The other night when I left YES Gallery, I was planning to go to a supermarket to go food shopping on my way home. I was really tired from a very long couple of days, and the weather had gotten colder again for a bit so I wasn't really in the mood to go to the supermarket which was a bit out of my way, but I felt like it was something that it was important for me to do. I write it in that way because I didn't really need to go food shopping at that market on that particular night. I had enough of the things I need on a day to day basis and the trip could have waited. But I felt like for some reason it was important for me to go that particular night to that particular market, and so I did.
I've written in these pages before about the times when I am led to do something or to go somewhere and when I follow through and do what I feel that it's important for me to do, I am always blessed in some wonderful way by a meeting or by something I find or by a place or person or something that happens that is miraculous and life changing.
On that particular night, as I set out to go to the supermarket, I was planning to walk one way but felt led to walk another. After walking a few blocks, when I turned the corner and was nearing where the market is I saw a large round woven piece of furniture that at first I took to be a large basket or storage bin or maybe even a bed for a pet that had its cushions removed. It had been put out on the sidewalk in the way that people often do with things that they no longer want or need in this area, and I was going to walk past it, but something made me turn back and look at it more closely. When I did I realized that it was made of a heavy vinyl, and that it was a coffee table that was made to be used indoors or outdoors, and that it was in perfect condition. I wasn't sure of where I could store it, but I knew it would be wonderful to have it for the sidewalk outside YES Gallery as the weather became warmer, and so I stood for a few moments thinking it over and finally decided that it was too wonderful to just leave it there and that I'd figure out where to put it when I got it back to the gallery.
I brought it back and gave it a quick cleaning that night and then the next day gave it a more thorough one, letting it dry as I arranged some new spring flowering plants in the windows and did a few other arrangements and decorations and touch ups in the gallery. For the time being I had put it up in the loft where I thought I might be able to store it against a wall behind one of the easels, but I was still trying to think if there was a better way to arrange it so that it could be used inside. A few people who had come in had gone up into the loft to browse and I'd moved it a bit to the side so they could move about more comfortably, apologizing for its being in the way and explaining that I was in the process of bringing it in. Interestingly they didn't seem to mind it, and so I began to think that maybe all I needed to do was reconfigure a few things and maybe it could actually work in that area. In thinking about a possible cover for it the night before I had remembered a vintage suede hand painted fringed shawl that I thought might fit over it and be a nice way of masking it, and after it had dried from the cleaning I moved a few things around and after pushing it a bit more to one side I draped the shawl over it. Years ago one of my Artist and Designer friends had said "What you can do with fabric!" and though I hadn't really thought about it until that point, using and finding and draping textiles of all kinds is something that I always love to do.
The newly installed coffee table has made the loft area even more beautiful, and the design of it is something that I enjoy so much. It's rustic and cozy and very boho chic as people used to always call my way of designing my apartments, and it added a dimension that makes the space even more comfortable to be in than it was before. As the weather grows warmer I may move it outside, but then again I may not. YES Gallery has a way about it that keeps surprising me with inspiring ideas and new ways of doing things as if everything I do there is being created anew.
