Our Man at the Edison Eye Invitational (3)

CHAPTER THREE


It was a quieter night in edison. After I parked my car and walked to
the front steps of the gallery there were many people sitting outside
and milling about the front door. They were all chatting about the
wonderful trips they had taken to central america or about the good they
were doing serving on Arts committees but not too many of them were
focused on the Art hanging in the gallery. I kept looking for the aging
divas with the long scarfs around their necks waving to their drivers to
find a better parking spot but I think the divas always arrive later in
the evening.

I went inside and instinctively searched out the position the Baron had
given me in the art gallery's real estate. I was again placed off to
the side of the show but at least this time I was placed near the entry
to the cafe where the wine was instead of on the way to the bathroom. I
guess I'm moving up.

Feeling somewhat upbeat I walked into the cafe to investigate the crowd
further and I was impressed that so many people had showed up for the
show but I think they were in a more social mood than an art buying
mood. I had some salad with a bit of salmon and then had a perfunctury
glass of wine. It was red and it was good. I put some more money in
the donation basket and helped myself again. I met an old friend there
and we talked about real estate and politics for a while and then I
realized I had to get popping on my report about the Art show.

I started walking up to people and began to start conversations about
what they thought about the show. The first couple were from LaConner
and Bellevue and they were long time patrons of the Edison Eye. They
had bought something just recently from Dana and were not buyers
tonight. I showed them my painting and the woman's eyes lit up and she
told me she had an orange dining room and she might like my painting.
She asked me if it was a Mayan motif and I told her no it was Minoan.
She started to querie me about what books I had read about Greek history
and then we talked about Scheilmann in Mycanea and Evan's work at
Knossos. I told her I had been reading Thucydides this summer and she
told me I was amazing for reading such works. She still didn't buy my
painting. By the way this couple just came back from a trip to Split
and the southern croatian coast. They had even visited Brac in the past
but when I asked if they had been to Milna the wife said I was pushing
her too far.

Just then Dana came along with an eye patch on and he was looking very
frustrated. I asked how the show was going and he said it was
terrible. He couldn't sell anything other than a small piece by Barry
Christenson. "This show is too big... customers can't focus on
anything. Next year I am going to do this Invitational in two parts." I
wanted to say to Dana that the subject of the show was too mundane and
who wanted a painting of buttons. But I didn't. I motioned to Dana
that the couple I had been talking to were about to leave so Dana went
to work on them to go look at some pieces with him. I encouraged the
woman to go take a look and she and here husband followed off with Dana.

What pot to stir next. I found a couple sitting on the bench in the
smaller gallery space. I had noticed earlier that they had been
sitting there and I decided to ask them a few questions about the show.
The woman asked if I wanted to know about the Art show or the "show." I
said tell me about the "show" and she told me there were far to many
ladies in High Heels and Birkenstocks and they were not interested in
the art work but rather they were only interested in making the scene.
I asked her what was wrong with that and she just looked at me as if I
was crazy. The guy with her said the subjects in the show didn't appeal
to him becasue they were so ordinary. "Maybe people feel good looking
at spoons but it doesn't do anything for me." He had a baseball with
him that he asked me to sign and I noticed it had Babe Ruth's signature
on it and when I asked him about that he told me he was lucky to get
that signature the other day. He also asked me to sign for John as well
because John was in Dalmatia and couldn't sign for himself. "Dalmatia,
you gotta be making that up."

I next saw Toni and she was in a summer dress with a lai around her
neck. She was in a good mood even though Dana was bleeding out his ears
because no one was buying any paintings. She was laughing and asking me
privately if I was sure she could rent John & Julia's home in Milna some
day. I assured her I would negotiate that for her and I even told her
that John could see her island from his bedroom window. She was aglow
and offered me another glass of wine. Of course I accepted and we
cheered the good weather and then we talked about her sailboat. The
wind had been minimal this past week because of the heat but she said
she was going out Sunday afternoon no matter what.

I followed a few other artist's around and introduced myself and had
these artist's show me their work. One had painted a Hydranga bush and
another had painted an apple tree spirit. These two artists discussed
how Dana would come up with a theme for the Invitational and then the
artist's would do whatever they wished. Hmmmm.

I saw Christine Wartenburg and she had submitted a painting of carrots
and I took her picture in front of it. A friend of her's came by and
insisted I take another picture of Christine and the painting from a
better angle. Of course I did. Christine's painting was near mine and
I walked away feeling better about my placement in the show.

I then bumped into my friend again and he was dismayed that he couldn't
get anywhere in the ice cream line. Too many divas in front of him. We
walked down the street to another gallery on the corner and there was
some great bowls in there with beautiful fish motifs that were $600. As
I was looking at them the owner of the gallery came by
and said that these bowls would sell for $2000 in Seattle because people
in the city have money. I wanted to tell him that people in the city
had bigger money problems right now than he could imagine but I just let
it go because it was playfull to my ears to hear that urban myth again

My friend and I walked back to the edison eye determined to get him some
ice cream. I walked up to the counter and asked the lady there if we
could get some ice cream and she announced I am only the "f...ing wine
lady but I'll call out my superior to scoop some f...ing ice cream." I
thought to myself I have finally found someone with some color to write
about. She yelled out a name and from behind a door came the ice cream
guy with a tub of ice cream in his arms. My friend started to order a
double scoop and I started talking to the wine lady.

It turns out the Edison Eye went through 29 bottles of wine 15 salmon
fillets and loads of salad mix tonight. The wine lady went on to tell
me that she was also an artist and she had a few pieces in the show.
She was a bit upset that she had priced her pieces too high and was
troubled no one had bought one of them. "This is how I make my living
and if no one buys I don't eat." I asked her to tell me where her Art
was and she waved her hand around and said in the larger room near the
door. I searched the larger room for her work and came back to her and
said I am getting a head ache trying to find your stuff. She was busy
with a deep conversation with some young man but I think she thought I
was a reporter so she reluctantly walked my friend and I over to her
pieces. They were "Salish" type baskets made out of old maps of
Alaska. She works out of the old Hardware store and found these maps in
the closet there. They were old maps that some prospector had drawn
spots where he suspected gold would be found. The wine lady/artist
thought this was an afront to the beauty of Alaska and wanted to do
something positive with the maps. I on the other hand wanted to know
where the gold was.

The wine lady had a name and it was Jessica. She went on about how she
dropped out of the Western Art program while giving her presentation for
her degree in 1998. "I just got so mad about how these broken down
artist's can tell me about how to make Art when all they are doing is
trying to get some health coverage by working at the School." She
stormed out of the school and moved to Portland she said to make Art.
She moved to Edison a few years ago because the overhead was cheap. She
is going to have a one-person show in a few months at the Smith gallery
(the one owned by the furniture maker's that John and I went through in
June). She then ran off with her friends and I started to search once
again for a story. I think we should introduce Spencer to her.

I walked outside and I saw Joel Brock and we talked a bit. He stated
that this was a classic "Edison Eye Invitational"
and that Dana was fabulous for allowing so many artists a chance to be
shown. He also said his basketball hoop was lying in neglect in his
yard and that he was mostly pre-occupied these days keeping teen-age
boys away from his teen age daughter. "I was hoping other parents would
raise good boys but I have a BB gun just in case."

As I walked through the main street of Edison the sun was setting like a
red hot marble in the west and the moon was rising in the East. I stood
in the street and had one arm pointed at the sun and one at the moon and
felt a surge of energy run through me like some mayan astronermer.

I began to search for the aging divas and their drivers waiting to whisk
the divas off to their summer homes but I didn't see any. I might have
missed them while I was searching for my story.

I took some photos with my phone and I will send them off as well.

Chaz
Dateline Edison 8/01/09