Opening Night at Craig Krull Gallery

photos by Martin Cox

It was a pretty terrific night for my opening, with people pouring out of the gallery and parking difficult to find. Wow.

I have to thank so many friends who came out, but also the media that brought others for a variety of reasons, including a lovely woman who loves to photograph in San Francisco's Chinatown and just wanted to see how I "did it." Actually a perfect reason to visit a gallery.

Putting together an exhibition, especially on a 10 year project, takes a tremendous amount of preparation and when it happens, one can step back - finally - and think about the parts. So much credit goes to my gallerist, Craig Krull, whose faith in my work carried me through and whose sense of restraint and, knowing what images to choose and where they should be placed in his space added so to FINDING CHINATOWN's sensibility. An image is a narrative and with someone in front of it or when in a configuration with other images, a conversation is held and, at times, modified. And it often takes on so much more than the thought of the photographer or artist whose creation it is.

I have known this before, in fact have spoken often to adults and youth about this when working with the contemporary art & poetry books I created and designed. It just feels so different when it is one's own work. And thus now as well, I wait, wondering what others will say and how they will feel about the narrative that I started with. We'll see.

At the moment, it is nice to just bask in the attendance and then, for a short moment without deadline, turn not only back to FINDING CHINATOWN - not through yet as a project for me- as well as others. It feels good.

Above, scenes from the opening photographed by Martin Cox and including Lita Albuquerque, a wonderful artist/performer who is in her full Stellar Axis mode posing with our mutual friend, Adrianna Kapeller; Tyrus Wong, about whom I have posted several times and who honored me last night with his presence and who is speaking about my work with me and Craig Krull, my galleriest; and then Martin himself with me.