Neil Wedman

 

Edward Hopper

 For an explanation on the why of the two pictures above scroll to the end.

Today I gave a Powerpoint presentation – Photography Inspired in Art at the C41Café. The café is not big so the 28 people that showed up was a crowd. But I have an idea that Saturday is not a good day for this sort of thing.I called many people to invite them:

1. I am going to the Wine Festival, sorry.

2. I have a bad cold and so does…

3. I have a bad cold and so does…

4. Sorry I have covid

5. I had a leg operation, sorry.

6. I am going to the Vancouver Symphony.

7. Andy asked if Joaquin Pedrero was coming. “No, he is in Mexico.”

8. “Is Charlie Smith who wrote the lovely piece about you on Pancouver coming?” “No, he is in London.”

9. And so on.

I almost took this personally. On the positive side, the projection worked flawlessly and Andy Wang is an expert at setting up. The people were interested and a few questions were asked. Andy asked three questions. He knows how to work a room.

For this experiment to work we will change the day and even the hour of the next one. Because the Café needs to make money some sort of payment at the door will have to happen. I know at least four photographers who could give lectures. Could they be called Photography & Coffee?

Now I will diverge to point out that Diane Arbus had a show. On the next day of her show the world was still the same. She popped some barbiturates, got into a warm bath and slit her wrists.

While I am not suicidal, I discovered not “Post Opening Blues” but something I call “After the Hanging 

Blues”. It seems to me that it is never better than the moment before you put that last framed photograph on the wall. I have had many of these. It is downhill after that. And especially as a couple of days after the opening I might run into a person who I invited and did not show up. The person will ask, “How was the opening?” I think but don’t say ----you!

I spent to weeks (they were awfully pleasant) working on my flash drive PowerPoint. But after tonight, with nothing happening tomorrow, Sunday, I feel empty.

The reason is that I must be a melancholic Argentine.

Had Rosemary attended the presentation with me, I would now not feel so empty. She would have pointed out all my mistakes and offered advice. 

The silence of the cats is deafening.       

One of my Powerpoint slides had the two pictures illustrating this blog. Some years ago, when I was teaching at  Focalpoint on 10th Avenue, the bookstore next door, Book Warehouse, was closing. Most of the books had been sold but there was an Edward Hopper booklet of his sketches. I bought it. Inside I found Hopper's self-portrait. It was then that I understood that my artist friend Neil Wedman had been hiding from me for many years that indeed he looks like Edward Hopper.