Mark Baratelli of TheDailyCity.com and I discussed the idea of exhibiting my work downtown for some time, and on the third Thursday of March everything fell into place to make this event happen. Mark rented the truck and drove it to Frames Forever & Art Gallery, owned and run by Katie Windish. Katie offered advice on how to hang the work in the truck. I did a huge version of a previous Mobile Art Show sketch and I blew it up so it covered the side of the truck facing the gallery. It was a fairly easy job to tape the large sketch to the truck. I used a hanging strategy I created at FRESH where the sketchbooks were framed in shadow boxes and hung from the ceiling. The plan then was to wallpaper as much of the inside of the truck as I could with prints of sketches I had done over the last year. Hanging this work simply involved two pieces of scotch tape for each sketch; not really as much of a task as I had figured it might be.
When six o’clock rolled around, I met Mark down at the CityArts Factory parking spot. He pulled up and honked. We quickly started taping and hanging Christmas lights, wires and sketches. I managed to drop one of the shadow box frames and it shattered on the floor of the truck. I had to use scotch tape to hold it together for the duration of the show. People started entering the truck and looking around even as we worked. The prints started selling immediately. Every time I walked in the truck I sold one or two prints.
Through Facebook, I arranged with Tamara Gray to get a model who works at Universal Studios dressed up for Mardi Gras and on stilts making her nine feet tall. The idea was that the model, Lyn Sky, would grab people’s attention as they walked down the street towards the CityArts Factory openings. We invited artists to come out for a free sketching session right on the sidewalk and perhaps five or seven artists in all came out and took advantage of this free modeling offer. I started this sketch, but kept getting pulled away for radio and TV interviews. There was a Kerouac House fundraiser going on at Urban Flats right up the street. Summer Rodman and Kim Buchheit both from the Kerouac House stopped by and admired the show. Emma Hughes stopped by to pick up an original sketch I had done for her parents. It seemed like my attention was being diverted every few seconds. The sketch of Hannah Miller in her wedding dress sold while Hannah was in the truck looking at other works. She wondered aloud, “Why would they want a sketch of me?”
Just as I sat down and started putting on some final washes on this sketch, I realized the evening was over. Now we had to break down the show and load everything into my truck. After everything was packed away, Mark, Brian Feldman and myself went to IHOP for some pancakes and some lively late night discussion. The whole quirky show was an exciting whirlwind of activity, a once in a lifetime experience.
