art for art's sake

The other day, someone gave me two "Patron Preview" tickets to this weekend's art show. We went to the show last night, at which patron ticket holders were treated to wine, beer, and something called "heavy hors d'oeuvres," as well as looking around without The Public.

Artists were treated to patrons who had consumed quite a lot of wine or beer and who therefore peppered the poor artists with pointless questions, while the artists were trapped in their booths. However, I saw some red dots on some pretty pricey pieces, so maybe they didn't mind so much.

We looked around at some of these Patrons; our tickets would have cost $50 each, had we been so inclined to buy them; some people paid $1000 (extra perks, of course, but still)! What would such a person look like? Besides one woman with a tremendously large hairdo, everyone looked pretty much the same.

D graciously bought me a pair of earrings from someone who specializes in wire jewelry. I was most interested in a group who was doing floorcloths.

Stopping to peruse our program, we saw that there was a photographer exhibiting from the next town over to the one we had moved from. We hied ourselves over to see him, where he was trying to eat his dinner behind a screen. He was very engaging, and told us all the things that have happened in our absence: what dirt roads are now paved, how the preschool (on whose board I once sat--an excruciating experience) is doing, and so on. We asked him if there was anything we might know about the area that would help him. "The name of a good dentist!" he replied. And we were able to give him the name of the one we went to, and wish we still could! He looked genuinely relieved! You never know when you can brighten someone's day with the simplest information. We would have like to buy one of his photographs; maybe one day.