Redtree Times

My annual show, this year titled Observers,  opened Friday evening at the Principle Gallery in lovely and historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.  For those of you who don’t know much about Alexandria, it’s just a few miles from DC, resting along the opposite bank of the Potomac River.  From our hotel room we could look up the river and see the dome of the Capitol Building, always an inspiring sight.

Well, I should say, we could see it when it wasn’t raining.

The tropical storm that swept up the east coast brought a couple of days of solid rain to the area, slicking the roads and causing a few accidents which had traffic snarled on the always crowded beltways around the Capitol.  When I went out from my hotel on Friday morning to take a long stroll and was greeted with a steady downpour, I knew immediately from experience that this could  cut down on the show’s attendance.  My experience has been recent as  my prior two shows had terrific rains on the days of the show which had, in each case, kept the attendance down a bit.

But despite the rain of the day, people did turn out Friday evening.  It was busy and I spoke with numbers of folks and missed speaking with others who made it there but didn’t get a chance to talk with me for a bit.  I always feel bad about not getting to speak with everyone who wants to comment or ask a question, especially when they come out on a wet night.  Hopefully,  just seeing the work together in the gallery is enough.

Kai and the “Mechanical Soil”

It was great catching up with some old friends that I have met through my time there at the gallery.  Some of my favorite moments are seeing kids who I have had the pleasure of seeing grow up in these yearly glimpses, some from their earliest childhood.  Here on the right is one of these young ones, Kai, who I have known since he was a wee one. Kai coined the phrase Mechanical Soil when he told me that his favorite piece was this Archaeology painting.

Another was Mikey Mattice who I wrote about here a few years ago.  Mikey is certainly not a kid anymore –the Mikey has fallen away to Michael and he is out in the world now, displaying  his immense musical talents.  It was great getting to see him again and see how he has evolved from a gangly kid into a confident man with much to give.  From the first meeting, I have always sensed big things in  his future and it’s such a pleasure to see that feeling come to fruition.  Can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.

So, all in all and weather aside, it was a great night.  My appreciation and thanks go out to Michele, Clint , Jessica and everyone at the Principle Gallery for doing, as always, a bang up job and for making us feel so welcome and at home.  And many, many thanks for all of you who could make it and apologies to those who didn’t get a chance to talk with me for a while or who had our conversations cut off too quickly.  For those who couldn’t make it, hopefully I will see you soon, either at my Gallery Talk in September or at next year’s show.

At least, I think there will be one next year…