one day in santa fe

early a.m. phone call to my gallery owner in atlanta, i've got these paintings available you can have, 8 more on the way, i'll jpeg those to you and hand the phone to julie who has her question and answer period and the owner wants Julie's figurative work right now and no abstracts, thank you'll we'll be in touch and she liking my new figures wanting something different for her clients instead of that uptown thing she did before. ok with me. and then i call this gallery in NYC and tell them I'm not interested and the assistant sounding like she died on the other end when i said no thank you, and then i've got to make two more phone calls to my contact in town and say i was running late and then off to the space where i showed it to J who dug it for the antique trunk show he was having. he and his girl friend used to run a yoga center on the island of saba in the caribbean, and him an ex detroit auto designer who burned out and had a life threatening illness and then became a therapist. he and i talking about our paths meeting now and me having had a similar story which i may tell later but the pertinent part is my illness got me painting again which is what i'm doing. J. and the girlfriend are going to central america after the big sale to build a healing center, and me being an ex- builder also i said dang, i'd come down and help out, teach the natives how to build and he took our little contract off to read it at home with a parting beautiful space and then i call julie and tell her the heater in the space is working fine and i'm off to see wilem at cloud cliff cafe and discuss my play idea. when i get to cloud cliff wilem is in the attic of the kitchen doing some repairs and i say i'll get a cup of coffee, be right with you and oh yes i parked the truck at my old gallery across the street now closed and doing business at home and read the posted sign out front which said closed but we're going to reopen at the railyard later. strange to see the space closed. julie and i having a number of great shows there. i'm drinking my decaf waiting for wilhem and big mac comes in , one of my clients and buddies and we decide to have lunch together. big mac is a very literate guy, smart, a writer, so i tell him the problem i'm having with my play and he listens and comes up with some good ideas and then lunch comes, him a curry dish and me a chicken sandwhich and then wilem comes out and sits down and i'm telling him the problems with my play idea and then i start telling the play and it gets very emotional, wilem with good ideas and support, and i'm feeling a lot better about it and then big mac says you've got a lot of good issues there, but you've got a tiger by the tail and wilem says he'll put me in touch with some people, then i realize the enormity of the project. Damn jamie what have you bit off? just then my director comes in and sits at the table next to us, i'll see you in class, ok and then i get up and big mac pays the whole tab. i'm thanking him when i see A the artist having lunch and i go say hello and exchange the usual art small talk, where are you showing, oh serbia, and i'm going, and then A says she can't talk, which is usually how all our conversations end up. ps forgot the one hour rap with my buddy blind joe the photographer at his studio prior to lunch that went something like this, my art, his art, money, refinance, down sizing, him back from south africa, surfing, taxes, galleries, can he help me with our with my space, have you seen cyril he's changed but he's still afraid of you, the cellist michael kott being a true artist, checking out my new work, dig it, not that yellow and julie's work looks like cave paintings he took pictures of in south africa, and could i leave a flyer? and he gave me a cd of his new album when i left and then I went and bought jule some fresh chocolate at chocolate maven, drove home gave the chocolate to her and went out and painted for four hours. just your average day in santa fe. jgk