Murphy's Law Is A Way Of Life

"Only in Nelson" as we say, mixed with a sigh and a laugh. Mr Murphy must have been from Nelson; how else would he know exactly how life works? What's gone wrong, you ask?

1. The gallery did not arrange with the artists currently showing when they will take down their artwork, so I had to ring them myself, and they told me there's absolutely no room for compromise/negotiation, so we delayed installation by one day. It's partially the gallery's contract at fault, because item (1) says the gallery is open from 11AM - 3PM, Monday to Friday, but (4) says all artworks must be removed by 1:30PM of the last Friday.

2. The lounge chairs came on time, except they are light blue with red (?) designs, and one has a big visible tear (which I can sew up tomorrow), and the other has cigarette burns on both sides of the cushion, and at least one is covered with pet hair. I am so very disappointed, because I checked and rechecked all the details with them beforehand, and could not believe the miserable state of these chairs.

3. The cut lettering, the name of the Exhibit(ion) and artist pasted on the wall of the galleries.

All I wanted was: "Sea, Sand and Sky", new line, Meg Nakagawa, in normal Times New Roman, centered, the total size being roughly A2, my name slightly smaller than the title.

It came out visibly smaller than A2, in three lines, all same size skinny Times New Roman: "Sea, Sand and Sky", new line, Meg Nakagawa, new line, my phone number!!! What were they thinking!!! This is the place Nelson's main gallery, The Suter Art Gallery uses!!!

(And the scariest part is right now as I try to format these lines to try to show you, Blogger corrupts the size of the fonts and alignment. My name is cursed.)

But they had the color right, a beautiful navy blue (I'd call it indigo) and they did it on very short notice over the phone, so I can't really fault them.... GRRRRRR...

4. Matt's article came out last night; a few days prior to that he rang and read the article to me and it sounded interesting, but what made to the printed page was abridged and kind of "blah". And there's a biggish photo of my fat, evil twin. I wished they took out the photo and left the interesting bits in.

To tell you the truth, I didn't expect people to read it, but quite a few people commented that I am now "World Famous in Nelson" (taken from a soft drink L&P commercial, "World Famous in New Zealand".) It tickles one's ego, but I'm not too comfortable with it. My 15 seconds of fame.

5. The heatwave goes on and on and on... Actually I'm not sure if it's a heatwave or just the normal summer, but come on, folks, I'm having an Exhibit(ion) of wool shawls. Can we please have some southerlies, please.

Murphy's Law is the way of life in Nelson. We get use to it and move on. But I am very disappointed with 2. and 3... And 5.

But just when you think it's all gone to custard, somebody saves the day. Jay Farnsworth, of The Red Art Gallery, my agent, is going to bake something nice for my "Weavers' Hour: Show and Tell, followed by afternoon tea"!! That's the second baking offer I had, and with the numbers going up to 15 yeses and 3 maybes, the offers are Heaven-Sent.

Life is not bad.