ArtWalk Post Mortem. Not Yet One for Me.
NOTE: Saturday, 19 September, I’ve updated the Gallery “Shizuka” ( 静か ). You may click the link in the previous sentence, or at the top of this Front Page. Please tell me if you like it.
On August 11th I received an email from the Executive Director of Birmingham’s ArtWalk 2009. In it she informed me that my “body of work” had been chosen by The Judges for Top 25 status (out of 135? 150? participating artists, some professional, some professionally trained or schooled, and some, like me, sincere novices). This past Friday and Saturday’s ArtWalk transformed Birmingham’s Loft District into several dozen galleries for local and regional artists where those Judges made the rounds of that Top 25 to distill that list further into Places 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Show. . . and to select 3 additional “Judges’ Mention” awards. Anyway, my photography was tapped as a “Judges’ Mention”, that is, in the Top 6, or, as I’d rather put it, tied for 4th Place with 2 others. The ArtWalk Home Page (scroll down just a tad when you land on it) shows who won what.
Harajuku (Tokyo) Restaurant. 2005.
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The Risks of doing Art.
Foreground: bottom 1/3 of the Hwy 78 sign I clipped. The back of the car looks worse.
On Saturday morning while on my way to (and just about 1-2 minutes away from) my designated ArtWalk “gallery” set up at Wooster Lofts, I was — quite literally — blindsided by a woman who ran a red light with her Volvo/tank. She rammed the back end of my car and sent me and my never-to-be-driven-again Lexus spinning and careening up 24th Street. My car sheered a road sign in the process and I wound up facing the opposite way I had been going less than 10 seconds before. I got twisted and torqued a little, but adrenalin was my friend and the hurts and such didn’t set in too much until yesterday, continuing somewhat today. Have an appointment with a doc in the morning. That said, my blood stayed in my body where it belonged. The woman who hit me admitted fault many times over to me and the police officer who happened upon the scene within a minute of the collision. She wasn’t trying to “beat” the light (it was solid red for her). Instead, and according to her, she just “zoned out”. After going through the Rites of Accident with the Birmingham police officer conducting services, the woman who ran the red light ended up driving me (naturally, her car remained drivable) to my gallery at ArtWalk. After all, the show had to go on.
To those who purchased my photography during ArtWalk (or who had previously “invested” in it), you came close to seeing its value jump on Saturday (is that presumptuous of me to say, or just simple economics?). Alas for you, my work remains reasonably priced.
LetsJapan 
YIKES. Glad you’re okay! And kudos on the Judge’s Mention. When’s that coffee table book on Japan going to come out?
– Faine
Thank you, Faine. Very much. I’ve got an appointment with a good doc tomorrow. As for that book, whenever someone’s uncle who owns a publishing house wants to talk turkey with me, I’ll be ready.
And to all: buckle up.
Holy smash-up, Batman! Scary stuff.
Glad you’re all right.
Re. your coffee-table book take a look at blurb.com if you want to consider a pre-publishing prototype.
Dear Lo,
It was, indeed, scary. No, time didn’t “slow down” for those several seconds that car was whipping about, out of control. It’s just that many things crossed my mind real fast during said few seconds. The first one being, “What the -!!???”
R
Again, so glad you are ok. Keep us posted. Congrats on Judge Mention and I enjoyed seeing your work this past weekend. I enjoyed seeing you again and will catch up with you again soon. 🙂
Michelle,
Thank you so much. It was great to see you and your girls and so many other friends from different Eras of my life. A little weird: like a reunion where everybody comes to me and not me to wherever it’s being held. From a high school chum to long time college friends to office mates/friends (like yourself) to neighbors (sometimes a combination of these and more) to more recent friends. And many brand new friends. I’m mad at myself for not having a sign-in book. . . . I was a little scatter-brained both days, though: Friday was heady just because of all the near panic getting everything together and set up and so forth. Saturday was Accident Day, so I was combining adrenalin and “auto pilot” to try and focus.
Ouch 🙂 any whiplash? hugs
No, no whiplash per se. But I got several sessions of pretty good physical therapy for my left shoulder and lower back which got wrenched round pretty good. Seatbelts = Good Things.
Thanks very much for stopping by, Irene.
R.