Late Saturday Night - Far Too Late To Be Thinking. Enough Thinking.

Rained all day and may be raining still. Catarina spent the afternoon washing and scrubbing almost 50 Mexican Coke bottles with baking soda, soap and a good strong bottle brush. They'd been sitting outside for almost five years waiting for their moment which has now arrived with Second Seating. You know, or maybe you don't know, how easy it is to 'save' things, believing there will be a good use for them 'some day.'
In this case, those Mexican Coke bottles are being put to good use. They will be filled with roses from Fiesta and will sit on that table base of 1000 pounds of compacted aluminum beer and soda cans. And it'll all look just terrific. See photo of the bales of cans from which I chose 'the one'?
Now, if I can just decide on a the table top to lay across that bale of cans. I retrieved an abandoned sign on Telephone Road that may work. When Aggie gets here on Monday, she and I will have a 'show and tell' and decide what that bale of cans needs. The sign may or may not be a part of it.
Onward. Catarina and finished sewing on the Bayou, Bay, Beach chandelier and now must get it to Gonzo247 to add his aerosol watery oystery stuff on the fabric. This is going to be one sexy chandelier. I think.
Attempted to affix sheets of Plexi to my collages today, but the Plexi was apparently cut with a dull blade which made the edges rough and glittery so I returned them all and will begin anew on Monday with fresh cut sheets.
That means that tomorrow I'll write and print more gallery text, write more little narratives, more facts and figures. I realize I have all this stuff in my head and that my tables are not complete without some of those thoughts, so folks are going to have to plow through lots of words as they look at the tables. That is, if they choose to do so and if they can read in dim light. I'll print large and hope for some readers.
I did pick up the photo montages I had framed at Art Supply. They look good and I hope they sell.
Out this evening to the galleries on Colquit. Wonderful paintings at McMurtrey Gallery by Jean Carruthers Wetta and she is wonderful too. How did I not know about her work? On to Moody Gallery and I fell in love with the enormous paper cut of an elaborate chandelier. Now I am dreaming of big spaces for big art. Decided this evening that I need to clear out my house and do some long term loans of artwork so I can refresh, redo, reflavor the feel of my house.
And how about a 'Third Seating' just before the holidays as a way to sell big old black and white photos from yesteryear like images from China in 1979, from Silicon Stones shown in 1985 and collages from the 2005 show in Marfa and FotoFest 2004 and random series of work.
How long do you keep this stuff around? Here are some collages that came together one afternoon when I was procrastinating about Second Seating and so chose to loosen up a bit with random images.
So, "Third Seating" might be about emptying those shelves and sharing wine and conversation with friends. Where? In that space that is currently readying itself for Second Seating. I've put in walls and lights.
Where did all this flurry come from? This torrent of ideas for showing work that has nothing to do with Second Seating? Well, all these new thoughts were filtered through two glasses of a very nice red wine imbibed at a very lovely party this evening, so who knows what the true pulse of things will be in the big a.m.
It's after midnight and surely time for bed. What was I thinking to post these images of long ago? Keep the focus on the now MMH, and go to bed NOW.

Friday

Mark emailed me some photos of the Second Seating kiosk at the Visitor Center at City Hall. Sure looks good. Just got an online listing on Glass Tire and someone told me there's a listing in Paper City. All good news.Reassembled the Clorox chandelier this afternoon. After we photographed it for press prints a few months ago, it grazed the ground too many times and was just filthy. We took it all apart and Modelle washed all the white tablecloths on which I'd strung the filigreed bottles. So today, I remade the piece and it's looking beautiful.

Ted Estrada and Jose Solis Deliver The Work

They arrived this weekend. Jose and Ted brought their work and this afternoon they unpacked it all in the space and it's wonderful. No words needed. Plus Craig and Luis were there to build the shelving for the wall of plates. A lot going on. All good. This week I'll paint the shelves and reorganize and bring more plates.
Tomorrow Alex comes and we move stuff from the Harrisburg studio into the space. Will begin to see how all the tables will be spaced. Enough said. Here are photos.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

This has been another Second Seating day. What 's new? It's now 7:00 p.m. and a few minutes ago, I poured myself a goblet of chilled white wine. Think I'm through for the day which began at 6:00 a.m.
Worked on the gallery guide and sent the first draft with all of its blank space to each of the artists so they can fill in titles and dimensions and prices. I need a short bio of each artist. You know, I am really excited about this group of artists. Each is so talented and their work for Second Seating is really going to surprise folks. When we meet tomorrow at the space, I'll gather some information from Jose and Ted and get it in draft form for them to take a look. And then I'll call everyone else and get theirs in draft form for review, rewrite, whatever.
Also got closer to the final draft of a very 'short story' about the East End and shot it off to Mary Vargo for read. There is nothing she doesn't know about the East End and she says she'll take a look.

Also tightened the several paragraphs I've been working on about Doris Bain Thompson. My mom is 92 and several weeks ago I experienced an epiphany. I have her genes after all and with Second Seating, I may well be doing what she did with her choirs in Aruba. We are both able to think something up from scratch and make it work. After I made this startling connection, I decided to dedicate Second Seating to my mother and though I called Seattle and told her, it will bear retelling again and again. My mom has increasing dementia and it has taken its bitter toll on her ability to retain information or to articulate her own thoughts. But back in her prime time? Well, that's another thing altogether. She had guts and vision.
Here's a photo of her taken last Christmas. She'd broken her arm and was in the hospital for awhile. But she's looking pretty good in this picture. I wish she could see this show. Makes me think I should find someone who can take a video of the opening. Now that, she and Dad would enjoy.
Break time after writing about Mom. I walked out to the oyster shell pile which is something I do often now. That oyster shell pile simply calls me these days.
I've just realized why. Granted, I need to check on them and turn them so they get clean with rain and sun for Second Seating. But every time, I go out there, I also select at least a dozen or two and bring them back into the kitchen sink to scrub and dry. My kitchen counter is covered with oyster shells. There may be 100 shells drying there and I plan to write gold words on each and bake them. Point is, I really like 'choosing' things and the oyster pile is as good as a resale shop. And today, I occurred to me that maybe folks at the opening might like to buy a shell with a word like 'love' or 'longing' or 'yes' or 'maybe' on it.
Sort of a little present to take home? Or give someone?
After the shelling expedition, I glued more collage pieces together and they are now weighted down with big books. The collages are just about done. On Tuesday, I'll buy sheets of plexi and begin drilling holes for the little brass carpet nails that I use to affix plexi to frame.
Took another break to read parts of the NYT, ate a couple of bowls of pecan praline ice cream with sliced bananas. Really. The last thing I need.
Mid-afternoon, I cut and sewed another vesty garment made from my stash of fabrics salvaged from Hurricane Ike. The first vest I made with some of these fabrics, I took to Turkey and to Seattle and I like it very much. Here's a photo of it taken in Discovery Park, where by the way there's been a real live cougar on the loose. Which they caught last night and will take to 'the wild.'
But the garment I put together this afternoon leaves a lot to be desired. It's not what I want to wear for the opening, though that was the intention when I began.
I began to search my closet and now my bed is piled with stuff. All fashion disasters. I need to wear a 'piece of work' basically. After I tried about 15 different approaches, I took a patchwork wall hanging I made for the show and wrapped it around my waist and then above my waist, Empire style.
It was the first thing that made sense. And looked like Second Seating. I wish I had a dress form my size so I could drape the thing. More and more I think about that draping class I took my junior year in college. It was as useful as an Algebra class. Or physics 101. One doesn't always realize how often we call upon the information we learn in basic classes. I may take the wall hanging to the alternation shop and hope they take mercy on me. Maybe they can drape it on me and put elastic through the top. Or I'll find harem pants - wish I'd bought them in Turkey when I saw them at that roadside stand by an ancient aqueduct. But it was either look at the aqueduct or shop. Actually, I think I did some of both, but not as much shopping as I might have liked.
So, late in the day, I made another trip out to the oyster shell pile. And then took a look at the clock and poured a glass of wine.
Tomorrow, I meet Ted and Jose in the space. We'll unpack their work and imagine where it will be installed. And the carpenter should be there with his helper and we'll build shelves for the Wall of Plates. Then I'll be busy with house paint and a 100 plates.
Talk soon again.

Three Weeks From Tonight

It's just after 10:00 p.m. and I expect that in three weeks time, we'll all still be at Irma's with a margarita in hand and the opening reception of Second Seating will be over. Folks will have seen Gonzo247's incredible table and chairs (see the detail above), they'll have been amazed at all the work they didn't expect, the throwies will have been tossed at dusk, the mariachis will have sung, speeches made, if there are any, and the parking lot emptied of guests.
Except those of us who are still there. The artists, best friends and family. That number will include my three daughters from the Pacific Northwest and Lulu Bell, my youngest grandchild. I am excited and we still have three more weeks in which to work. I am seeing time as long, extended, 'still have,' instead of fretting that we 'only have' three weeks. Three weeks is a quite a lot of time and things are moving forward with each day.
Invitations will are not back from the printer and won't be until the day after Labor Day so folks won't get them until 5 or so days after that. But I am trusting in the universe on this one. It'll work as it should.Here's today. The alarm woke me at 5:30 and it was hard to get out of bed and head for Fiesta once again for more boxes. Didn't get there until after 6:00 a.m. and this time the boxes weren't broken down so I made two trips from Fiesta to home. It was nearly daylight when I finished. Truck drivers were unloading new boxes filled with cereal and soap and their motors are left running, so it's noisy. Inside it's bright and everyone is wide awake. The supervisor helped me down the ramp with a dollie loaded with boxes. I think I have enough corrugated boxes now to assemble a table top, that is unless I totally screw up trying to channel Rauschenberg.
At 8:30 I met Bobby Schlitzberger at Spectrum Metals and he and his grandson got the 1000 pound bale of compressed cans on their truck which has a small crane on the back for manuvering heavy loads.
Bobby can move anything safely and with humor. He tells his staff that the granite they usually move is 15 million years old and it's been waiting a long time to fall on someone, so there's a lot of care taken in transporting and laying things gently on the ground. The bale of cans is now in place. Thank you, Spectrum Metals Recycling for loaning this tremendous hulk of cans and thank you, Schlitzberger & Daughters Monument Co. for getting it on site. Once again, I am reminded, as if I ever forget, that Second Seating wouldn't be happening without the help and generosity of dozens of people each making individual 'yes' decisions. After the bale was in place I went to the studio on Harrisburg and emptied the car of boxes and newspapers. Alex and I are going to pack things on Friday a.m. and move all the tables and a couple of chandeliers into the space. We may even get to the oyster shells which have been in a natural cleaning process for over a month now behind my house. We'll need a wheelbarrow and a shovel. The more stuff that makes it way into the gallery space, the better.
The shelving for Wall of Plates has been rescheduled once again. Now we'll assemble it on Labor Day and I'll paint it all next week. I'll be spending the better part of my days there from now on. This is not a show where you move things in and arrange them on walls. There are parts of this exhibition that will be created in the moment.
Electricians have ordered a few connectors for the track lights and so they'll be back next week to finish up. All in all, the space looks as if something is going to happen there.
This afternoon, Modelle and I went over the details for the opening reception, making note of all the loose ends that need to be gathered up and put on the 'done' list. There are dozens of things that need to move over to the 'done' column.
At 5:00 I went to see how Gonzo247 is doing with his table and chairs. They just get better and better. See this series of photos.I've spent the evening listening to bits of opera arias while sewing on the Bayou, Bay, Beach chandelier. Lots of hand sewing. Why didn't I see this coming? It's been another good day, even though the arias brought on a touch of evening melancholy.

Bayou, Bay, Beach Is Pulling Together

It's way late at night again and I've been hand stitching the stretchy covering of the Bayou, Bay, Beach chandelier that Gonzo247 will paint on in a few days. We've decided that what he paints should look sort of like water and oysters. Nebulous, flowing, rhythmic, soft. I haven't a clue why so many of the parts of Second Seating require hours of sewing time or gluing. And I never factor in the hours that it takes for these tasks. I've been at it all evening.
Well, almost all evening Before it got dark, I took the two blue, velvet covered chairs into the back garden with a can of gold spray paint and went after them. I'm hoping all this tableau works out. They will be set among hundreds of oyster shells with this voluminous fabric covered chandelier hanging from yards of chain.. By the way, I'm appliqueing some of that faded damaged velvet on the chandelier , just to pull the whole thing together. I love these funny chairs.
I'll be up at 5:30 again tomorrow morning so I can get to Fiesta at 6:00 for another bunch of broken down boxes. Then at 8:30 we begin the trek from Spectrum Metals Recycling to the space with 1000 baled pounds of compressed aluminum cans. I certainly hope I can direct the folks well enough to get the thing in the right position for the duration of the show. Once there, it won't move. At all. Unless it falls apart.
And then I realize that I have so much to do in the space itself. Like create a table top for this bale of cans. The time I spent driving in the car today, I used to think about this table top made of corrugated boxes. I wish I could channel Robert Rauschenberg for a day. Baring that, I hope I can give it just enough form, cover it with some brush strokes of paint, create a space on top for rows of Mexican Coke bottles that will be filled with roses. Should this plan all fall apart, I feel sure that another idea will foment. Better be quick.
We didn't get to the wall of plates shelving this evening. That's be tomorrow at 6:00 after I photograph Gonzo247 working again on his aerosol table and chairs. I meet Modelle in the afternoon and we'll review everything about this show to find the spots where we need to focus from now until September 24.
Enough sewing. Off to bed. Sure do like those funky chairs.

Half Ton of Aluminum Cans and Various Other Things

This afternoon, I chose a bale of compressed aluminum soda and beer cans at Spectrum Metal Recycling. They'll power wash the bale and on Thursday afternoon, Bobby Schlitzberger will cart if off to the Second Seating space where it will not move a fraction of an inch until the show is over.
Today I learned that it takes just six weeks to manufacture a can, fill it, sell it, recycle it and then remanufacture another can from the original metal. This process goes on forever. The same aluminum will be back somewhere on a shelf within sixty days. And someone will drink the Coke or Bud Light or whatever, throw the can out and all will begin again.
In the last twenty years Anheuser-Busch Recycling Subsidiary has recycled 8 billion pounds of cans from 48 states. There are 30-32 cans per pound. Do the math.
I set my alarm for 5:40 this morning so I could be at Fiesta at 6:00 a.m. to pick up a load of corrugated boxes to assemble a table top for this bale of cans. I am going to try fashioning a tabletop of layered boxes held together with staples and glue. It will either work - or not. Should have some paint on it too. I will get up early again on Thursday a.m. to retrieve more boxes. Then will set to work once the compressed bale of can is in place.
Also worked on the Bayou, Bay, Beach chandelier a bit this morning after the tirp to Fiesta. When I finished stretching and pinning the fabric over the frame, I'll hand sew it on and then call Gonzo247 who will come for it and so some aerosol oceany, oystery stuff on the fabric.
There is so much still to do. Actual artwork. More media stuff. Planning for the openngModelle and I will talk about all of this on Thursday. Melissa and I talked about money tonight and that always does me in and I get nervous. Because I know what I do with a project, any project. I'll do it right. And not think about the money.
If the wall needs repainting, or I decide to make shelving for the plates, or pay someone to hang track lights, or ask another person to develop a trove of music to play in the space, or think it's a good idea to hire mariachis for the opening reception, well, then all these things happen. And each costs money. But if all these things make the show terrific, I'd say it's money well spent.
So, the point here is that it's good that I have a friend keeping track of the money.
I am tired. I need to go to bed and not think about this anymore. Funny thing is, I hardly know how to read a magazine when I get into bed now. All is Second Seating. Totally absorbing.
By the way, I did get everything done on today's list. Seemed as if I was in the car all day long.