Last night, a burning summer evening where it was 90 degrees even after dark, my wife and I went to Richard Raney’s studio. He’s preparing for a show, and I wanted to discuss it with him. His studio’s on the 5th floor of one of those old loft buildings in the West Bottoms. No a/c, cats darting back and forth, very hot. And the work was very good: some incredible figures of black women and men, some surreal figures from his illustration work, and a cityscape or two. God I loved going through it all; such a brilliant talent so young (27).
Afterward my wife and I took the stairs back down, and walked the humid streets: studios here and there, bums asleep under bridges, the occasional freight rumbling through. Eventually we went to Westport for a gin and tonic, and to talk about nothing. A very good night.