second largest art market in the usa

Well, I don't know if I believe that particular claim, but yesterday, in the doldrums from open studios being over and not feeling like working, a few of us ventured off to Canyon Road, where most of the galleries are. It was hot, but it was also depressing. So much of the same kind of work, lots of gold leaf, lots of landscapes, which one would expect, lots of color, lots of mixed media, lots of bronze- oh, and horses, horses, horses. Horses without legs. Two headed horses. Rearing horses. And those were just the big bronze ones.

I wanted to see the Judy Pfaff show which was at Bellas Artes. They also represent a Korean photographer, Jungjin Lee, who just had a show here of photographs on Mulberry paper (using liquid light.) The couple who run this gallery are an interesting pair. The Pfaff show was terrific, I thought. But then with all the cutting, burning, paper twisting and shellacking, it's right up my alley and made me wonder why I'm so timid with my work. I need to get in there and mess up a little.

None of the gallery people I invited to open studios showed up, but there were a lot of people there who had nice things to say. I had photographs shot of the installation- I'll post a few next week when I get them from the photographer, Jamie Hart, who's a friend of Jim Prez back in Brooklyn, the curator of the encyclopedia show.

I'm a little at loose ends now. Going up to Taos tomorrow, I'll see what I want to spend the last few days on when I get back.

By the way, I was wrong about Richardson's companion the other night. A friend sent me a photo of him with his wife and she's a blonde. I think it might have been a sister or relative. Certainly wasn't an intern or a "paid escort."