After the Birthday Lunch Linda returned to KANEKO for a TV interview while I unpacked

and rested until five when we both crossed Jones Street to rendezvous with Stephan Grot and

welcome Linda’s longtime friends the Duncans and Lebarons who’d driven in from Lincoln to preview the show with their longtime friend John Nelson from across the river in Council Bluffs…a fortuitous opening before the opening and chance for me to put up some of the work

in the exhibition…on the right upon entering the first piece one saw was “Park Place”, [110x160x3″], a sculpture shown in 1967 at the Park Place Gallery but long-lost which

Linda remade just last March in powder coated stainless steel and immediately shipped here, installed by Jason and his crew and seen for the first time only Monday*.

This was opposite “Singularity” [50×96.5″], steel chromed at Marc LeBaron’s Lincoln Industries in 2019 before the master craftsman capable of such work finally retired. To its left are

 basswood models of her Colorado home under construction ca.1978 and the original Libre 

domes, both realized in 2008, while straight ahead across a corridor is what Luz dubbed “the 668 Guerrero Room” since all the work in it emanated from that location, mainly during his high

school years. “Flask”, 1990, wood, paint, 130x96x48″, below…

“Accumulated and Readjusted”, 1993, wood, steel, 68x76x57″, with Roman Glass Drawings

beyond as well as shelves supporting late eighties cast glass pieces – “Black Parallelogram”,1988; “Black Triangle”, 1987; “Black Hexagon”, 1987; and “Neutron Star”, 1987.

“Shell Goblet” and “Ribbon Goblet”, 1989, both graphite on paper, 92×64″, hung opposite “Green Ring”, 1992, 40x64x64″ and two painted wood reliefs from 1989, the one on the right 1992.

From the smaller galleries we moved on to the Bow Truss building where a shelf of maquettes, as well as chrome and powder coated pieces were installed in Bow Truss 2;

“Gossamer”, 2018, chromed steel, 86×71″ cast light into the slightly larger

[note trusses] Bow Truss 1 where the large outdoor steel sculptures [1993 – 1997] that had been at Wall Spring until mid-June were afforded ample space – below on the right “Cloak of the Motion”,1993, 92x132x132″, with “Gramma Seed”, 1993, 77x72x96″ to the left and

“Gramma Seed” again with four untitled 1992 drawings behind John and Stephan.

On the dividing wall hung “Template”, 2003, and after that we all adjourned,

L. and I to our accommodations across the street for a birthday cupcake from her “angels”,

the young women who’d helped all week with the installation.

At 7:30 we walked [painfully on pavement for some] five blocks up to the 801 Chophouse to reconnect with Duncans, Lebarons and John Nelson for a hearty meal and, being among captains of industry, great talk of, mainly, dogs present and past but also travels and, naturally, congratulations to Linda for the show.  Though the service was mostly “all hat and no cows” [numerous interruptions by the waitstaff somehow failed to bring out the entrees in a timely manner] and the food, heavyish, was merely as expected – the steaks certainly not equal to the ones we’d had at Robert and Karen’s the year before – it was nonetheless a grand continuation for the birthday, winding up with John telling an elaborate joke involving higher education, weed whackers and deductive logic to which Linda responded with the “Rose Joke”, leaving us leaving chuckling, they into two Mercedes [one black, one white] which I noticed have the somewhat tacky night-time feature of projecting a star logo onto the pavement when the doors open…ah well. L. and I walked home to rest up for, after a breakfast in the well-provisioned Kaneko loft,

an eleven o’clock meeting at KANEKO with Brian and Dana, in town between their new home in 

Santa Fe and the Bay Area for the opening but also to sneak a preview of the show before

Soireé  even as preparations [not shown as much as possible] swirled around us during their

visit.  In Bow Truss 2 a mashup of painted and stainless steel sculptures – “Fire and Ice”, “Valley

Fog”,”Hachure” and “Portent” [with a couple of drinks tables intervening] – were visible along

with Dana, below, inspecting “Reverberation”, 2023, wool felt, 170×72″.

“Reverberation” and “Portent” from the other room and a “Hachure” detail as well as in

Bow Truss 1 “Template”, 2003, canvas, graphite, pigment, 96×190″, hung.  We continued on to the two additional spaces, 3 and 4, for drawings in depth [and eventually videos, still being installed].

“Mirage”, 2019, stainless and powder coated steel, with two drawings from 2019 behind and

“Lightning” with “Green Time”, 2004, “Blanca”, 2014, [“Slide Mountain Intrusion”, 2014] and “Granites Intrusion”, 2014 in the background then, below, “Ochre Sinue” and “Grey Sinue”

both 2019 with “Fount”, 2010 and “Stone Stairs”, 2006, to their right.

“Breath”, 2018 and “Puddle, 2011, both wool felt and, below, chromed or powder coated steel,

“Heat Lightning”, 2016, “Careen”, 2017 and “Buzz”, 2017. “Cuerno Verde” and “Orogeny” below,

both 2017 powder coated stainless steel, were beginning to be affected by the preparations

so we headed out to lunch in the Old Market where Le Bouillon found us a quiet table despite their main space being made over for that night’s wedding party and where we learned that Dana and Brian were that very day awaiting word from New Mexico as to whether their counter-offer on a house and studio in El Dorado was acceptable; the Uncertainty of a New Life!

After a fine relaxing repast we wished ourselves all the best of luck [and rest], going home for that very thing in advance of Soireé, a hey hey.

The Soireé was, it turned out, subscribed to the max [happiness fundraiser!] with lots of food and drink [though for some reason both the wine and hors d’oeuvres left a bitter taste so I confined myself to water for the duration], over amplified chamber music, interesting shoes,

imaginative costumes and the expected “remarks”, both from the artist and others.

Brian and Dana were there, beaming as their offer had been accepted at the last minute and around then Linda’s friend and dealer from Denver, Jim Robischon, appeared as did our neighbors from Mountain Water in the Huerfano so time was spent wandering about, some

galleries louder than others [photo above by Natori Pittman, one of the “angels”], Linda meeting and or being introduced to many people along the way. At one point I ventured upstairs where there were some curious ceramics on display/sale and a DJ was firing up a small crowd and an

accompanying fashion show which reportedly gained considerable momentum later, but by

then we were across the street dining on Chophouse leftovers and complimentary pinot

while watching the disco light show flashing window to window…

without a sound, Soireé a resounding success by any measure.

*The installation of “Park Place” was delayed by the heroic rerouting of a waterpipe that had extended outside the wall to three feet above the floor…an operation involving a jackhammer, concrete and drywall repair, mud and paint…all in the last week.