what friends are for

Last month my longtime friend Warren was in town for a professional conference. This was a treat of unbridled proportions for me. When we were neighbors in Cherry Hill, NJ during the 1980s we had dinner together at least once a week. Our relationship was always that of siblings since he had a sister my age whom he adored and I had 2 brothers, all living a distance away. It just happened that we because fast friends and have maintained a long distance contact through the ensuing years.

Warren  appeared at the very beginning of what was to become my professional art career. He showed enormous interest in the progress of both my oil pastel drawings as well as my clay sculptures and vessels. Eventually he began making very deliberate, highly selective purchases of my artwork. His enthusiasm and support, both emotionally and financially was invaluable. some things just don't change.

Warren contacted me to arrange a dinner date his only free evening in L'ville. When I asked what sort of food he wanted he immediately replied "Chinese" as we had probably eaten 100 Chinese dinners together in the past. I hadn't seen him in about 4 or 5 years but from the first moment on the phone it was obvious that we were in for business as usual. It's just so wonderful when time evaporates and the glue between friendships holds fast.

After a fabulous meal at the August Moon Warren asked to go to my house and see my newest work. Now he had seen much of this work online but he wanted to see first hand the progression I went through post surgeries and understand how I reeducated myself to maneuver from point A to points XY and Z. So I showed him everything I had, every scrap of paper, the good the bad the ugly as well as the "I can't believe I actually DID this!!". As is his way, he was deliberate and probative, asking thoughtful questions and making insightful comments as are only possible when someone is actually familiar with an artist's entire body of work. It's not that his interest was flattering. It's that it was gratifying for him to WANT to take so much time to study each piece and try to understand it's place in the continuum.

I am always surprised by what pieces of my work appeala to certain people. My friend Monica is my only "collector" whose taste I know so well that I have an over 90% success rate figuring out what she'll want to buy. Warren selected 2 small early studies. He and Ann have plenty of my work in their home. I really wasn't showing him these pieces with the idea he might actually buy something, let alone 2 pieces from the very middle of my 36 month struggle to recover. I always believe it is up to the artwork itself to select an audience, that's it's job. Once I sign my name to it the thing becomes a marketable commodity. But I was so deeply touched by

Warren's sincerity in wanting to purchase what were really just sturies, and imperfect studies in my eyes. But he saw something in them and that was that. So 2 landscape studies are now in Minneapolis getting acquainted with "Mc Bell's Fantasy" and "Pond Scene"  and "Good Day Sunshine" and the others whose names I have long forgotten as well as numerous ceramics collecting dust on horizontral surfaces in their very lovely home! But after all, that's what friends really are for.