A Good Friday

There's a new listing for Second Seating on the on-line Houston events calendar. And a really nice half page article on Second Seating in the new issue of Houston Woman Magazine. Thanks, Beverly Denver. So word is starting to get 'out there' about the installation. I send thanks for every bit of publicity this exhibition gets.
Actually, all of today was a very good day. I confirmed one more underwriter for Second Seating and found a source for stage lights and track lights for the installation. All of this by noon. I think I can stop fretting about raising money and just get on with making the work and getting the space ready.
By the way, I'll share all of those underwriters names soon. I thought I'd better wait until the postcard invites are at the printer and the names are in print. They are a very good group of businesses and organizations. Can hardly wait until they see the whole show.
This afternoon, I took this montage and a half dozen partially finished collages to Art Supply on Main Street for a little help in gluing parts together and setting illustration board into my hand painted frames. Catarina went with me and then we returned to load the car with painted plates, light fixtures and the sunflower needlepoint chair to cart over to the Harrisburg studio. My house is so full of Second Seating that I have no table space on which to eat and very little floor space. Too much stuff, everywhere.
On Harrisburg, we spread out all the plates I've painted or written on and baked. They total 75 and so I think I will write on 25 more so we can call the collection a 'Wall of 100 Plates.' I like the sound of that.
Went out to a new wine bar earlier this evening with two friends, very industrial, very nice wines. Feeling the effects of two chilled glasses of a sweet German wine, I then made my way to El Rey for Cuban tacos with green chili sauce. Perfect.
Tomorrow I think I'll work on text for Second Seating. There is a lot of it to be written and printed out and affixed to labels. Should be a good day. Is this blog becoming boring reading because everything seems to be going well? I can't help it. Today was a heck of a good day. And on Tuesday, we begin to clean and prepare the space itself next. Right on schedule so far.
By the way, I need to buy a mattress and a sheet of plywood for that wonderful old bed I bought months ago in Round Top for the screen porch. Perhaps in time for the girls' trip here in September? You can see it's just there absolutely empty. I've used the porch little this summer. I thought at first it was because I'm always working on this show. But I think it's also sunnier and hotter on the porch this summer because all those green shrubbery and so many of the limbs on the trees were tossed and broken during Hurricane Ike. The screen porch faces west and I don't think the sun beat in so late in the day before the hurricane. Maybe in another year or two, I'll have thick green, tall shrubbery again between me and the street?

What a Good Day

Name the good things. Naming is a good thing. Naming makes it real. So here goes. First, Second Seating got another sponsor today. Sometimes - once in a while - it is so easy (note: it always means an infusion of heavy duty energy on my part, whether easy or hard) to make a case for supporting this exhibition, especially when the person on the other end of the line is responding and understands just how their business can make a contribution to the whole of it. So it was this morning. I heard, "I'll commit to this," and after the phone call, I burst into tears just as I did when the check from Diverse Works came in the mail. That check was the first one given to Seating Seating and I cried a lot that day. I notice that real tears come when I've been working very hard and someone puts a seal of approval on all the efforts. I am astounded when it happens. The tears are about affirmation.
By the way, that bit of aerosol art above is Gonzo247. He picked up his dinner table and four chairs the other day and I suspect they may look rather like this.
Early this afternoon Texas Journey AAA magazine called and they will put a Second Seating listing in their September issue. That's really good news. After that second jolt of 'wonderful', I went to pick up the first parrot pinata from Victor Rodriguez.
It's delicate and more intricate than I anticipated. So, the big really big pinata chandelier he's making next with its five to eight foot wing span will be remarkable . Victor and his brother Manuel and I will meet at Irma's next week so they can ascertain how this big parrot chandelier needs to be for the scale of the space. Think tremendous. And just so you know, there will be a flock following along as if they'd flown in from the back door to Irma's patio. We're doing this all in honor of the feral parrots that live and fly in Houston's East End.
After picking up the parrot, I spent time on the floor with the big calendar mapping out a timeline. Irma and I have two weeks to remove all the stuff from the exhibition space and fix the leaks in the roof. Then, I've have the space cleaned, meaning the floor will be power washed, the walls dusted, all ready for a few dry walls and the electric work.
All of this good stuff after a day which I spent going over projected expenses for the next two months. Numbers make me more than crazy. I have a hard time trusting them. Are they real? Do I have enough?
But today, this day is a good one. That metal building will be transformed. It's all in my head and I wish I could paint a picture so others are able to see what I see.

Second Seating: An Accounting

'Taking stock' of a project's progress is a good exercise. I've always been a big list maker - those perennial 'to do' lists keep me pushing forward, but I am finding that with 'Second Seating', acknowledging accomplishments large and small is a way of affirming real progress and frankly, a good way to keep track of it all.

Since the new year began, I've been keeping very close tabs on where and how 'Second Seating' is moving. I note accomplishments in my day timer along with the meeting dates with potential funders and contributing artists. I think it's made a difference.
Several days ago, I bought a really large desk calendar and am color coding meetings with funders and visits with contributing artists and resource people. I'll know how many calls or visits pushed 'Second Seating' forward, month by month.

It's interesting, or perhaps it is horrifying to note that until I began to write this post, I hadn't color coded time for actually making art for 'Second Seating,' though I have been very busy getting others lined up to make art.

And how does one color code the hours spent 'thinking about making the art'? On my walk today, I designed the internal structure for the Clorox chandelier. It would be interesting to make note of the hours spent 'thinking.' Are there, perhaps, better verbs to describe what goes on in one's head? Mulling? Wool gathering? Day dreaming? I sure spend a lot of time in my head, doing whatever 'it' is.
Here's what happened in January that 'moved the meter' as CK used to say:
1. 'Second Seating' was selected for grant funding from The Idea Fund, a program of Diverse Works, Aurora Picture Show and Project Row Houses that is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation. This was very good news and a great way to begin the year.
2. I moved a lot of 'stuff' into a large studio space on Harrisburg where I can see how things are shaping up. Most of the images in this post are things I took to the new space. Sometimes, seeing them there comforts me. Other times, I panic.

3. Invited two major East End companies to become underwriters of specific chandeliers or tables. Outlook is positive.
4. Set the stage for meeting with three other companies.
5. Found an electrical contractor who will make sure that the chandeliers are properly wired and workable and will install them when the moment comes. Thank you, thank you. This means that nothing will blow up or short out.
6. Met with three artists who'll participate in 'Second Seating' by creating chandeliers and/or tables. I'll write about these terrific artists in other posts. They are each skilled and talented in different ways. Ceramics, metal work, painting, batik. It will be grand to watch how and what they produce for this installation.
7. Met with an artist friend who teaches at HCCS Southeast who asked if her two classes could participate in 'Second Seating.' They'll help make the chandelier of Clorox bottles in the weeks of late February through mid-March. June and I are now making samples of filigreed bottles and I'm wondering where I'll go to buy several hula hops for part of the structure.

8. Met Irma's architect who declared she'd been looking for resources for recycled objects to put in the new space. We're a match.
9. Drafted a first press release that I hope will generate two hundred coffee mugs from East End residents. Still must send it on its way.
9. Rewrote a grant application for Houston Arts Alliance - it took many hours of the last week of January. How I labor over words. Pushed the submit button at 4:24 p.m. last Friday.

In addition to all of this, I spent a weekend seeing as much as I could of Prospect.1 New Orleans, traveled to Brownsville with Irma to meet with Ted and Jose about the project and yes, Irma and I spent a day shopping in Progreso. A friend hosted a Sunday afternoon trunk show for me and I sold ten pieces of crochet collars and capelets (Will I ever find a fit name for this wearable art I crochet?). Throughout all of this, my siblings and I are communicating daily about Mom and Dad's increasing care needs, quality of life, meds, caregivers: there are no good solutions. We spin our wheels and try to make decent decisions. Not a bit of it is easy.

Had a cold, tachycardia overtook me twice, currently have an inflamed right eye... are these coincidences? I think not. And then there just happened to be a presidential inauguration amidst the growing financial doom that is beginning to affect every single one of us. Safe to say I absolutely loved Barack Obama's Inauguration Day and am in denial about financial doom.
So that sums up January 2009. It's February 2 now and I've had a late evening sinking spell of acute proportions and am calling in more troops to help with this whole colossal task. Am I an absolute fool or is this all doable?