2004-12-06, 11:17 p.m.

Leon and his Auntourage

So my big and exciting news for the past few weeks has been that one of my sculptures was accepted into a juried show in Philadelphia. The sculpture I entered is one from my MFA thesis show, and it consists of a circular light box that hangs from the ceiling, and a whole slew of dried clementine peels, which hang from the face of the light box on incredibly fine nylon thread. The problem with getting into this show was that I now live in Michigan, and the sculpture was at my parents farm in VT. And the gallery is in Philly. What a mess.

But, to keep you from having to hang in suspense, I can happily report that Leon and I have in fact just returned from our crazy weekend of travel to hang this sculpture. On Friday, we flew out to Albany (Leon charmed every one on the plane - several people approached me at the baggage claim to tell me what a cute/wonderful/well behaved baby he was), where my mom picked us up at the airport and drove us to the farm. There, Leon discovered the wonder and joy of crawling around on the kitchen floor chasing after the cat, Milo. Saturday I checked the various pieces of the sculpture to make sure they were all okay, and Leon hung out with my sister Anna while my dad and I picked up last minute supplies. Leon also met Anna's horses, Tess and Eva, but he wasn't so sure about them - they were much larger than the kitty. Then my mom drove us and the sculpture down to NJ, where we stayed overnight with my aunt Betsy. Leon very much enjoyed trying to play with her cat, Mack (who was not so certain about Leon), but decided that he absolutely did not like the shower. Betsy, bless her forever and ever, ran me to home depot for more lightbulbs and wood screws, and then bought me an umbrella stroller at Tar-get. All of these things became essential the next day.

Sunday morning we all piled back into mom's car (including Betsy), and headed for the gallery in Philly, where we met up with another one of my aunts, Cinny. I unloaded the sculpture, and sent Leon off with my mom, Betsy and Cinny - his Auntourage. The wandered around, looked at stuff, did a little shopping, fed Leon baby food, and introduced him to the wonder of the dill spear pickle, which he apparently LOVED gumming the heck out of.

Meanwhile, I was back at the gallery, tying 3 foot lengths of practically invisible nylon thread to clementine peels, and getting to know the very nice gallery owner. Two hours later, her fianc�, Rick, arrived to install the light box in the ceiling of the gallery, and I was still tying threads. At 3pm, still tying threads, the Auntorage returned, and set themselves up on three chairs against the gallery wall, to help me. They were loud and cackled a lot, and funny and basically saved my sanity. When I mentioned that they reminded me of Macbeth's 3 witches, my mom even started reciting Shakespeare. Leon was completely fascinated by the work Rick was doing, and when he got restless, Cinny kept him entertained while Betsy and my mom helped to thread all those (finally tied) strings through the tiny little holes in the face of the light box. Oh, and Leon had a fabulous time trying to play with the gallery cat, Fatso. Who is indeed a very fat (but sweet) cat.

Finally, we got the sculpture done and up, and it looked great. BIG relief. It was 7pm, and I had started at 11am. I am so ready to sell this piece. Amazingly, Liz, the gallery owner, said that she knows someone who might be interested in buying it. I won't hold my breath, but - yowza - that would be wonderful. After seeing the rest of my slides, Liz also asked me if I'd be interested in sharing a solo show (one room of the gallery each) with another artist in 2006. She showed me that artist's slides, and I think our work could fit quite well together. These are exactly the reasons why I decided that I had to go through all the hassle of getting my sculpture hung in a gallery, but I sure didn't think it would actually happen like this, not this fast. I'm still not about to believe in any of it, before it actually happens.

To make me feel even better about the whole situation, I got to see several of the other pieces that will be in this show, and I really was impressed with the quality of the work. The show's title is Illuminated, so a lot of the work has a subtle spiritual feel to it. I'm really pleased to be in the company of these artists, so if nothing else comes of this experience I'm still happy.

But, of course, now I'm exhausted. It is very good to be home, but I sure could use a day off to just vegetate before getting back to all of my regular, non-jet-setting-artist responsibilities, like grocery shopping, sorting the mail, and sending in the insurance claim for my fried computer.

I think Leon could use some calm, non-traveling time, too. He seemed to be really excited to be home this evening, with his dad and his dog. Lots of giggling and playing, especially with his dad, who is so happy to see us again. Speaking of which, I should really go sit on the couch with him. Saturday was C's 34th birthday, and he's been referring to it as "my birthday, a tale of loneliness and solitude." Poor boy.

Shameless self promotion: The gallery show opens this Friday, December 10th, and the opening reception is from 5-8pm. The gallery is called the Afif Gallery, and the address is 1904 South St - the website is www.afifgallery.com. Just in case you're interested.