I have returned from a week or so in Los Angeles.
Saturday, June 21 - Juan Kelly - owner of Nuart Gallery - and I loaded some works by various artists from the gallery in Santa Fe and then drove down to my studio in Albuquerque and picked up the works for my show and then drove all day and into the night. We arrived at the LA gallery at about 11:00pm and unloaded the artworks
Graham Moore, a fellow collagist who had been at the London Collage Residency came to hang out at the gallery while we prepared the gallery for hanging the exhibitions at the gallery - two one person shows and a group show in the three main gallery spaces.
My son Zach, arrived by plane from Texas on Tuesday morning. We got an Air B&B apartment for a week. Zach was actually in LA for a different reason doing some other business. So, by serendipity, we got to hang out together most of the week.
That evening we went out for dinner with Nicky and her husband at Re/Creation Cafe. Nicky works at the gallery in LA but started at the gallery in Santa Fe so we were already friends.
On Wednesday Graham drove us over to the International Printing Museum to see if I might want to do an exhibition of the Visual Poetry and Color show and do a related collage workshop at the museum and Zach made a great video for me of that meeting which I will share in the next post.
That night Zach and I had a very enjoyable dinner with collagist/photographer Jim Wimberg. (who later took the above photo at the opening.)
On Thursday Zach had his business appointment and I went for a long walk along the beach in Santa Monica. Juan flew back to Santa Fe to drive his son Kaden up to a 2 month camp in Aspen with The Juilliard School. Kaden is a young concert pianist.
On Friday we messed around and I got the oil changed on the work van. Later we were kind of tired so we took a nap, later made dinner and watched movies for the evening.
Saturday we got to the gallery at about 3:00pm and hung out there for the opening where I was able to meet some fans and a couple of collectors of my work.
Graham and Jim also showed up and hung out with us. Subscribers/Collagists Monique Johnson came out to see me too as well as Visual Anthropologist Joey Zanotti dressed in a blue shirt!
On Sunday Zach and I took a long walk to downtown in the early evening and ended up at Mike’s apartment - an old friend of Zach’s. Later I drove Zach out to the airport for his red eye flight back to Texas.
On Monday I went to the gallery and loaded up a bunch of gallery artists’ works for Nuart Gallery in Santa Fe.
On Tuesday I got up at 3:00am and left at 4:00am to head back to my studio in Albuquerque. I got in about 5:30pm.
Wednesday I drove the artworks in the van up to Santa Fe.
This morning I got a text from Nicky that she had just sold one of my paintings.
OK, back in the studio. Now, where was I…
Happy 4th of July. I heard a podcast today that suggested that - under the current circumstances - everyone should read or reread the Declaration of Independence in full this weekend.
What a joy to see your work in person and to spend a little time talking with you. Thanks for being so gracious.
What a journey! Your energy is an inspiration. Nice that you got time with Z and collage friends. Your work looks great at Nuart (from the photos).