Some Very Important Things

So early on and I've missed out Some Very Important Things. And I didn't even realise it, eager as I was to unleash my subjectivity on the world.  The reason is that these Important Things were not accomplished by me at all but by L-S Dave (who, incidently and having read my future posts, thinks that he comes across as a bit of a buffoon. Not so, my love.)

I could go on and on here but I will restrain myself to the couple of Things that others might want to know should they consider being an Open House host. The first is that the preparation involves a lot of time and energy ... and paint ... and, in our case, alcohol. I think I mentioned Sheila Who Must's prolonged stopover post-Xmas in my first posting. To make up for lost time, L-S Dave took a couple of weeks of his very precious holiday and spent all of it roller in hand. We did have some help. Effervescent came over regularly and slapped on emulsion with gusto - not all of it landing on the walls. Elusive turned up for a couple of hours to help shift furniture. And towards the later stages PMT got well and truly stuck in too - in fact, they started wielding paintbrushes almost as soon as their plane landed from Spain. When the proverbial hits the fan, you need people like these around you.

The other Thing is to make sure there's enough art to fill the space and that it suits as many tastes and pockets as possible. If you've not been extraordinarily prolific, this may involve arranging interviews, viewing the work of would-be visiting artists and selecting, from among them, those whose work, and whose personalities, you are likely to enjoy being cooped up with for a month. On some occasions it also means adopting a straight face for longer than would normally be possible in such circumstances. I am not a natural at this but L-S Dave has mastered the art of appearing unruffled by the ridiculous having worked for an American company for years.

L-S Dave's advice to me before these viewings was always 'don't agree to anything immediately'. But, when confronted with the true genius of Matt's pots - and the delight of his personality - I offered him a place on the spot. L-S Dave agreed - in pretty much the same timeframe. Rules exist to be broken. Apparently Matt's partner had given him the same advice but Matt was no laggard in accepting our invitation either.

So this is also a tribute to good friends, many of them hitherto undiscovered geniuses, and to L-S Dave, without whom all this would not have been.