Why do I loathe shipping & packing so much? I mean, "Damn this was fun!"

There was a major rant associated with this post, true to form for a prima donna like my badass self, but self-censorship got the best of me.

I'm working on publishing a pamphlet to accompany my next show. Perhaps it will find it's way in there.

Rolling tubes and Ethafoam, I love you—not as much as casters, but I love you.

I think this may be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Giant rolling tubes from Ashely Distributors, along with some Ethafoam scraps for buffering. Sheet plastic for wrapping, some tape and I'm good. Materials approximately $120. Out of curiosity I asked how much it would cost to have a pro pack it, and got a rough estimate that it would take a seasoned art handler about an hour to pack it, plus the administrative fee. So I figured it would take me twice as long to pack it at my place, but the guy corrected me and suggested that it might take me 3 hours. I assume this will include untretching the canvas. I also learned that glassine, the archival wonder material is not so archival when it comes to protecting acrylic paintings. Over time, like say, during the transportation of work across states like Texas and Oklahoma in the summertime, glassine may stick to the acrylic paint causing the acrylic paint to peel away when the glassine is removed. Nice. Apparently this is true of kraft paper as well. Hence the plastic sheeting.

The beautiful thing about this method of S&P is that (1) It's relatively inexpensive (2) It's flexible for all sizes of canvas (3) The process will be the same no matter what size canvas or paper (4) I can estimate shipping and packing easily and concisely 5) All my materials come from the same place, and 6) I can carry it myself.

Of course, this is all a relatively moot point since I have sworn off big painting and am concentrating on the small works.

The Weekend in Numbers

I will spare everyone any overtones in the saga of getting my work back and just give you facts alá Harpers:

Number of works coming back to the studio this trip: 13
Number of phone calls needed to arrange shipping and packing of paintings and drawings from BNA to LAX: 22 calls
Number of emails needed to arrange shipping and packing of paintings and drawings from BNA to LAX: 10 emails
Number of new boxes I had to buy: 3
Cost of buying new boxes plus packing material to ship works back since old boxes and packing material were missing: $55.98
Cost of shipping 3 boxes of framed drawings back via UPS: $90.11
Cost of PT Cruiser needed to transport work to UPS: $116.67 (I had a coupon)
Cost of plane ticket from LAX to BNA: $268.30
Cost to pay another artist to repack the large crated paintings and deliver them to the shipper: $25.00
Cost to ask same artist to deliver one painting to my mom's house on the way to the shipper: Large Master-Pak shipping crate originally valued at $160.00
Cost to pay Bax Global or whatever they are called now to ship the larger works via another gallery in town to my studio in Culver City: $135.00
Cost if I had shipped them via UPS: $528.00
Number of hours needed to reframe 12 framed drawings that have come unhinged: ?
Number of people involved thus far: 6
Odds of me showing in that town again: 1:100 (I made this number up, could be higher, could be lower.)
Total: $851.06
I still have a few paintings left in Nashville to ship back, but I implemented the Just-In-Time thinking and decided since I didn't need them back as urgently as I needed the other work back, I could postpone that cost.

Somehow this turned into a group effort. Many thanks to everyone involved, especially Chris Scarborough and Lain York in Nashville for physically handling AND ARRANGING THE NITTY GRITTY OF THE SHIPPING! the large crated paintings that required 2 people and a truck, but especially Chris who also has a solo show opening this weekend at Curator's Office in DC. (And I only say 'especially Chris' because I actually met with and spoke with him through this whole thing, which made it slightly less painful and awkward).

The stress factor was considerably high considering the timing worked out so that I could check up on my mom, do housekeeping, recycling, sneak junk and clutter out of her house, take a 90-pound manic dog to the vet for his annual checkup and attend my HS reunion all WHILE doing the above shipping stuff. It was a little nuts. I actually puked this morning either from stress or taking a vitamin on an empty stomach.

It rained for 4 days straight. I have never been so happy to get back to LA. and I can't frigging wait to get in the studio. I may even get that silly Thumb Box after all.

Unless Hell freezes over...

...I will never ship 4 large, crated works to an exhibition more than a couple of hours away, ever again. Even with a contract. Unless it's written in blood.

So easily distracted, I am.

I am prepping 2 works on paper for shipping. Easy, though it's slightly time-consuming as I have to cut forty, 7-inch squares of glassine. But really, it's a breeze as far as prep work goes. After getting the first set done, I realized my streamlined method was neither streamlined, nor methodical. The works were a recently commissioned piece for one of my dayish jobs if you will. It's too complicated to explain the logistics, but for the first painting, I gridded it out and simply clocked in and painted each square separately. It's somewhat of a copy of an older work, except, smaller, longer, and different media. I swore I'd never copy myself, (my line in the sand) but it's actually hysterical to me that I did, and the only reason I did was that there's a possibility that the original was going to be sold as well. AND they're going to further alter it by framing each square separately. Like I said, it's too complicated to explain the whole thing. I still have some reservations about copying myself, but not too many at this point because I've discovered I really like money and find it useful in order to purchase things and pay my bills.

Plus, If you know how I paint, it's hysterical to see how I tried to reproduce coffee splatters, drips and general mayhem using a computer, a lightbox, pencil outlines, and a tiny brush. The only wild card was mixing colors. I always have to eyematch, because there's no way in hell I'm EVER going to write down some formula or even the names of the damn colors I use in my work. Anyway it was so meta.

The second piece was guided by the first piece, only I didn't grid it out, I just winged it. My experience was that for the dayish job work, I prefer being routine and methodical, but it's nice to be able to summon both of my superpowers when I have to.

I am Molasses

Dharma Pneumatic Carrier Station

I'm not sure where the time goes, but it's 6:13 pm and I am going to shift my focus to the interior dwelling.

Brief timeline of my day as best as I can recall:

• 6:05 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6:15 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6: 25 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6:26 a.m. Clock radio, classical music. Slowly consider waking up and letting Fang out.
• 7 a.m. Coffee. Set timer for 1 hour. Quiet time. I do nothing but meditate with my coffee. Sometimes I write.
• 8 a.m. Timer goes off. I get dressed.
• 8-11 a.m. Phone call. Track down box store in Marina Del Ray. Quick visit to a friend's studio to pick up more cardboard, stayed to chat a few. Grocery store. Unloaded car.
• 11-12 p.m. Breakfast. Phone call.
• 12-3 p.m. Made big mess with cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, strapping tape and shrink wrap in studio. And Styrofoam. Let's not forget the Styrofoam. I can't. It's everywhere.
• 1-2 p.m. It only took me an hour and some change to wrap and pack the paintings once I had the proper materials.
• 2:09 pm Coffee break. Returned neighbor's house key and took Fang for a walk.
• Lost track of time after that.Maybe I packed the paintings before coffee. I can't remember, but I prepared packing list and cleaned up mess from studio. I lose focus easily when I have petty tasks to do. I tend to make frequent trips to the kitchen to snack on peanuts and consider another espresso. The other day Matt informed me coffee was a luxury item. Trader Joe's has French Roast, $8.99 for 24 oz. I stocked up. I probably killed 15 minutes wandering/pacing back and forth from studio to kitchen. Bad habit.

Still need to refurbish some things before burning a disk. I will finish this tonight before LOST comes on. I thought last week's episode was lame. Jack has a an appendectomy, shacks up with Kate in the future. Starts popping pills and drinking too much. Kate has a secret. Whoopee. Of course, that's still considerably more interesting than the day I just described. I'd like to see someone on the island try to pack artwork for shipping.