Things I've learned while putting together Sacred Flesh

Things I've learned while putting together this show:

* It takes a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time to shrink wrap 72 prints!

* 5 weeks is NOT too long a time to put together and publish a catalogue, especially when gathering texts from 20 different people.

* Two months before a big opening is NOT too long to have all canvases finished.

* Models sometimes have second thoughts about the paintings of themselves being shown in public.

* When people have feelings about the artwork, it means my project is working!  It's helping people look at their feelings about their bodies.

* Measure the capacity of the car before building canvases to make sure I can get them to the gallery for the show.

* Pay careful attention to the dimensions of the gallery and notice big windows when planning how many pieces to put in the show.  (Big windows = less space = fewer paintings)

* Don't sign up for a weekend art workshop for the same weekend as a big opening.

* Try to get daughter to leave for a year abroad either a week before or a week after a big opening - not the day before.

* Try to get son's college to plan Parent's Weekend for a different weekend than the weekend of a big opening.

* Try to get husband to plan huge stress at work and 80-hour weeks to fall a different month than the month of a big opening.

* Don't plan an out-of-town meeting about the next big opening four days before a big opening.

* It's more important to take off for the day to see the son in college with the daughter who's going overseas for the year than it is to get 72 prints shrink-wrapped.


* 19 large paintings barely fit in a Honda minivan and a Ford truck, but much patience and mathematical brilliance can in fact make it happen - if the stars are aligned just right and a once-in-20-year Harvest moon happens to be happening that very night.

* It's wise to breathe every once in a while in the midst of everything else.

* It's even wiser to relax and trust that everything is going to be just fine, even if it doesn't all get done and even if glitches happen.


* People will offer to help at the most perfect times.

* Everything will turn out just right.