Gallery Reception With Friends

At one of the endlessly long swim meets this last season, I was sitting next to our real life good friend Jeff and we were talking about the gallery receptions that are part of my job as an artist. I told him I had one coming up and invited he and his wife Erika (who is my good girl friend) to come along with us. Soon it morphed into an event, complete with a sitter, hotel reservations and an overnight trip to Williamstown, MA.

The details were complicated; six kids, a mature sitter, kids getting picked up and dropped off, cookies, a trip to the pizzeria and who watches tv where. But it went flawlessly and all the kids seemed to have fun.

The four of us left for Williamstown around noon on Saturday. When we got there Doug dropped off the extra painting at the gallery (I made him go in because one of my numerous superstitions is to not see my shows until the reception starts, something about not jinxing the whole dang thing) and then we decided to have lunch at the sushi place down the street. We lingered over lunch and by the time we left there wasn't enough time to visit any of the local museums before it was time to go to the opening. So we went to check into the hotel, The Orchards Hotel (beautiful place to stay, I highly recommend it), and when I gave the desk clerk my name he laughed and said I must be THE Tracy Helgeson, and pointed at the flier for my show that was not two inches from my elbow! It was funny!

It was pouring rain that evening, but thankfully, my hair was still ok by the time we got to the gallery for the reception. heh. However, I imagine the cold and the rain affected the turnout-it was rather quiet. But every single person who came in was there to meet me and was planning to buy one of my paintings, already had, OR was also an artist. So I enjoyed being able to really talk to everyone, much more relaxing than some of those really crowded receptions. I spent a lot of time talking with a couple, Patrick and Grant who own one of my paintings and were great fun. Patrick had read through my blog here, and it turns out we have much in common including an admiration for Ray LaMontagne. I also talked with a reviewer who I think will be writing about my work and he mentioned Rothko more than a few times. Love that! It's been awhile since I have had a review so am looking forward to that (I think!). Even a few women who work with the hotel we stayed at came by to meet me! So it was all good, and very enjoyable. Oh and two more pieces sold, my two favorites: Long Lines Late in the Day and Back Against the Shadows. The show looked beautiful; as always, they did a wonderful job of hanging my work so that it looked its very best.

After the reception, our foursome went to have dinner at Mezze, a beautiful restaurant a block away from the gallery. We were there for over three hours, and had a wonderful long dinner. The husbands got somewhat drunk and then silly, which was very entertaining. I heard "I love you, man" more than a few times and I am not even kidding! Anyway, it's good that the crazy artist stays sober nowadays and could be the designated driver!

Everyone bounced back pretty well the next morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road to get back to our real lives. All in all it was a great time and now I think we must always take friends along with us to my receptions!

PS. I should know better by now, but I put Doug in charge of taking photos at the reception. He promptly forgot to do that, although he did take a cluster of shots, most of which involved my backside, which I will NOT be posting here. hehe. I took a few shots of the show at the end though and am posting those along with one with my new best friends, Patrick and Grant talking with Jillian, who works in the gallery (above). Am still kicking myself, and maybe Doug too for not getting any pictures of my work that was displayed in the front windows. Sheesh!