After a couple of years of strange trials and tribulations I was able to get a few bucks together to open, what would now be considered, an alternate or underground art gallery. It was 2500 sq. ft. of wood floors and brick walls above a pawn shop downtown. Large enough to hold almost any oddball artistic event you could think of it soon became home and haven to some of the most eclectic and bizarre group of artist types you could imagine. As most events were at night and the after events were even later many of us soon considered the night the only time to live and, like vampires, soon started avoiding the daylight as if our lives depended on it. It was even stronger for me as I actually lived in the gallery and living downtown 24/7 can be a real eye opening experience. A lot of harsh and brutal things can take place when the lights turn low and, yet, there were moments of true beauty and inspiration that move me to this very day. It's this world I'm striving to recreate. It was a world of beauty and hypocrisy, of violence and compassion, a world capable of representing the best and worse in all of us. There were deaths; some tragic, some violent. There was needless suffering either by hate or, worse, indifference but there were also stories of strange sex, love, happiness and, above all, fun. It's these contrasts that I feel are worth exploring. I hope you'll feel the same way.
No comments:
Post a Comment