The past few days have been busy to say the least! This past weekend was insane!
Friday night I bundled up in many layers of clothing and went to the gallery I’m a part of where 30 of us met in a freezing cold metal shop sitting around a circle of space heaters. We talked about how the gallery has done so far, what we want to do and where we shall go from here. It was fun to see the other artists, even if we were freezing as we sipped coffee and hot cider and could see our breath as we spoke!
Now the ridiculous part of the weekend is that I unknowingly double booked myself! I spent Friday evening blaming myself and feeling foolish knowing I had no way of getting out of my dilemma. I was scheduled to gallery sit all day on Saturday and all day on Sunday and yet I forgot that there was an art reception I needed to go to on Saturday that started at 5pm! So Saturday morning I dressed for the cold temperatures of the gallery. Let me explain – the gallery is in a building that was once a fruit-packing shed. It has openings in the ceiling for air to circulate through, making for natural refrigeration, which was needed when it was used for the purpose of storing fruit. Now however, we freeze as we hang out in the space. So there I was on Saturday putting on leggings, jeans, two long sleeve shirts, a pullover sweater and a heavy sweater jacket as well as wearing a scarf and gloves. Meanwhile on the news they were excitedly talking about the warmer temperatures this weekend. I packed a bag with clothes for the evening. I also forgot I was supposed to bring a veggie platter to the evening reception so I carried a big serving tray and a bag with all of the veggies cut up and placed in plastic bags. I worked at the gallery until 4 and then had exactly thirty minutes to rush to the home of an artist who was also in the show and we rode together to Sacramento for the reception. Somewhere along the way I changed clothes and then spent the rest of the evening mingling with guests, talking about art and being a great hostess as one of the 15 featured artists in this exhibit. I arrived home at about ten at night. Whew!
I left the house this morning tired and all bundled up for winter weather and headed back to the gallery for the day. I'm tired but it was a good weekend. (I am also relieved that I made it through such a busy schedule.)
One thing I can say – I had some great conversations this weekend.
I talked to an artist about her textile work – how she hand dyes and then paints unbleached cloth and then creates very high quality artistic quilts that have elements of Japanese design.
A man wandered into the gallery and told me a story about how he’d bought some lithographs at a garage sale (a box of 30 for 5 bucks) many years ago and just recently sold a dozen of them to major art auction house for $20,000!
Saturday evening was spent in conversation with some colorful characters - a woman who models for figure drawing classes, a glass blower, a woman who survived both cervical and breast cancer, a man who owns an iris farm, a transgender named Kay, a plein air painter, an old man who was out looking at art because his daughter dragged him there “but at least the olives are good” and many others. Funny things happen at art receptions! Like for instance, a complete stranger started giving me a hand massage after asking about the difficulty with working in wire!
