the hanging of artwork

I spent most of last night hanging artwork at Plant Zero, where tonight The Richmond Show (the biggest advertising awards show in the region) will take place. It was a long night . . . didn't get out until around 10:45, but it was a lot of fun.

Against all odds, I did not get lost finding the place from work. This was the Achievement of All Achievements. Now, finding the art space where they were hanging work WITHIN Plant Zero was a different story. You see, there are a ton of galleries and art studios at this place and when I walked in, there was an art show going on in one of the front galleries and I was like "Hmmm . . . I have no idea where I'm going." I tried to walk around and look like I knew where I was going (admiring the art work, etc.) but I really had no clue. I think the people at the art show knew, too. They were giving me interesting looks. I tried to call my friend, the VP of the Ad Club, who was running this whole thing, but he didn't answer his phone. Eventually, though, I decided to explore the building and found the art space that I was looking for.

So here was the setup team: 3 Ad Club Board members (including me) and five or six VCU advertising students. And we had massive amounts of work to hang. The space had a pipe & black/white panel decor and we were supposed to hang the work by fish line and binder clips from the top of the pipes. This task required a ladder as tall as the Empire State Building and some very delicate hanging and clipping sensibilities. I met two very cool VCU boys and we became a team. One of them I shall call Green Eyes.

Green Eyes and I became fast friends and he decided, after knowing me for about 3 hours, that he had license to mess with me. For example, when we were cutting fishing line, he would pull on the line so hard that I lost grip on the spindle and it would go flying 10 feet away - something which he found really funny. Of course, I did not feel bad laughing at him when a woman walked in on him in the unisex bathroom.

When we were leaving, we noticed two cats in the building and a litter box. Apparently, the owners of Plant Zero own two cats and allow them to stay in the building. How cool is that?

I'm excited about tonight. Green Eyes and I are working the front door. We get to check people off the list with an air of importance. I'm a little sad that we don't get headsets so that I can talk into mine and say things like "Um, VP, we have a situation out here" and "Code Blue! I repeat Code Blue!" (I don't know what Code Blue would mean, but it sounds cool).

I am determined to be lazy all day so that I can be not so lazy tonight. This evening is going to be an important one for networking and looking good. Heh.