What a whirlwind the last week has been. The day after I hung the show, we all went to Russian River for five glorious days on the river, canoeing, swimming, eating, playing Apples to Apples, and drinking Eric's brother Bob's awesome margaritas. At night I watched the first season of Grey's Anatomy with Eric's nieces (two of the sweetest teenage girls you could ever meet).
Eric and I drove back to the city on Friday afternoon for the opening of my show. We ate good sushi at Hotei first (too much of a wait at Ebisu), and then walked down to Canvas. I was quite nervous, but I knew that four of the pieces had already sold, so I didn't have to worry about not selling a single thing. When we got there right at 8:00, Larissa (the beautiful and competent Canvas employee I'd been dealing with) was writing an order for another piece, one of my French girls saying "merde." I brought three of those and they all sold.
Brigid from work was there with a friend, and then more and more of our friends started to show up. It was like an Annie and Eric party - but not at our house! There was a huge Laurance contingent, Dave and Margaret and their two girls from Mountain View, Johnny and Kim with baby Norah, and Bob and Megan with even tinier baby Ailish. It got so busy. The DJ was spinning good tunes, and the wine was flowing. The beautiful Brinks girls came, Kate and Biz, and I didn't even get to talk to them, it was so crazy. Erica and Steve with Lili, Suzi and Mark with India, Alisha, Ashli, Des and Rob, Neil and his daughter Sonia, Dan and Michelle, Jake and Jen, several people from work; Craig P. and Jen B. closed the place down with Eric and me.
It was simply a fantastic night. I felt like such a star. Larissa brought me a glass of Champagne at one point and said I was the hit of the show! I know the main reason my sales were brisk is because most of my pieces were under $100. Lisa advised me to price things reasonably, and Sharon from Artspan told me that my pricing was very wise.
One of my favorite moments was meeting the artist Pete Doolittle. He had, a few days previously, bought a couple of my wrestlers, and he came to the opening to meet me. Really talented artist; one of his drawings is on the window of my room at the gallery. I found some pictures online of his recent one-man show at Canvas (I don't know how one person could fill all that space, but he managed it with aplomb.
I think I sold about 20 paintings: all the "merde" girls, many wrestlers, some textile-ish ones, and a 49 Mile Drive. I told Larissa that I could bring more paintings in this week, and she started to let people take them home that night rather than waiting for the show to be over. There are some sold stickers up though and I love the effect they had: People were going, "I love that one but it's sold!" I think I will bring more in to fill the holes but not let all of them leave the building. The show is up for a month! There are some other terrific artists there too, whose works I didn't get much of a chance to peruse. When I bring more paintings in this week I'll take a good look.
What a night! Then, Saturday morning we went back up to Russian River for the rest of the weekend. Just got back last night. Good times!
These photos are taken from outside as we were leaving. That's the Pete Doolittle drawing on the window.
Doolittle will be selling limited edition t shirts through our website at http://www.curbsandstoops.com/index.html I am super stoked and its great to see reviews like yours.
great blog... cheers.
Posted by: jeffrey pena | August 26, 2008 at 09:26 PM