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.

This is the Message: Keep the Channel Open

Sweet sister of mine. You found a Martha Graham quote for your blog that I've just pasted in my heart and dropped somewhere into my cranium. I read your blog post early this morning and thus begins my day:

..........from Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer (1894-1991)

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."

Terrific advice. Keeping the channel open sure brings joy into one's life. Way back in the 1960s when I lived in the city and worked at Bloomingdale's, I saw Martha Graham dance. She was probably about my age and we thought she was old. She was superb.

Had a discussion yesterday with a good friend about when in our lives we use our talents. When do we unleash them into the world? At 20? 40? 60 years of age? Not a day to waste.

The Next Thing

Two days ago, as I was driving along Harrisburg feeling quite wonderful because of sunshine and clear blue weather, ideas for the 'next endeavor' began to dance through my head. Two ideas surfaced as worthy of pursuit, one right after the other, and I my thoughts are moving as if I were watching a tennis ball. Side to side, wanting both.

Today, however, I am focusing on one and thinking of words to describe it for a new grant application that is due in eight days. Yes, I'm going for it. Why not?

I cannot remember the moment when the idea for Second Seating came into being. I do know the date of the first concept paper for the project, but that specific 'a-ha' moment when I became a conduit for the idea itself has vanished from my memory. However, should either of these two new ideas become the 'next thing', I have documented that moment driving along Harrisburg (where METRO is at work on the new East End rail line) when the ideas first shot through my head. I'll remember when I smiled and said this is the moment.

Days ago, I shared an impromptu cup of tea with a friend and we talked about how she felt when I spoke at an evening gathering in the Second Seating space. Her response prompted my mind to take immediate leaps here, there and everywhere. Another friend reminded me about an offer I'd received two weeks ago for help in writing a grant for something incredible.

I've always known that Second Seating was a warm up exercise. It is the first of many more spaces. Sometime last week in the middle of the night, I had a flash forward vision of myself as a woman in her 70s creating and managing a new business that involves making spaces that perhaps, for a moment or forever, change the people who enter them. Because in these spaces, they 'see' differently or feel an unnameable emotion or are overcome by words painted on a wall or a flock of flying chairs or an urban garden as gathering space.There is so much more to come.

Therefore, I need to eat vegetables by the truck load, walk miles every day and do a little house cleaning before it all begins again. And it wouldn't hurt to make a list this weekend of where all the things still left at Second Seating will be stored, so when the carpenter and electricians come next week, we'll be organized and ready to clear that wonderful space and move on to the 'next.' There is plenty of work to be done to disassemble Second Seating. While writing the first grant application for what's going on in my head. It is ever thus.