Erie Spring Show Opening

Posing by "Stop the War"
Busy weekend !

Friday was the Folk Festival down in Cambridge Springs. Forsythe and Generic played back to back sets, so I got a bit of a work out in a very hot and sweaty setting. Fun time, but I about croaked by the end of it all.

Saturday night was the opening of the Spring Show, so we went on down to see what it was all about.

Coming up the steps to the museum, there were a lot of people sitting out on the steps in the cool of the evening, so I laughingly called out "Must be an awful show if you all are hanging around outside". No one reacted. Hmmmmm.

Once inside, it became rapidly apparent that it was hotter than Hades and jam packed full of art lovers, bohemian wannabes, extra credit seeking students of every stripe, free drink swillers and free snack gobblers.

We took a deep breath and pushed into the throng.

Now the Erie Art Museum is not a cavernous structure by any stretch, and art viewing sort of took second place to dodging bodies, drinks, hairdos and opinions. We went with the flow of the crowd and tried to see as best we could.

Five or so pictures into it, we knew that the crowd was moving too slowly for our liking, so we busted out and went looking for my painting. Various and sundry unfortunate visual experiences later, we found it hung into an inconspicuous corner where those wandering in search of the bathroom, smoking area, or unnoticable empty wine glass/snack plate disposal opportunity might accidentally stumble upon it.

Several people were gathered around, but this was because this lonely hallway offered the only seating in the place, and the remote location provided a respite from the pressing crush of art lovers and wine swillers.

I felt a little embarassed seeing the thing I had spent so much time working on hanging there all lonesome like. We looked for a bit, then I grabbed some passerby and asked her to take a couple photos for us (thanks lady, whoever you are), and then it was time to get on out of there.

Art shows are a funny business. On one hand I was tickled to have gotten in, and then once we looked around, I felt kind of goofy and sad about the whole thing and just wanted to leave ASAP.

Maybe I'm a dope and maybe my attempt to say something about this idiotic ,illegal and immoral mess we are in was lame, ( it's called "Stop the War) but it sure seems to me that if ever there was a time when artists should be using their medium to stand up for something, that time is now.

I was a bit stunned and disappointed that this show had very little (if anything at all) to say about a time when events of potentially disastrous proportions are erupting all around us.