Amy’s law of artistic attraction

Now that the flurry of frenzied post-BMAC activity has reached manageable levels, it’s time to re-visit a topic that’s very near and dear to my heart.

Shopping.

And now we’re back to BMAC, ’cause that’s what I’m talking about.   The last day of the show is a bit slow–OK, really slow–and that’s the day all the artists trade with each other and buy each other’s floor samples.  Oh, man, if I’d known, I’d have brought a buttload of cash and done all my Christmas shopping.  And then I’d put it all someplace safe, forget where, and rediscover it years later.  I’m like that.  As it is, I did buy a few necklaces and a really well-crafted wooden box, and no, I’m not including pictures because some of you will be getting them for Christmas.  Maybe.  If I can find them.

Several artists asked if we wanted to trade art.  I always declined, because a) we just didn’t have much inventory left at that point, and b) we just didn’t have any room in the Jeep for anything more than we came with.  Seriously–when we went out for Chinese food on the way home that evening, I rejected the offer to box up the leftovers, because I didn’t know where we’d put them.  I can hear you asking “Well, if you sold so many robots, why didn’t you have lots of room going back?”  Silly reader, almost everything we sold came home with us, to be shipped to galleries later.  God, I hate shipping…

But we did enthusiastically agree to two trades.  The first was with an artist I’ve been an enormous fan of for years, Leandra Drumm.  If you’ve been to our house, half of the switchplates in it are her creations.  I’ve always felt an artistic kinship with this woman’s design sensibility.  And after meeting her, I felt like I’d known her all my life.  Her work just resonates with me.  And now, she has her designs on etched glass bowls and glasses, too.  Oh, happy day, when she asked if I wanted to trade.  When I finish a custom robot for her, I get to go shopping from her catalog.  This is going to be tough.  I may have to make her several robots…

The second artist I’m trading with is Lynn Latimer, who creates fused glass pieces.  When Lynn and her husband Michael stopped by our booth one morning, before the show started, we just hit it off.  I didn’t know what her work was like, but I  should have known I’d love it.  Amy’s new Law of Artistic Attraction states that the more one likes the work of a fellow artist, the more one inevitably ends up liking them.  And vice versa.  It’s uncanny–any time I started salivating over a piece of art, one that really grabbed me and said TAKE ME HOME, I’d meet the artist and wish we lived nearby so we could pal around and share ideas.  And margaritas.  Lynn’s fused glass panels “are made of multiple layers of translucent colored glass that are cut from sheets, composed, and fused together in a special glass kiln.  Layering is used to build both a rich and subtle pattern of color where the pieces cross over and under one another and an intricate rhythm of line and pattern”.  I love them because the colors are so subtle–an adjective not usually applied to glass.  This isn’t the one we’re getting–I couldn’t find a picture of ours–but it’s round and beautiful and going on our dining room table. 

I’m contractually obligated to exhibit at next year’s BMAC.  I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to have all of this year’s orders finished by then.  But even if I have to show up with one Fobot and an order book, I’m going.  And I’ll be shopping.