A client and I are trying to decide where to put a grouping of columns by Carol Fleming.  In front of the house?  Among the pines in back?  Where?  Actually he knows very well where, as he’s a great architect who doesn’t need my advice in this capacity.  He just invited me over so we could visit, talk about his sculpture collection, tell a few jokes.

So where will they go?  Most certainly not out front, competing with those cast figures–at least not in my opinion.  They need to be by themselves, where they’ll have a more distinct ‘voice.’  We’ll see if my opinion counts for anything later.

 

I was in New York this week for literary reasons.  Also for reasons of distraction, but the two are often related.  Had lunch with Stephen Bracco, very kind novelist who writes for ArtisSpectrum.  We ate in a Korean joint on 32nd.

 

My appt was on Madison, so after lunch I worked via laptop in a coffee shop off Union Square, then went on to conduct biz.  Always love going to NY.  Don’t desire to live there.

 

Living the Artist’s Life was reviewed, favorably, in ArtisSpectrum last month (of course I wouldn’t mention it if it wasn’t favorable).  This is a New York magazine centered in Chelsea, an area that fascinates me but that I also give a hard time for occasionally getting carried away with elitism. 

There’s a Regional Renaissance taking place all over America right now.  Savvy dealers in NY are aware of this, and work with it.  Elitists blinded by snobbery refuse to acknowledge it (you know, if it’s west of the Hudson…) and as a result are not only missing out, but restricting cultural growth instead of feeding it.

My job?  To help ensure that artists west of the Hudson break out anyway, whether in NY or elsewhere.  The article, if you’re curious, begins on pg 34. 

My oldest son, Denny, and his band Transition Element played a gig at The Beaumont Club recently.  This was a battle of the bands sort of thing.  Lots of young groupies and all that.  Brown Eyes and I went to watch, along with my other son, Josh.  Loved it.  The boys didn’t win but came close enough, and played well besides.

 

Groupies.  When I’m on book tour, I always tell my sons I have groupies (well actually I don’t, but they don’t know that).  They say, Yeah, but they’re all 55.  I say, Yeah, and one day you will be too.  Punks.

Allan started this commission last year, got interrupted by other work, got interrupted by a move, got interrupted by a trip to Malaysia, but the piece is now done.  A commissioned painting, it shows KU Medical Center in the background, while in the foreground three young doctors in scrubs are going to lunch on 39th, some dude (possibly a corrupt version of me), is browsing the books at Prospero’s, and an ambulance is headed west (not a literary allusion).

Palette knife work, it’s bright yet understated, like most of Allan’s paintings.  We hung it in the new Cancer Center.

Was hired last week to serve as juror for the Columbia Art League’s 75th Annual Art in the Park.  125 booths, 125 artists, a wide range of media.  I’d love to tell you that there are shortcuts for the jurying process, but there ain’t.  How do I go about it?  Simple: examine the work of each artist three times, no matter how many, make notes, then make decisions.

The funniest part of the day?  When the Art Cycles came parading in.

Always love going to Columbia, where Tennessee Williams studied and John Niehardt taught.  Heck, I love going to any college town–especially Oxford.

We’re hosting an opening Friday night for photographer Gloria Baker Feinstein.  As with last year, this will in part be a fund-raiser for the St. Mary Kevin Orphanage in Uganda, where she travels each fall to document the lives of the kids there.  She does this in concert with the Change The Truth foundation.  Is the show depressing?  Quite the opposite: it’s uplifting yet honest, and never sentimental.  It also shows Gloria’s skill in capturing figure.

The Star’s Bob Butler did an Article on the Show today, as well as on Lynne Melcher’s documentary about the orphanage.  The film will air tonight at Screenland, and we’ll show parts of it tomorrow as well.

The upshot?  We’ll help clothe, feed and educate another group of kids.  I dig it when art can achieve things like that.

 

Had dinner with Greg Michalson and his wife Gina the other night.  Greg’s co-founder of Unbridled Books, which is rather legendary for their list of high-quality fiction.  They put out The Pirate’s Daughter, which is doing very well here and in the UK.  Two of their other titles were also chosen in the Top Ten at the recent LA Times Festival of Books, and they just sold the film rights to Hick.

Greg didn’t want to talk about my novels, but about my newest work of nonfiction, which I just finished.  Wanted to know if I’d send him a copy.  I said Sure.  After all, it isn’t every day that a legend asks such things.

Their logo?  He raises thoroughbreds on the side.

There are few things I love better than taking Friday morning off with my sons, eating breakfast downtown, then going for a walk along the river.  They all work for me in summer, and work very hard, but everybody needs to goof off now and then.

 

The Broadway Bridge is one of our favorites for walking beneath, since the views of the river and skyline are fantastic there.  But the old railroad bridges are our favorites for walking over, since those on the Santa Fe road lead west, and we’re all pretty big on going west.  Be hiking in NM and AZ this time next month.  Can’t wait.

 

Apparently someone’s rehearsing for Battle of the Bands at the Beaumont tomorrow night.  What a punk.