March 3rd, 2011

Day 362.  One more day until opening night of the art show and we only had 169 days on the wall.  Jenny was pretty concerned and so was I, except I began to come to the conclusion that whatever happens is what happens and that just might be the way it was meant to be.  I couldn’t let the pressure get to me.  I had started this project and there wasn’t any turning back.  I just had to put my head down and keep on keepin’ on.

I headed to the gallery to continue my work.  At this point I was getting a little concerned with the impressions of the owners of the gallery, Candace and Mike.  Candace was would walk by every once in a while taking care of things around the gallery and each time she came by I’d try to impart some confidence.  Of course, it was tough to be upbeat and confident when you have less then half of the show up after two days of work and only one day left.

I have to thank Candace and Mike because even though things looked pretty grim they never put any added pressure on me.  They knew I’d maybe bit off more than I can chew but they never made me feel bad about it.  In fact, they were very encouraging to me.  I was very lucky for that because I felt very self-consciouss through this entire process.  I mean, I’d never put on an art show before and on top of troubles with the setup I also had to contend with the thought that maybe this stuff wouldn’t be of interest to people.  At the gallery next door was some amazing work by some extremely talented artists and here I am taping an ugly unfinished collage up on the wall.

Anyways, like I said, I knew I had to just put my head down and keep working.

I had a new method this morning which worked quite well.  I decided to lay out as many pictures as I could on the ground next to they’re respective label.  I’d found a problem in previous days that when friends came to help it didn’t move all that much quicker because they still needed me to direct them to the right image and label.  So, if I could get a friend to help me today, they could very easily see which picture comes next and I could keep working on the spray mounting and cutting simultaneously.

I was very lucky to have my buddy Dean come by to lend a hand.  He was super helpful and we were making progress quite quickly.  Jenny found a baby-sitter for June and she also came by to help.

Dean had to pick up a friend later in the afternoon and I had to drive to Burbank to pick up a TV set and some other gear for the installation part of the show.  I waited until Dean got back from picking up his buddy to drive out to Burbank.  When I got back three hours later I found Jenny, Dean and two of Deans roomates, Shana and Dustin all working together posting up my pictures.

It felt so great to see them all there.  I suddenly began feeling more confident that it could actually happen, that the show could actually get done in time.

I owe so much gratitude to my friends.  Without them, this show would’ve no doubt been incomplete.  By the time Dean and Jenny left I think we had something like 260 days up.

I spent the night at the studio and started the process of setting up the installations and spray mounting things to poster-board.  I had to get all the spray-mounting done by morning so that Jenny and friends could finish taping days to the wall while I set-up the rest of the show.

As I worked, I created a long “to do” list on my iphone for tomorrow.