11:49 a.m. - 2003-01-19
Dr. Bruce explains how we won the raffle
A Guest Presentation by Dr. Bruce because Ruthiebat couldn't face writing this part:
Ruthiebat often feels she never wins anything. But we hit a muthalode on Friday in the fundraising raffle for the Bare Hands opening in Birmingham. We bought four tickets at $5 a pop but it was one of the ones that Ruth bought right before the drawing that won the Grand Prize, a 2 meter long painting by the well-known G. Chapman. It's worth an ungodly amount of money on the art market and now we have to: A) figure out how to get it home safely, and B) figure out where to hang it in our house.
The new Barehands space is a hugely spiffed-up storefront in Southside Birmingham, just south of the rail yards that separate Downtown from Southside. The red awning out front lends the place a surprising legitimacy. Wendy and Michael of Barehands had spent a frantic 3 weeks moving from the old space, rehabbing the new space and arranging art with no break before the opening last Friday. No rest for the movers! The place was packed at the opening, ranging from young art punks to affluent collectors to middle aged artists with children. A funny thing I've noticed is that artists' kids seem to be better dressed, groomed and behaved than other kids, at least kids under about 10 years old.
The raffle drawing was amusingly drawn out, with the ever-arch Rachel pulling tickets and announcing winners. Wendy was up front too, looking like even her nervous energy was finally flagging. Ruth's donation to the raffle, a Venus doll, appeared about two thirds through the raffle and was won by a local arts activist, a good sign in of itself. Finally, at the grand prize, Rachel pulled a ticket, she and Wendy looked at it, laughed a little, and annnounced, "Ruthiebat!" Ruthiebat didn't even realize at first she'd won the grand prize, even as everyone stared at her. The odd thing was that we'd both gotten a feeling that we'd win. My feeling was one of those moments of going unconscious when you can let go and slide into whatever's happening.
After looking shocked for a short period, Ruthiebat did some dancing around saying "I won, I won!" but not too much... Then we both wandered around the gallery as the band started playing again, and stared at the groovy painting. We still have to go back and bring the painting back to Huntsville...
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