Art.

I made the rounds at the Pacific Design Center yesterday afternoon. It's a great concept. Galleries set up shop RENT-FREE. How difficult is that? It's slightly temporary and I don't know all the details, but one dealer I spoke with had signed a 6-month lease. Most of the art was on the upper floors and the spaces are whatever is available and therefore scattered among the design showrooms. On the first floor there was a gala and people in fancy clothes were drinking blue drinks. I'm going to assume that at some point, the people drinking blue drinks made their way up to the gallery spaces and said to themselves, "Wunderbar!" and oohed and aahed over cutting-edge 90's conceptualism. In fact, I heard one such comment, it went something like, "Isn't that amazing?" It was spoken with the same tone of voice enthusiasm reserved for people who overuse the word, 'Brilliant.' No, dear, it was nice. It was not 'amazing.' Damn, I'm surly today. (See my post about coffee.)

At the risk of sounding like a neo-con, I miss beauty. I can’t believe I even said that. I, a total champion of slacker aesthetics, scatter art, idea over execution, bad painting etc.- I, miss beauty and care, otherwise known as attention to detail. I still think a good bad painting is great, so no worries, but I realized that everything looks the same. When did this happen? When did edgy become homogenized?

As a whole, the scene itself was somewhat interesting, At one point, I'm talking with another artist who's showing at one of the spaces and a distinguished gentleman comes up to him, politely interrupts our conversation and says "There's someone I think you should meet."

The best I got all evening was "I'll bring a six-pack over and we can hang in your studio," which although I no longer drink, still ranks, but my point is that there seem to be some real people milling around the PCD. You know...people with money. Who like art. People with money who like art. There, see? A complete sentence, not a fragment of my imagination. In one of the spaces, some young hottie with a leather-bound binder was teetering around looking very Designy-Salesy-like.* Umbrella girls- that's what galleries need, Umbrella Girls.

So here's a couple of things I want at my next show:
1. I want someone to whisk me away with a "I think there's someone you should meet." (I'm sure someone has said this to me, but not nearly enough.)
2. Umbrella Girls or Boys working the room.

*This brings me to my 3rd lack of employment inspired post for today-