You Should have Seen the Old Guy Move!

On Sunday night, Aug. 5^th I arrived 5:30pm at the “Gallery in the Park” art gallery. This was by appointment and the staff were ready for me. The gate to the receiving area was open already, I drove in and backed to the door.

The curator, Odia Reimer and her staff were already working. They all looked so different as before I’d seen them dressed up hosting guests coming to see the show. Now they were all dressed down in work cloths, getting ready for the next showing, pulling out nails, mudding up holes, moving plinths, all the while talking casual, telling jokes etc. I was warmly welcomed.

After a few minutes conversation about the past showing, we carried the  packing materials for my pieces up to my showing area in the second floor.

I noticed something funny about my wrapping materials. They seemed rather out of place in this setting!

I could not help but think of how impressed I’d been with how everything had been done with such class. Opening night, there was wine and cheese served to the guests as we mingled, visited and viewed the art on display for the first time. Just a beautiful classy evening.

Next, on June 21^st there was an evening featuring a talk by Pat Bovey a former curator of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Again a beautiful informative evening done with class. In July there was an “Artist Talk Night”, again tastefully set up.

Here I stood, seeing my packing materials, like for the first time. I could not believe it! The place suddenly looked like a janitorial company wholesale store! A bunch of five gallon pails of various janitorial products such as floor wax, degreaser, stripper, disinfectant and anti- bacterial products, to mention a few. Then there was a plethora of other items to pack sculptures with that did not happen fit the handy five gallon pail mode, these of course were various shapes and sizes of garbage cans, tubs and tool box type of containers. And as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, there was also a bunch of packing materials in the form of sheets, blankets, rags, bubble wrap, masking tape, and so on that went along with all that stuff! How “un-classy” can one get?

Thank God I had not come wearing cover-alls (with a can of oven-cleaner in my back pocket,) medical gloves and a dust mask over my face!

I suddenly felt very rushed to get my stuff packed up. I needed to get out of there as fast as I could! Suddenly, I was so embarrassed that If I’d had a dust mask along, I’d have been tempted to wear it!

You should have seen this old guy move!

“Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.”

Genesis 9:23b