Normally, a Saturday morning with this much silence would have me feeling edgy.... but this morning -- it's completely welcome... and kinda wonderful.
The past seven days have been a chaotic flurry of activity at the space. It was an amazing week -- but I am BEYOND exhausted:
Last Saturday was the Benson Day Festival... I opened the store at 8:45am (got here and there were already people milling about outside) and stayed open til 9:15pm when I finally decided I was gonna collapse and locked the door. It was a GREAT day for the shop --- lots of new faces and sales -- but it was never ending.... there were people in here for 13 hours straight without pause. The beer garden was set up right outside the store -- which made for some interesting people watching.... the only downside of the day was having to endure about 11 hours of the loudest, worst cover bands I have ever heard. Ugh. I thought the slowed down, rock ballad version of Britney's "Hit Me Baby, One More Time" -- sung by a man, was a joke, at first -- but, um...... no.
Sunday was spent taking down Jeff King's exhibit in the gallery and spackling the walls so that I could come in bright and early on Monday morning and paint because the next artist, Seth Johnson, was going to need a full week to install.
I got the space finished just in time for a free performance event taking place in the gallery that night -- a local writers' workshop held a reading, concert, silent auction -- it was a great event, lots more new faces in the space -- but by the time it ended -- things were such a mess that I ended up staying til 2am re-painting the walls (I love those indie rock boys to death -- but gawd damn they're a dirty wall-leanin' bunch!). So -- I ended up working another 13 hours on my only day off for the week.
Seth showed up on Tuesday morning with a gallon of black paint and several boxes of art. He worked in the gallery for 4 days straight installing his show. This week was a serious lesson in letting go for me -- as he painted large portions of the gallery black, I sat at my desk and tried not to panic, reminding myself that this is what primer was for.
In the end -- I loved the way it turned out --- it's amazing.
The opening last night was wonderful -- it got off to a slow start, but by 10pm it was rolling along at full speed, so I let it go til about 11pm before closing the bar and calling it a night. It was a great event... as much as the openings stress me out -- they're amazing nights for the gallery and the artists. They make me proud. They're just SO much flippin' work ... I need an assistant, an intern or a clone (maybe all three?) -- the weeks before the openings are just batshit, and I can't sort out a way to make them more manageable.
So, yeah............. I'm kinda happy to just sit here by myself for a few hours today. Tomorrow is my first real day off in two weeks and I plan to spend it doing a whole lot of nothing at all.
Lots of other things have happened in the past seven days --- and I'll fill you in on them next week (promise...) but right now, I'm gonna take my book and apple and sit outside on the bench and enjoy some sunshine.
I'm done!
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