last night...

G-spot and I went to town for Erica's opening... i was and am very excited for Erica in this new venture, but i have to admit after all this time of checking myself out of the maintstream art world i was even more excited to see old friends. and indeed! it felt so good being with them.

Max looked great and was in the prime-form that only he can be in. Mitch, Carolyn, John, Carrie, and i took a little trek off the beaten-path to Max's gallery to look at a piece that Max had been working on... an ink drawing of a beautiful gnarly old tree with a sort of yin yang going on as the tree is intensely lined and dark on one side, moving to clean, simplified light on the other. In typical artist-fashion he was worried that the piece wasn't "working" - but it was and we all tried to convince him of the fact.

While I was in his gallery I wanted to see the latest show that was hanging and took to wandering around the gallery... there are some really great works in this one... I come to expect this at M2 as Max and Michael have a high-bar set for what goes on the walls.

I discovered that Max had one of my paintings hanging in the show, "Release" is the paintings name. Now, my words can not do justice to the feelings i went through seeing it hanging without knowing it would be there. Max is really a good friend and I feel we share some common threads that leave me knowing we share a love for each other.. and NOT in a romantic or sexual sense! And full-knowing Max could be capable of hastily hanging that painting as a gesture of friendship knowing i might be there to see it... I also know how important it is to Max to have a show hung right...with each piece properly flowing into the next. I have sat and watched him agonize over every single painting in a show for hours on end... and so it is with this knowlege that I was so touched by seeing my painting there hanging. I know he wanted it there, I know he believed in it and its relationship to the gallery as well as the paintings hanging along side it.

I am still blown away by this, I just don't know how I could truly thank him.

There were LOTS of real life hugs last night and it felt so good... in contrast, I hate hugs where two people barely touch - as if there is a thin layer of shit between them that they dare not get on each other and these sorts of hugs are always accompanied by nervous pats on the back... those were not the types of hugs that went around last night.... we held each other, smiled, laughed, closed our eyes, felt each other's warmth... it was so nice.

I had one-of-a-handful-to-date, great psychology-based conversations with Carrie. She is an energetic woman alive with electricity I swear... she is getting ready to do her internship in NY at Mt. Bellview and as I write this is probably standing on a curb in Long Island checking out over-priced apartments, as her plane was leaving at o-dark-thirty this morning for three days of touring the hood for housing.

When Carrie and I have a chance to talk it is always a very candid conversation... and why not? I happily volunteer myself for her free-services, and in some ways she does the same with me, which of course is quite flattering to me.

She told me before we parted for the night that she loves talking to me as she leaves learning something about herself every time.. I was floored by this compliment to the point of not knowing how to respond, nor was I able to reciprocate and tell her she always has the same effect on me.

There was of course much more to the evening...but I will refrain from going on and on and convincing you of my oddness.

Now back to cleaning a path through our house so that when my mother arrives tomorrow night to spend the night she won't have to mark out an obstacle course to find her sleeping place... cheers!