a few more weeks.
8. At 5:00 today I proofed the posters for the kiosk and for the space. They'll be ready tomorrow. Then I went to Michael's to buy some sort of varnish to put on the plates to which I am affixing photo decals. Also bought a frame for the very nice Houston Woman Magazine Second Seating story which I will take to Irma's tomorrow. By the way, the stories and listings are beginning and that is good news.
9. Called a person who is willing to play docent in the space during October and will meet him on Monday for coffee. Still have a second person to call about this.
10. Tonight, I reprinted the Clorox table stories and glued them on the white labels I made last night. They'll be tied to the table linens stacked under the Clorox chandelier. Still need to get some facts and figures from the Clorox plant itself. Must send an email.
11. Tied on more than a dozen little painted labels to the wall hanging made from Hurricane Ike damaged fabrics. I think I am about done with that piece. Spoke with Mary B. and a friend. By the way, these two chairs are nearly finished. It was a heck of a job to applique that velvet on. I think I'll cover the rest of the backside of the chairs with gold spray paint and be done with it.
12. Now of course, I am really tired, been writing this post for over an hour, but am contemplating tomorrow's list that includes the following:
1. 6:00 a.m. Trip to Fiesta for corrugated boxes.
2 Take boxes to the space. Meet the electrician. See what he's done and where he's headed.
3. Receive extension ladder at 8:45 from Allison so the theater lighting guy can use when clamping the can lights to whatever he will be clamping them to.
4. Morning is self-improvement time. Pilates at 10:00. Must call the theater guy and tell him I won't be there until nearly 1:00.
5. Haircut at 11:30. This will be the haircut that sees me through the opening reception. One must plan these things and the timing is right.
6. Get to the space and talk about the lighting.
7. At 2:00, choose that compressed bale of beer and soda cans at Spectrum Recycling.
8. Pick up posters at A&E and pick up photos that have been mounted on board at Art Supply.
9. Check emails and wait for a tree man to come and deal with a fallen limp from the big tree in the ravine. He came this evening to look at the giant limb and give me a bid. That tree was really hurt during Hurricane Ike. I fear for it.
That's tomorrow. Just so you know what is taking up my days. A lot. Hey, I am still really happy about the City of Houston's special opportunity grant given through the Houston Arts Alliance. It's keeping me sane, meaning I am not worrying about raising ever more money. I am simply working to get this show assembled and lit.

Here's the Space

The space the Second Seating will call home is taking shape. The temporary walls are painted, though I know I'll change one color. The chartreuse isn't dark or dramatic enough, but the other two colors will be just fine.
Mark and I mapped out the tables and there is masking tape all over the floor where they'll be placed. Need to begin moving the big stuff in. Like the bale of crushed, compacted soda and beer cans that weighs almost a ton. Need to make arrangements for that. Jesse's table, Ted's table, my banquet buffet table. Probably before the electrician come next Tuesday as we can see where the lights need to shine.
On Thursday, I meet with the contractor/carpenter to make a decorative shelving for the Wall of 100 Plates. It'll be on that terra cotta wall and that swag of white ruffles will be gone. I got that huge bit of rufflework from the trash at the Guild Shop on Dunlavy months ago. We'll see where it ends up.
When we have finished free form designing the shelving for the plates, I'll bring my cans of house paint and see what happens next. The wall itself will be the piece of work.

Sleepless: Making Use of the Extra Awake Hours

I've been 'up' since 1:30 a.m. Where is the sleep? However, I've been working away on Second Seating, getting more letters and emails out and text written for the Bayou, Bay, Beach table. Thanks to the Galveston Bay Estuary Program for lots of facts and figures that I am taking and writing commentary for.
This morning at 8:30 I'll be down at the space to talk to the painter who'll make the walls that were installed yesterday more than colorful. They'll be painted mustard, terracotta and chartreuse. Can hardly wait to see the transformation. The place was power washed two days ago and then came the day of assembling temporary walls. Here's the 'after' power washing and 'before' painted walls.


I've decided on a new way to display 'Wall of 100 Plates.' I am going to have the contractor build shallow shelves that look like those in African homes that are made of clay and painted with pattern. Will be using lumber instead of clay and I am thinking that this 20 foot wall will itself become an integral part of the piece.

Modelle comes at 10:00 a.m. and we'll meet with Carolyn who will tell us about 'throwies.' I've read about those wonderful little LED lights that graffiti artists throw on buildings at night. Thought for awhile that they'd be wonderful on the Second Seating ceiling blinking away the night of the opening. We'll talk about the cost and feasibility today.
Then I meet with Melissa for a green chicken enchilada lunch special from Brothers Tacos (the best green chicken enchiladas I've ever tasted) and we'll go over the 'books' Then perhaps a nap? That would be so fine by about 2:00 this afternoon.

Occupancy Permit, Among Other Things

I think we're a go. I sat at Irma's this morning with my laptop, a cup of coffee and a terrific breakfast taco. Waiting for the city inspector to give final approval to the installation space. He arrived just after 9:30, looked at the number 20 on the front of the building, checked the new lock on the back exit door and pronounced the space, as my Dad would say, "worthy and well qualified."
So the next steps are to call the permitting department on Tuesday and see if the paperwork is complete. Then either Modelle or I will drive over to pick up our permit, buy a frame for it and affix it prominently in the Second Seating space.
Hey, this was a good day. I also called a friend who owns a moving company and asked him if he would cart those huge banquettes away and store them for the duration. That means the place will be empty at last and ready for a good power washing next week. This development pleases me beyond words.
Also found a $10 table at my favorite resale shop up on Harrisburg late this afternoon. I'll drape it with white table cloths and it will become the Clorox table under that divine Clorox bottle chandelier.
And 002Houston emailed today to ask if the date for the opening was still September 24. Hope that means a calendar listing in the magazine.
And I actually did some gluing on a montage made with dozens of wallet size images. It's taking shape and I'm liking it. It'll need a frame. Can't decide if I need one of my painted frames or if I should play it straight with a natural wood frame that looks as if it would be right at home in a downtown loft. I'd like to sell. A lot of work. All of those painted plates. Selling everything on view at Second Seating would be very nice for all eight artists. Wouldn't that be good fortune?

Devoted to Second Seating - Every Day

What can I say? Another day devoted to Second Seating. Didn't get in the studio, but did a lot of errands for the show and began the days with a second trip to the city permitting department to make application for a 90 days occupancy permit and set up the first appointment with a city inspector. That would be Monday. We are moving at a brisk pace on this for which I am grateful.

Next, a visit to the chandelier shop where I picked up light fixtures made with oil pipe fittings and sketched out two more chandeliers for milk cartons and aerosol art. Stopped in another place for more special light bulbs for the oil pipe fixtures. Made another trip to pick up five more filigreed Clorox bottles from Carmella Rojas for the Clorox chandelier. She does really wonderful work on these bottles, intricate and sophisticated.
I know there were a few other errands, but they escape me for the moment. Am winding down and may go to a movie tonight. A real movie in a real theater.