Awakening on the good side
This morning started off with a laugh in my sleep. I had what seemed to be the most ridiculous dream about a wild car chase that I was looking at either on a television screen or from a high vantage point, like one of the El platforms here in Philly. I could see a police car or other flashy vehicle in the distance coming towards where I was and it looked to be about three blocks away (I had an unobstructed view of the street). That car came down the street, but veered off suddenly onto a side street running perpendicular to the one I was looking at, with another car chasing it. Not sure if the second one was a cop car or not. Then, an open bed truck with all sorts of material, maybe construction materials, careened down the street towards my location, made a sudden turn and jack-knifed, causing the contents to spill out. Right on cue, a trash truck and crew came by, scooped up everything they could from the disabled truck, tossed it in the back of the trash truck and took off. No one checked on the driver of the first truck. I’m looking at all of this in my dream and was cracking up! So much so that I woke myself up laughing.
That’s one of the best ways to wake up and it’s only happened a few times that I can remember. As I’m typing, I’m still about to bust out laughing about it. I don’t know why those scenes were so funny, but I’ll take it, considering the state of everything happening around us and to others right now. The waking up laughing part was only the beginning of my early morning, though. When I made it to a more conscious state, my brain decided to let me know with all of its might, that it was Sunday. I mean, if my brain was a human, it would have been talking with its chest fully puffed out, “It’s SUNDAY!! You’re up too early, but you can just sleep in!” I believed it, too. Rolled over, closed my eyes… A few moments later, I had one of those movie moments where one of my eyes shot open with the realization that it’s not Sunday at all, but Monday and I actually have to get up really soon!
*cue sad trumpet sound*
It’s all good, though, I’m grateful to see another day and to get to go and work in the studio. Someone’s coming later this week to look at an older painting of mine and because it’s not been stored in a completely covered state, there’s cat fur to remove, mostly along the edges and back. Once I take care of that, I’ll be on to other pieces that are in progress at the moment. I have to get a large amount of canvas soon for some large stretchers that I have. I need to get moving on those for my show coming up in the spring at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. No title for the show, yet, but I’m sure it’ll come to me when it’s ready. In the meantime, there’s work to get done.
This past weekend was filled with a lot of great things and kicked off with an artist panel and opening reception for Something Big, Something Small, the new group exhibition that I’m a part of at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. The panel included other artists in the show as well as myself: Arden Bendler-Browning, Erika B. Hess, Michele Kishita, Erin McIntosh, Rebecca Rutstein and Ellen Sofer. The panel was focused on aspects of each artist’s work as well as the exhibition theme around how each artist deals with shifts in scale and how that affects our work. It was a lively discussion and there was good amount of people who came out to see it and the show. I had a great time connecting with Erika Hess and Ellen Sofer face to face, both of whom I’ve been in contact with online for a long time, ten years at least. I spent a lot of time talking at the opening and didn’t get many photos, but it was very well-attended and the conversations were great.
Coming up this Thursday!
If you’re in Philly this Thursday, stop by the Brandywine Workshop and Archives for the opening reception for Flowing Abstraction: Contemporary African Diaspora Printmaking. This is survey show of Black artists who have been resident artists at Brandywine over the past five years who work with abstraction in printmaking. Included will be woodblock prints from my Tomorrow’s Conversations variable edition. I’m excited to have my work in the company of Sam Gilliam, Julie Mehretu, El Anatsui, Enise Carr and more!
Flowing Abstraction: Contemporary African Diaspora Printmaking, Opening reception: Thursday, November 9, 2023, 6-8pm
Brandywine Workshop and Archives, 730 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, Phone: 267.831.2928