SOFA Chitown

A week ago I climbed into a 14 foot Uhaul truck in Helena, Montana. The sun was just starting to go down and the trip just about to start. The truck was packed full of pedestals, boxes, and crates... full of artwork. The mission I accepted was to drive this truck 1600 miles to the heart of the midwest, Chicago, for the annual sculpture event known as SOFA. Amongst the many boxes were some of the most recent works by big hitter ceramic artists such as Richard Notkin, Chris Antemann, Don Rietz, and Josh DeWeese along with all the long term residents of 2010. I never did tally the monetary value of what was in the truck, because really, I didn't want to know... It had to be a lot and for the drive, I was responsible for it. Over the next couple of days I made my way through Billings, Montana and then to Minneapolis for a couple of days during Halloween. I met up with old friends and had a blast of a time for Halloween, seeing the best puppet show ever- some of these puppets were over 20 feet tall.

Now in Chicago, I've been involved with setting up the Bray show and witnessing the preliminary steps that go into this huge event. So many galleries shipping work here, unpacking and setting up. The morning of set up was insane to say the least. So far it's been quite the experience and the event is scheduled to open today, at 5 pm for the VIP collector viewing. I'm far from the VIP status but since I'm part of the setup I get free access to everything that's going on. Tonight I'll be interested in seeing just how it all works... How Galleries are pushing work to buyers and collectors and how artists are presenting themselves. Whose going to drink too much and break something? Will somebody buy the latest Akio Takamori or Tip Toland piece?? Not me of course! But you know there's gotta be plenty of people in there all coked up and crazy... somebody is going to crack.. because the pressure is thick enough to swim in.