On Saturday, May 2nd if you feel like swinging by, stalking, or chatting, I will be at William Rupnik Gallery to meet with a few collectors and take more photos of the show for my archives. It goes down in the afternoon and the City Artists at Work is doing the whole tour shebang the weekend of the 16th & 17th too.
Speaking of photos, I'm so excited I am getting a new camera, I've had the same one for 9 years! Nothing is that wrong with it (okay it is a bit wonky when you have to take the batteries out and put them back in just to get the power to turn on) but it has become clear I need something really ace, especially if I am doing larger work that can't fit on a flatbed scanner.
There's an interview with me here on CoolCleveland.com which is neat; no one in the area ever reviews my shows because I didn't go to Cleveland Institute of Art (I went to the other CIA), so it is nice to get some write-ups here and there. Thank you Cleveland Bachelor and Hello My Name Is Art, again. Most of all thank you to you people who buy art, in Cleveland, in a recession. I'm still amazed!
Other than that, I finished two commissions in record time, I'm transcribing interviews for the Red Hot Chili Peppers book that will be coming out soon, and have barely had time to wipe my butt while my apartment looks like a Whitney & Bobby crack den -- again. Truthfully this has been an awful week in different ways and I cannot wait until Friday when hubby and I start our 8th Anniversary celebrations. A girl never needed champagne so bad, but, I'm thinking a Lady in White might do the trick.
Thanks to all who came out to the show last night. I will have more photos soon. Of course I forgot my camera so I'm slowly collecting photos all my friends took. The pairing of Andrea and I turned out fabulous and the show looks great, and if you missed the reception, it is up until May 17th and you can swing by during the City Artists at Work gallery/studio tour as well.
People really liked the stories it seems, and many thought the bios were real until they got to the end with the various cuss words. I've also been hit up to do many cat portraits; unexpected and funny. Glad so many people turned out, some even driving in from far and wide.
Signs of a good reception? Besides quotes like, "I want to marry that portrait 'Kiki' I really do", "I can just feel the presence of those cats licking me" and "I'm going to take these paintings home and masturbate to them", the staff was closing up as they discovered one gallery goer ended up on the roof somehow, and were then invited to come watch an orgy taking place in the building across the street. I guess the orgy people really liked the show and they were all set and ready to, um, you know, do their thing after viewing it. Cleveland art people are randy aren't they? Everything kept leading back to sex somehow with this show. Maybe I should give it a subtitle? "Poise, Posture and Profanity: It'll Make You Horny"
Hello My Name Is Art was nice enough to do this little plug for "Poise, Posture and Profanity" opening this Friday. He "gets" me, which is nice. Below are some partial shots I took of us laying out the show. Should be fun, and I think a couple pieces may have sold already....
In the meantime I just finished a few commissioned 5x7s. I'm really nervous because it is of someone I know, and they don't know a mutual friend put me up to it as a surprise present. Doing work of real people is way harder for me than doing work of actual living people -- way stressful.
Yesterday I was at the outdoor mall that pretends to be a city (Cracker ass Cracker Park), and there I was: Prada purse, Prada shoes, Starbucks in hand, and Sephora bag slung over my shoulder. What happened to me!? My 15 year old self would be wailing on my ass right about now. I think I need to go set some fires, graffiti up city hall and mug some junkies for fun or something, just to counteract this feeling I'm having. Ick.
By the way, no signs of a recession here kids. At least not in my little pocket of the city. Cleveland friends are getting jobs within a month of lay offs, no parking at the mall on a Friday afternoon, restaurants are packed (went to 4 tonight until I found one that didn't have a ridiculous wait time), and people were buying art last night as I made the rounds of various exhibits. Freaky, huh? I'm sure you have read the WSJ article (which I don't completely agree with and a lot was left out) and in comparison, we have this video. If anything, the truth is that this town is a mixed bag; I suppose it depends who you have as a tour guide.
Speaking of art, went to lay out the show opening this Friday. I was going to show some more sneaky peeks, but I though this photo of Spike the gallery cat was all I needed. He picks out what he wants when a show is going up you see. At first he went directly for the portraits of cats I will be exhibiting, but in the end, he settled on "Mrs. Turner".
