Bemused

I've now told four or five people about the fact that I will have a solo show on the Upper East Side from June 4 through Labor Day Weekend. They've all said things like, "that's FANTASTIC! I'm so happy for you! Woo, woo!" I'm rather pleased, myself. For me this means that my activities have a future that will last at least six months. I've been in some doubt.

Okay, well, the solo show is in a furniture showroom. But it's a furniture showroom on Madison Avenue and 62nd, with higher foot traffic than most high-end galleries, and that foot traffic consisting of people with money to spend on fixing up their living rooms. I'll have to do all the marketing myself, including designing and printing and mailing postcards. Fortunately I have a lot of experience with this. And it's in the Summer, which as everybody knows, is when every dealer, critic and successful artist in Manhattan shuts up shop, goes to their converted barn upstate and recovers from the Season.

BUT A FURNITURE SHOWROOM IS STILL A BETTER GALLERY THAN MY FOURTH FLOOR STAIRWELL. So I'm pleased.

In parallel news, I met with LMCC today, after showing proposal to four people, setting up meetings, making alterations, doing research, printing photos, making myself sick getting no sleep. The event planner girl got her stuff printed, barely--I had to stop by her apartment at 9 AM for it, with the meeting at 10:30, and her doorbell didn't work and my cell phone hasn't arrived yet (at least it did, but I wasn't around when FedEx delivered it), so I had to drive to the next block, park, find a pay phone, call her, and drive back--then I drove to the subway station and parked a block away, and limped to the station, and the train arrived just as I got there and none of my metro cards would work. I said "fuck" and started whirling around helplessly, and the subway guard buzzed open the door for me, and a lady said "you dropped your glove!" and I said "I have to catch this TRAIN!" and a guy on the train held the door and said "throw it!" and she threw the glove and I got on the train and the guy caught my glove and said "teamwork."

There's something in this business of "we are all one mind."

Anyway I was starving but managed to get tea and a scone at Starbucks and walk six blocks and get through security and not be late. The lobby at LMCC is decorated like a pink and green jungle, with ants painted on the walls and birds on the pink ceiling and a green leaf canopy over the hot pink sofa. It's a friendly place. The people I met with were nice, and listened, and took notes, and made encouraging faces.

The upshot of all of this, though, is that I'm not yet standing at the edge of the first hoop I have to jump through to get this project actualized. Because getting access to Space and getting access to Sponsorship and getting access to Grants are all different and not necessarily related processes. First we've got to apply for "fiscal sponsorship" and then, assuming we get it, reasearch and apply for grants and corporate sponsorships, and then, assuming we get THOSE, apply for Space. I say "we" even though, up till now, it's been pretty much Me, with some gentle feedback and critique from other people, because there is no way in hell I am going to do this alone. So who wants to be on my Team? If we get through all the hoops we'll get paid 40 bucks an hour. Come on, it will be fun.

At any rate, I am planning on embarking upon this labyrinthine process, perhaps in all futility, without expectations of outcome, because at least I will be meeting arts people, and can invite all of them to my uncool summer show. And the alternative is temp agencies. It will be temp agencies anyway, probably, but I have hope there too because I met a guy yesterday who works for one, and he says they're pretty good and represent a lot of artists. This is encouraging, because when I moved here the temp agencies weren't even returning calls. I tell you, when I say I had doubts about the existence of my future, I was not exaggerating.