It’s been a little bit, mostly because I was crazy busy in the two weeks leading up to the opening. I loaded up my car with more than 25 paintings and drove out to LA last Tuesday. I dropped off ten of those pieces at the scanning place and continued on to the gallery in Santa Monica with the rest.

Earlier, I’d met my friend Rochelle Botello in Sierra Madre for breakfast. We went to a crepe joint. Very quaint. There, I told her about my plans to attend community college in the fall and possibly pursue a degree in sociology. Have I mentioned that here already? I don’t think I have, but it’s true!

After unloading my work into Craig Krull Gallery, I realized what a dope I was by wrapping all the pieces too tightly. It was almost impossible to get each painting out of the tape and plastic. I was frickin sweating my kneecaps off!

My favorite part of setting up a show is the installation. Always. I liked working with Craig and Arianna (the director) during the curating aspect. Arianna had awesome ideas for the wall vinyl. She picked out some hipster, 60s/70s typeface in bright gold that reminded me of the Brady Bunch. The show title and my name looked very cool, placed above my vintage photo album on a floating shelf. I was happy with that.

Once we planned out the placement of everything, I checked into the nearby Airbnb and collapsed on the bed. I’d been up since 3:30 am. Plus, driving for that long in traffic exhausts me to no end.

I woke up sometime around dinner time and ordered Canter’s. It was de-lish! But I forgot what I did the rest of the night. Probably just slept.

In the morning, I went back to the gallery to meet up with Margot Anderson, the founder of the Laurel Foundation. She was picking up one of my desert paintings for their upcoming annual fundraiser.

Margot was the first to see the final installation. As was I. It was all a bit different than how I left it the day before. It looked good, and I was, in fact, very happy with it, but five pieces were left out. The day before, we talked about editing out two or three, so it was a little surprising. However, I gave Craig and Arianna my full permission to arrange everything as they saw fit. Having more space around everything was better.

I might have been a tad disappointed not to see a couple of the pieces on the wall, but at least those paintings were still around and kept in the back room. It wasn’t as though no one could see them, but I guess you’d have to be a serious buyer to have Craig take you back there for a special, VIP peek and a drink.

A half-hour later, I met up with Eric Minh Swenson to shoot a walk-through of the show. I had to speak a little about a few of the paintings, which was nerve-wracking. Not that I would have been the most eloquent speaker otherwise, but my brain is still pretty broken, and I was at a loss for even the simplest of words. It came out okay, though. You can see my hand tremor in the video, which made me look super nervous. Perhaps I was a little nervous about not speaking well, but it is what it is. And Eric is an exceptional videographer and made it look pretty great. Thanks, Eric!

After that, I tried to snap pictures of the installation, but all the pictures turned out horrible. Here’s the least horrible:

That back gallery is quite a bit darker than the middle one, which is where I usually show, and I’m not a photographer by any means. I wouldn’t know how disappointed I’d be until I got home and saw them all on my computer. Not even Photoshop could save them. Plus, I somehow deleted the raw images from the camera’s card. See? I told you my brain is still fucked.

Later that same day, my longtime friend Steven Irvin came to visit, and we caught up for hours, laughing most of the time. It was long overdue, and we had fun, acted silly, and talked about cars—definitely the highlight of the trip.

I drove back home on Thursday morning, but not before stopping for breakfast with artist Paul Pitsker, which put me back on the road at almost the perfect time to avoid traffic. Paul has also been a friend for over 20 years, and it’s always great to see him.

I was home on Friday to attend a few appointments, like PT, an artist’s meeting, and my regular weekly therapy session. I also went to Copper Mountain College to pick up my student ID and meet with my counselor.

Saturday, Hannah and I drove together to Santa Monica for the opening. When we got there, Craig told us that I had already sold a painting. What a great surprise that was. I didn’t think anything would sell. I was wrong because it looks like I’m selling another one this week. It’s not 100% confirmed, but we’re pretty confident.

The turnout at the opening was great. The feedback I got was overwhelming. I didn’t know how to say “thank you” enough times. I was so grateful, but I was at a loss for better words, so I just kept saying “thank you so much.” It all meant so much, really. This has got to be my best show yet. I kept hearing how brave and powerful the show was. For me, the work is so vulnerable; it was difficult to take in all the compliments, but wow!

We came back the next day (Sunday), and I’ve been exhausted ever since. Though very satisfied. Now I just have to get through the panel discussion on the 6^th. I’m hoping my brain will be a little better by then. If not, oh well.