Ramble Ramble

Sometimes I feel like my husband’s art is the other woman in our relationship. He comes home late after being with her all night, long after I go to bed. He sheepishly hides receipts for the things he’s bought her. He makes plans with her whenever he has free time. Sometimes he’s too tired from being with her to do things with me. I occasionally get jealous and force him to choose me over her, but he always goes back.

Other times, I feel like his art is our child. Our time revolves around it. We spend more money on it than we do on ourselves at times. We’re constantly running all over creation for its events (talk about an over scheduled child). We put all our energy into making sure it has a better chance of making it big. Work, friends, and private time for our marriage can be secondary to its immediate needs.

Either way, his art definitely puts our lives into a  vice grip at times. Deadlines and events and jobs have a way of taking over. I’ve learned over the years of being with him, it’s part of what I got when I said I would accept him and his career. But I’ve also learned over the years that I can: make him take breaks, give me a day (or evening) free from art, schedule better to allow us time off (like this past weekend), work differently so that he doesn’t end up in the studio until 4am 7 nights in a row. I can exert my influence over him as his wife to help him make LIFE and not just art a priority.

And when things get really bad, and he really can’t break away from the art, I do what wives have done throughout history when their husbands aren’t paying enough attention to them–I break out the lingerie.

My husband has a studio space in a local gallery that specializes in “his kind” of art–sometimes called pop surrealism, lowbrow, urban surrealism, and a host of other not-quite-right names. Every month the gallery has an opening featuring new artists, and all the studio artists have their doors open, allowing for a sort of personalized gallery event alongside the main opening. It’s a really great opportunity for the studio artists to show and sell their work, meet the featured artists, meet local art enthusiasts, network, etc.

These days can be really hectic prepping for the night (cleaning the studio, printing signs for upcoming shows, etc.), not to mention several hours of being “on” as we talk to people who come through the studio. But at the same time, they’re really fun, and we’ve gotten to be friends with a lot of the other studio artists, so we get to socialize with them during those evenings as well.

Last night was an opening, so here are some scenes from the gallery night:

All the studios have the artists’ name and room number on them…this is N.C.’s 3rd room since we moved here a year ago (he’s finally settled).

The gallery normally has a local winery or brewery sponsor the opening, so we tend to have free booze for the night.

When traffic flow through the studio slows down, N.C. will paint or draw. Here, he’s working on some sketches for a logo design.

Yes, more wine. In the background you can see the progress on the bust N.C. is doing for the Keep-a-Breast Foundation. They do busts of women and men, and provide them to artists to gussy up. The final products are auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the foundation to promote breast health and breast cancer awareness.

This is my corner when the night gets a little long. The chair is a really comfortable Craigslist find, and Ice Bat up there calms my nerves when it gets too be too much talking to a bunch of strangers. (Have I mentioned that makes me uncomfortable?).

Paintbrushes. This is maybe a tenth of the amount of paintbrushes my husband has. And yet, he mostly just uses these ones.

N.C. drawing while talking (he’s going to be mad that I’m using this photo…between the mid-saying-something mouth and the shine from the flash, he’s not going to be thrilled. Sorry babe!). The wine–his. The diet coke in the background–mine.

My empty wine glass. I tend to finish off one glass pretty early to help relax me. Then I move back to Diet Coke. (see picture above)

Lucky for me, there’s a 7-11 right down the street from the gallery. Perfect for a mid-evening pick me up.

At the end of the night, we’re usually a combination of exhausted and hopped up on adrenaline, caffeine, and in my case, candy.

So once we get home, there’s generally some relaxing that has to happen before we can go to bed. Last night…Bioshock.

Yes, we pulled out the sofa bed and played violent video games at midnight last night. Don’t judge, gallery nights are tiring!

The payoff for all the work an artist puts in (and all the crap his wife puts up with)? 

This…

This Saturday, my husband is one of the featured artists at The Hive Gallery in downtown LA. This piece, Microcosm, is one of my favorites of the 13 pieces he’s showing. It took him about 3 months to pull the entire show together, with the bulk of that work coming (as always) in the past month. I know I might be biased, but I still think the payoff is pretty sweet. I can’t help but be amazed at what he’s able to create, and seeing a show come together is always a reminder of why we both work so hard and sacrifice so much.

Anywho, if you’re in the LA area and don’t mind the idea of downtown on a Saturday night, come on down to the show. It is decidedly NOT kid friendly this time around, so be forewarned. The theme for the group show artists is “Bee-rotica”, and if you click through to the Hive’s website, you’ll see that there’s lots of…um…adult themed art and performances planned for the evening. Oh, and if you come dressed in “erotic costume”, the cover charge is cheaper!!! (Let’s not get me started on the idea of a cover charge at a gallery, but I will say, it does turn into quite the party)  So, yeah, there should be some GREAT people watching at this thing!

I, however, will be there in normal people clothes, trying to hide from the freaks and weirdos.

Since it’ll be full of artists, I probably won’t be too successful.