I woke up today with a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Many are the days that are filled with frustrations, when one wonders if any of the things you do make any difference at all. This was not one of those days.
Yesterday I drove through rush hour traffic to meet up with Aaron Zalonis to go to the opening of Tama Hochbaum’s wonderful show, "Over/Time; Imaging Landscape,” at Cam Museum. It is a beautiful show and I recommend it to everyone. I have the good fortune of knowing Tama, who is a remarkable and multi-talented woman and artist. Some time ago I was working with Eric and Gab at Cam on a public art project related to the building going up across the street, The Dillon. Over the course of that I thought that Tama’s work might be a great fit for the idea. I was able to introduce Tama and her work to the CAM team. Neither Tama nor I were selected for the project, but the folks at CAM fell in love with her work. Now, a year or so later, here was her work gracing the walls of CAM. I am so proud of Tama and her amazing project.
"A Palette of Rust and Dreams" by Karen Healy at the Raleigh Train Station
Aaron and I stepped outside of CAM to look at the nearly completed Dillon building. There on the exterior of the building was the first of what will be an ongoing series of giant banners of art. While my own work wasn’t chosen for this, (Not colorful enough…too many people) I did get to negotiate the contract that hopefully will get all the future artists who show there paid and collected. The first banner was up! We walked down the street to check out the newly opened Train Stations. All sparkly new and modern, it has been years in the making. Walking through the lobby, right next to the ticket booth, was an installation of photographs. Lo and behold, it was the work of my prize student, Karen Healy! Karen has been working and hustling on her great documentary project on commuter train travel across NC called “A Palette of Rust and Dreams” and now a selection of it is on permanent display! Amazing.
It was nice driving home thinking about the successes of these talented and deserving artists and ideas. It was heart-warming to think that even in the tiniest way, something I may have done helped lift up my fellow artists. It does matter after all I suppose. Like I said, warm and fuzzy.