Absurdity

Those of you that have been to my studio have seen my blackboard wall with one of my favorite quotes:

"The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth."
- Albert Camus

Well this past week or so has been one of extreme absurdity. The consequences of procrastination have reared up to slap me in the face and I have sworn...SWORN, I tell you...to never wait until the last minute again. (yeah, yeah, yeah)

So, last week, I open a bottle of the stuff I use to make my paintings shiny - galkyd - and proceed to paint it on three of the finished paintings. The galkyd always dries overnight, but for some reason it didn’t this time. Five days go by...no dry, just a sticky, tacky mess...and I realize I have a problem. Apparently, I got a defective bottle of the galkyd. (I might become obsessed with the fact that I’ve used many, many bottles of this stuff and have never had a problem before and why, in the name of all that is decent, would the cosmos decide to make it happen now??? But, in the words of my ever-so-sensitive teenage daughters, “whatever.”)

It was during these five days that the studio maintenance people decided to seal and power wash the HUGE skylights above my studio...which really is a good thing because water leaks through the roof regularly. However, the power washing let loose a torrent of bugs, grit, dirt, and generally gross 100-year-old-warehouse-gunk to the studio below. And, yes, the paintings were under the skylight (unavoidable, since the skylights cover most of my studio). Did I mention the sticky, tacky condition (think flypaper) of the paintings? Luckily, I was able to scream and yell loud enough to get them to stop before much had fallen. Unluckily, they just came back the next day when I wasn't there and finished the job. (I might obsess on the fact that in all the years I have been in this studio, they have never messed with the skylights, etc...why, why, why....whine, whine, whine...you get the picture.)

Good news, though...I managed to recover the paintings with tweezers (for the gunk) and new galkyd, which ended up liquefying the first stuff and drying over it. Yowza, THAT was a close one. (I am so tempted at this point to tell you about the next round of stupid, bad luck...but then I would be dangerously close to making even myself say enough already...so, I’ll spare you.)

Lesson? (Since I seem to be so fond of the cosmic message that comes from situations like these...) Keep the Zen (which I surprisingly did) and have a Plan B (or in this case Plans C, D, E, F....)