Art Opening Party

Did you miss the fun?..........

If you did not stop by last Friday you missed one heck of an art opening. Tons of food, booze, art, slurred words, and muttered opinions about our gallery, our artists, and our total lack of budgetary restraint (shrimp trays, champagne, Bud Light). I stuck to the Bud Light. We waited for the Autumn art gallery scene to swing into action before we threw our inaugural Grand Opening Party. We were greeted with a great turn out (shrimp trays gone faster than your hedge fund manager), lots of new people who have never visited the gallery before, and old friends who cheered us on.

The party was a blast, but the set up was labor intensive to say the least.

Here is an unfinished gallery with a few new Rousseaux pieces. Pinkie red, and silvery yellow. With the slick resin finish.

A few more paintings waiting for a decision.

And the Payoff...
Front Gallery ready to show. With some contemporary black chairs we put the finishing touch on the viewing area. On the left is a tall bronze figure from Paul Varga. Matthew Sarnette's thickly applied abstracts hung to form a T. In the middle is a series of bronze figures featured in a black marble base. Reminds me of some of David Smith's narrative pieces. On the right is another new Mary Rousseaux. Lime green, silver, and a resin coat. Funky Detroit fo shizzle.

Our artist, and professional party planner Laurel Pitynski (left) helped set up the food, the flowers, and the mood for us. Charlette (middle) does the books, inventory, and took care of ordering the party trays. When you call us to dispute a bill she is the one you talk to (sorry Char).

And the party. I should have taken more photos. Next time I will be more obnoxious with the camera (for posterity). I learned quickly that if you ask for a picture people flee. So I took most pics on the fly. On the left is a large paper cast by Frank Gallo (one of Tim's long time friends).

Here's Lenore Gimpert posing next to one of her tutu pieces. She had good time...really.

Tim Pike (gallery owner) and Morris Natre (local artist and semi-retired designer). Morris won for best story telling that night. He should right a book.

Meet Elizabeth Ladd. CCS senior, TRA intern, professional coffee maker, beer aficionado (of legal age of course), and sculptor.

This is Michael Simon posing next to his multi-panel installation. He called the gallery out of the blue one day, and set up a meeting to show his portfolio. When he came into the meeting with artwork in hand, one of our designers (Michelle from Vohs Interiors) saw his artwork lying on the ground. It is a resin coated canvass with light blues, greys, and tans painted in kind of a swirl pattern. She asked me how much it was before I even decided I wanted to show his work in the gallery. Now of course I have 4 of his pieces hanging in the gallery. He's such a nice fellow it's hard to say no to him. Plus he hangs his own work! (You have no idea what that means to me.) Note to artists everywhere; Always show up with your art "show ready". If you offer to hang it yourself I could be persuaded.

Here's artist Mark Wolack with a friend. He had fun too... seriously.

Shirley Maddalena (right), Gina Bommaritto (white shirt), Vanessa Rice (light blue shirt), and somebody else (brown jacket). In the back ground is a wall of landscapes by Nancy Dendy. To the left are some assorted blown glass by local artists, Andrew Madvin and Paul Runde. More on them in the next blog.

Witness the total destruction of a shrimp tray.

It looked like pledge week for a frat house after everyone left. Leave it to TRA to throw a party the Friday before the DOW Jones drops by a record number (shrimp trays may be scarce at the next opening, but we will try). The gallery never looked better. So stop in to see what the buzz is about. See you at the next party. Stay Tuned.