The night before the Candychrome art show opening I had a handful of friends removing wrapping from frames and cleaning glass. We had less than 24 hours to put 36 photos in frames, transport them six hours away to Kansas City, hang them in the gallery, build The Fetish Show set and clean up for the show. We had just had a short meeting for The Fetish Show and there was no time for error. If we didn’t get all of that done, there wouldn’t be a show at all.
I can’t believe how much everyone pitched in to grind through the framing. We had an assembly-line established with some people getting frames ready, me putting the prints in the frames and a group packing them up for the trip. We still didn’t finish with framing until about 1:30 in the morning. We decided to get back together again at 5:00 am. I had to get up at 4:00 am so I ended up with about two hours of sleep that night.
Jake and George arrived at my door around 5:30 and we packed up all my equipment, met soon with Princess Zoe and Zack, and got on the road to pick up Jay. We didn’t really get going until about 8:00am. I made a nest in the truck and nabbed another couple of hours of sleep. We got into Kansas City about 2:30 and we split into two groups… one to hang the art show and the other to set up The Fetish Show set.
Janet Ryan, who curated the show, had already done a ton of work at the MRP gallery. She transformed a large space into a more intimate room, designed to encourage traffic-flow around the gallery. We unpacked the pieces and lined them up against the wall. Then we began the process of editing what we had.
If you’re an artist you know that your work is like your children. It’s always difficult to pare things down, but time and space will force you to make quick decisions. Since I had Janet and I trusted her eye I relied heavily on her to figure out what the final photos would be. The work was up on the wall and we were ready to go to our room by 5:00pm.
I grabbed a few bites of food, took a shower and got in my suit as quick as possible. I was back at the MRP gallery by 6:45. One thing I noticed while heading to the gallery was that downtown Kansas City was absolutely packed with people! It was “First Friday” and the suburbs had come downtown. That one thing meant that we had a steady flow of visitors all night long. In fact, it didn’t take long after opening for the gallery to be stuffed with people.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever talked so much in such a short period of time. For three and a half hours I talked with everyone I could. Sometimes I would be talking to a couple and there would be one or two people waiting patiently. A couple of angels brought me water or I wouldn’t have survived (thank you).
I made a ton of new contacts, met some really interesting people and got more feedback than I ever get on Facebook! Artists, take note, nothing beats a solo show to get some real discourse on your work. There’s also nothing quite like filling a space with what you do. You’ll learn some valuable things about who you are as an artist when you see your work side-by-side on the wall.
I’m a lucky guy because I get to work with some amazing models, makeup artists, bondage artists and crew members to produce the photos I do. Some of those people were there at the show and it was fun to share the moment with them. Okay, it’s also fun to have photos taken with the models who show up. That never gets old!
The evening ended with a special live broadcast of The Fetish Show that Princess Zoe and I did in the gallery. We spent an hour talking to a lot of the people who made the show possible and I would encourage you to check out the podcast of the episode to get an idea of who was there and what the atmosphere was like.
I could list a thousand people to thank for the opening of the show, but I’m going to try and nail it down as much as possible. Thanks to the staff and supporters of the MRP gallery, particularly Janet Ryan and Manator for being so much help and being so supportive (and for doing some great rope bondage demonstrations during the show)! I’d like to thank all the models who contributed time and ideas to the photos, and Princess Zoe, Frenchies and Toxic Goddess Qandisa for being part of the show. Thanks to Master David M, Master Chewie, Manator and Lew Rubens for their rope work. I’d like to thank the crew of The Fetish Show, Jake, Zack, George and Jay for kicking so much ass and making the trip so damn much fun. Again, I’d like to thank Princess Zoe for her support, spiritually, creatively and financially. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who came to the show and made it such a success!
The show will run at the MRP gallery at least until the end of October, so you can still go see it. It’s by far my best show ever! I’d love to hear what you think.
