Today Warren and I hustled to get the gallery ready. We cleaned a few windows, clearing off dog and cat nose prints along with some toddler hand prints. We made sure paintings are signed, and that everything looks generally OK. At the end of the afternoon I took a few minutes to paint several bags. If one buys something during our open studio it is wrapped in a hand painted bag. This part of the preparation is always a delight for me. Afterwards Warren and I stood in the gallery space making sure everything was priced. I am terrible at this task, but the process reminds me to see the eloquence of each object, to slow down and identify what are my favorites and why. I am not sure if this is a delight muscle or a beauty radar.
“It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.”
― Ross Gay, The Book of Delights, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2019, p. xii