back from the gawker art show in ny!

I was just in an art show (my second one ever) in New York (my first time ever there). It was for Gawker Media. It was the Alt Art Show which showcased “art off the canvas” which basically means art not done on a traditional canvas. So we had folks who did art on skateboard decks and on fabrics and with metal and we had me with my art on lunchbags and then I did some new stuff on chalkboard slates and grocery bags as well. I will post pictures of the work here. I was invited to the Gawker Alt Art Show by  the wonderful Liz Dimmitt who I’d not met previously, but I quickly became a fan. So how did I get in the show? I had submitted my Lunchbots to the Gawker Art website, and they posted my work, which in itself was really exciting. At the time, I figured what the heck, and I submitted my Lunchbots for consideration in any art shows Gawker might be doing, which they happen to do pretty often. A few months went by, I got a job, got busy, drifted away from doing Lunchbots or any art or writing, or much of anything creative.

I had to focus on my health, my family, my job and all that important stuff for a while. So then the art show opportunity came up and my boss was nice enough to let me get the time off, and my wife got the time off, and all the planets aligned, and finally after most of my adult life spent wondering when I’d get to NY, and what it must be like, finally, finally, I got to go. What a way to first see New York! As part of an art show. That was incredible. I am still just so honored and happy to have been part of it. I got to see so much amazing art at the show and in NY at all the galleries we visited. I met some really cool folks at the show and was invited to collaborate on a pretty exciting project with a very cool LA to NY transplant (or bi-coastal, probably is more accurate) artist named Shai Dahan. Looking forward to that!

We saw so much, experienced so much, ate so much. Whew! Six pounds heavier and way tired upon our return, but stupid happy, and at the time of this writing, those six pounds have come and gone. I do have a new addiction to black and whites (cookies) from Zaro’s in Grand Central Station. Mmm. I will miss them. I’m struggling to find words to put around the Gawker art show and the experience in NY. When our son asked us what the show was like and what NY was like, I said, “You know that special feeling you feel when you wake up on the morning of your birthday and you’re so excited about all that the day holds and all that is waiting to happen?” And he said, “Yeah! I wake up and I say, ‘I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I can’t wait!’ over and over again.” And I said, “It felt like that every minute of every day.” And he looked wide-eyed and said, “Wow.” And we beamed at him and said, “Yeah.”

I sold 19 pieces at the show so far. 14 of those were commissioned pieces that Liz Dimmitt asked me to do as a way to thank the folks who helped her with the show. 5 were sold at the show while I was there. It’s still running so we’ll see if any more sales happen but honestly, that’s icing on the cake. The whole point of going was for the experience. I mean, the money helps offset some of the cost of the trip, but really, I’m not doing this for the sales. I’m doing it to express and create and meet with and work with other artists, and see the new works other people are creating. That’s what it’s all about for me. Sales are nice, too, don’t get me wrong. Just not the whole point, or even the main one. Icing on the cake. I mean, I never thought I’d be doing art shows when I started drawing on my wife and kids’ lunch bags. This is all just a really happy accident, but I’m going to run with it as long as I can, because I am having a blast.

For now, here’s a link to the pictures of our trip to NY, on my wife’s Flickr account. I’ll soon be posting individual pictures here of all the new work I did for the show.

~ by Justin on July 16, 2009.