One of the very fun things I have been experiencing this year is people from the past showing up in my life. Some of them I am happy to see, as in “Hello old friend!”. Some of them just came back around again so I could finish with them and move on.
Memories are showing up too. This has been ever so enlightening, amusing, validating, eye opening. Here’s one that just showed up this weekend, so suddenly that I laughed out loud. Hey, I haven’t thought of this in, literally, decades!!
The story: I was 20 and still in art school, when a good friend and I were hired by a local vintage shop to make costumes and props for an over the top promotional drag show. This was to take place in a local nightclub that was known for its gender bending. Lots of flash and fun, plus we were being paid. Very cool. At the time, my friend Dorothy and I were both studying fashion and fabric design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. We were to make a number of cupcake/phallic sculptures out of pinks, reds, oranges, browns… in satin. Big and stuffed, but small enough that the performers (on roller skates and wearing lots of sequins) could carry them and point them at each other. They turned out great. You had to be there.
We also participated in the show, which was a cross between a performance, dance, musical, and drag show. Lots of performers. It all looked fabulous. But when the time came to be paid the balance (half down, half at the show’s end), we weren’t. After a bit of strong arming from a scary looking boyfriend, (not mine), we were told we could take the other half in trade from the shop. Not exactly the deal we’d made, but better than nothing. We went in and picked out what Ginny, the less than honest business woman we’d been dealing with, hadn’t removed from her shop before we got there. A great learning experience.
Epilogue: One day, a month or two later, I am walking home from the el stop after school. I remember it being a gray early fall day, kind of cool out. A small pickup truck comes zipping by, just missing me as I cross the street. Ginny screeches to a halt, jumps out and throws several big plastic garbage bags at me. Jumps back in her car and takes off, looking really mad the whole time. Inside the bags are the remains of the soft sculptures. She has ripped them apart and taken out the stuffing, (to use in her own soft sculptures?). Standing there, holding the bags literally, I yell after her, “but Ginny, you paid for them! They’re yours.” She thought she was dissing me and Dorothy by doing this, but we both found it so funny, and raised a toast to our great learning experience together.
To this day, I make it a point to thank in particular the people who have been the most challenging in my life. Ginny was nothing compared to some of them because, frankly, I didn’t care what she thought. I just wanted to be paid what I’d been promised. The ones who have been most challenging for me have been the people whose good opinion I desired. I know I am not alone in that. As I become more in charge of my good opinion of myself, what others have to say about me carries less weight. Yes, in the art world too. This doesn’t mean I don’t want it. What I have learned is that if I need it, I am stuck. I am no longer working for the validation coming from others, or from the fear for lack of it. So a big Thank You! to everyone who has helped me along the way.
Have you got any stories to share?
Featured Painting: “At The Eye” 2008 15″x15″ SOLD
Posted in Abstract, Clairvoyance, Color, Energy | Tagged At The Eye, clairvoyant, Energy, modern art, painting, psychic readings, reverse painting, self validation | No Comments »




















