As usual it was a busy day. Funny how the more you need to do, the more you get done… I made my bed and cleared the room of some stuff – emptied trash, put two sculptures in the garage to clear up some space, started a load of laundry showered and dressed, and checked my email while waiting for the piece to dry. Then I loaded up my little cart with packages to mail and my piece and headed out.
I went to the post office and then headed downtown to the gallery. The show is a group show for Open Studios. Each artist gets a chance to display one of their works in a 20 x 20 inch space in this salon style show. (They line the walls with a twine grid to make sure people don’t exceed their 20 inches and once the work is all hung they remove the twine. It works well for neatly hanging a show with so many pieces. This show has over 500 works of art.) The beauty of the show is that if you go and see it while carrying a guide for the month long event, you can look and check off whose work you want to see more of and make decisions about what studios to visit. I managed to make my bathing suit for the wall and left a nice stack of cards so people can walk away with a way to connect with me even if they don’t make it to the studio show.
When I walked in I saw an artist friend I hadn’t seen in ten years. We chit chatted and she told me about a group show at a little gallery that one of her friends is putting together. She asked me if I was interested in being a part of it. Of course I said yes and we exchanged business cards and all. A few minutes later I saw another artist I know and we chatted a few minutes. I asked him about a show he just had and we talked about our work. Then he said he thought my work would be perfect for the gallery space he just showed in so again we exchanged contact info and he said he’d pass it along to the gallery owner. So cool. For this open studios show they always do a big ‘gala’ preview night and as party favors they give each guest a wine glass decorated by artists. Since it was so hot outside today, after I hung my piece I decided to chill for a minute and paint a wine glass or two. That was fun. Then I walked around and looked at the artwork that had been hung before finally leaving for the dreaded trek home.
A strange thing happened on the way home. I decided to stop at Trader Joes (it’s within the same block of the gallery) and when I came out, I paused for a minute in front of the store looking for my cell phone in my purse. A man passed me, coming out of the store with his groceries. He said, “God bless you.” I glanced up and said, “ God bless you too.”
I watched him walk over to a car and put his groceries in the back seat and suddenly he rushed back over. He said, “ Excuse me – what’s your name? “ I surprised myself by saying my actual name. Then he said he was a pastor from a church (he said the name of the church but I didn’t catch it because I was busy assessing whether or not he was harmful…) He said, ‘Can I pray for you? I know this may seem strange but the Lord has a word for you.” I said yes and he took my hand and began to pray. And while it may sound crazy, it was a blessing (I’m tearing up thinking about it.) What he said spoke directly to me and when he was done he said, “I don’t normally do this but I felt like God was telling me to pray with you just now.” Then he said, “Be blessed” got in his car and drove off.
It’s been a full day. Right now I have some more sculpting to do before I hit the sack and it all starts over again.
P.S. The first photo is the cover of the guide for the Open Studios event. It's a magazine like guide with thumbnail photos of samples of each artists work.
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