My goodness, what a great weekend!
I just soaked up all that beauty for two days, met countless artists, observed galleries and their clients, met collectors afire with passion for art and fine craft, talked to arts organizations, listened to amazing lectures, bought books, and had intimate discussions on art practices. One of my favourite lectures was given by the wonderful Australian artist Julie Blyfield.
PS: Charon Kransen Arts in NYC = wonderful and thorough selection of contemporary work! Excuse the bad photo above, I didn’t have my real camera with me.
I was on such a roll, and in such a state of blissful delight, that I really tried hard to ignore my steadily growing tooth ache (underneath my beautiful gold crown!), until is became so bad that I broke down in a different kind of tears, and finally packed it in to search for an antibiotic for the tooth which was, by Sunday mid-day, obviously very badly infected. Following various leads, I ran all over town to try to acquire a perscription, alas there was only one solution in the end, pain throbbing through my whole head, nearly making me mad: I had to go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital, and without further delay.
Good choice: a few hours later I emerged from emergency (pun!), perscription in hand, and less than 12 hours later I started feeling significantly better. I am generally a ‘lots of water and rest will fix it’ kind of girl, but in this case, I am severely grateful to the various people involved with the invention of antibiotics, including Sir Alexander Fleming (wonder if he has any relationship to Sir Sandford Fleming, after whom a Halifax park is named).
I wanted to mention here what an interesting experience I had inside the Northwest Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Even though I was in this ridiculous amount of pain, I couldn’t help but notice that there was something significantly different about the space and people. I had enough time to ponder this while waiting in various queues, and talking to various levels of employees. I think what I felt is that all the staff was happy to be there; they were friendly and smiling, not in a hurry, and they were content (even though it was Sunday evening!). I even asked some staff members about this. In the end, I deduct that this is due to two factors:
a) Chicagonians (?) seem to be a fairly content and friendly bunch altogether (friendliest I’ve seen yet in the US), and
b) they get paid well. So important. I only wish it was free, too! I want people to get paid well, and I want it to be free. Utopia? Just like Julie Blyfield, who – a resident of Australia- has access to much funding for the development of new work, enabling her to take time off periodically for R&D, and thus she produces continually new and exciting work, which in turn makes her a successful artist. Sigh …
Well, I am very happy to be better, even though tonight’s Pilates class with the wonderful and lovely Susan Cook, was still much harder than it usually is. But I am on the mend, for sure. This is good, because much work lies ahead to finish preparing for the NSDCC Designer Craft Market, which is coming right up (November 18-20, 2011). Onward and upward!
Ohh, I do want to tell you more about SOFA, but not sure I’ll get to it…. In the meantime, there are some great photos from the opening reception gala here or here (same photos).
Once again, I remain humbled by the fragility of the human condition, and grateful for what I’ve got. Tomorrow, I will make good use of the un-seasonally warm weather here in Halifax to collect more maple leaves, before they are finally all gone for a long while ….
