It was a smash!

(exhausted and unedited...)

We got back yesterday afternoon and I actually woke up this morning with a smile on my face

The weekend was a smash - and keeping fingers crossed, I think I might have sold a piece along with meeting new friends and re-connecting with old ones.

It was a very nice time indeed.

Something that has been in short supply lately - but was welcomed with open arms


in short:
Friday we drove down - got up at 8am and hit the highway. Made a bunch of pit stops (medication augmentation side effect) but got into the city and missed the traffic - a sheer blessing

Ran to the hotel - ate, showered and then ran out again to the gallery opening.

It was at the Gladstone - a beautiful old restored hotel in downtown toronto. I was there this summer when my friend Stephanie had her photography work there as part of Contact. It's such a feather in my cap to be at that show, that location. As my friend Siobhan said: "all of who's who in the t.o art scene is here tonight - and that's a really good thing for you.."

We made our way around the show - lots of erotica. Lots and lots and to my surprise, 95% photography! It's usually the other way around - 95% everything else except photography and 5% pictures. There were lots of penis and breasts, but I think mine stood out because they were so subtle. Oddly enough, I was right across the wall from another self-portrait artist, but his stuff was huge and I do mean that in more ways than one...

So we schmoozed, hung out with Siobhan, (herself a curator) and then closed a deal on one of my photos. The organizers came up to me and said : I think somebody is interested in one of your photos to which I replied: Are you serious!!?? Send them over!

And so she came over to my photo - saying over and over again: "I just gotta have this photo! It's amazing!!". After a few glasses of wine, we became fast friends and she gave me the best advice on what kind of system I need to install to edit videos on my computer.

She ran around with e for a while too, while one of my old and best friends T came by with his friend. I was so happy to see T - and it was like we had seen each other just yesterday. We talked and watched other people look and talk about my photos (funny, I was a voyeur to my own work!) and he urged me to take it all in: "these people really love your stuff - look at them! K, you're famous!" The wine made me giddy and I found that to be the funniest thing since string cheese.


So we moved downstairs where the "gala" took place, hung out with some interesting peeps - and yes, I eventually eneded up meeting that gentleman photographer across the hall from my work. He was very shy and sweet, giving me his card (you're on flickr!) and blushing as I told him how amazing I thought his work was, and how courageous he was to "put it all out there".
After the night began to wind down, and realized that I had mixed wine and beer (a huge mistake) I said goodbye to the gang we made our way back to the hotel. Boy, was I in bad shape when I got back to the hotel - with the room was spinning and a mild panic attack setting in, E rubbed my back and calmed me down from the freak out, which was really quite sweet and endearing, cementing in my mind that this man really is a gem - 1 in a million!

Saturday was spent in bed - (at least I was in bed, under the sheets, head pounding but still a smile on my face) and from what we could salvage of the afternoon, spent 2nd hand bookstore shopping and then taking down my photos from the store.

"so how did you do? did you sell anything while your stuff was up here?" the sales associate asked me. Well, I didn't sell anything from the store show, but that didn't seem to bother me. I was 500 miles from home, and knew that somehow, this was a new beginning, a new chapter to my so called sorted artistic life.

I'm telling you - travel therapy is the way to go. I have to find a way to do this and get paid (or at least get my way paid) because it seems to be the thing that gets me out of my black hole at home.

Went for my acupuncture today - and for the first time in a long time, when Denis asked me how my week was, I smiled and said: it was good. It was very good...