GARAMANIACAL Re-Cap..!!!

Check out this amazing re-cap from Mike Nordstrom of Garamania. There are a ton of customs and art still available at FOE Gallery























The opening night of GARAMANIACAL was an absolute blast and a total success! Really, it could not have gone better; all the work looked AMAZING together, running such a wonderful gamut of mediums and styles; there truly is something for everyone in this show. I am so proud of this show, so proud of all of you and so deeply humbled and full of gratitude that you participated! THANK YOU!!! I can say sincerely that you are all superb people, and it was so great to connect and communicate with each of you as we ran up to show time; I truly hope we will have some more opportunities to collaborate in the future.

Beyond being such a kickass assemblage of great talent & great works, and beyond Jim and Nicole @ FOE being such great people to work with, we were helped by the weirdly mild temperature on Friday night, and the fact that the opening fell on one of Northampton's monthly Friday Art Walk events. Downtown was packed, as was GARAMANIACAL! People seemed very into the event and the art, and we kept a good crowd turnover going right 'til the end. You could really see many non-initiates having and enjoying their first look at this very particular realm of art and culture.

We had a great in-house band (assembled and led by Dan Hornworm) which totally fit with the night, providing everything from Chirusonian noise-scapes to menacing, King Crimson-esque grooves.

My first outing as Garamike was, overall, a SMASHING success (pics attached); had a great time in the suit and hopefully provided all those I came into contact with a memorable experience. I wasn't able to get the feet and tail done in time for the show, but did have the head and hands. When I first arrived in town in full gear, Jim took us over to his friend's vintage shop, Roz's Place, where the owner, Tim, had Garamike try on several different evening-wear options. I settled on a brown polyester suit that must've been the height of fashion in Manila in 1976, and went really well with my Gara-colors. Then I stalked around town for a bit, moving as only a mechanical meteorite monster can (sort of a jerky, high-stepping march), bugging people, invading various galleries and businesses, and croaking about the show to anyone who would listen. Finally entered the gallery around 7:00, to a general hush and some dropped-jaw stares...

I have to say that 6 hours... is a bit too long to be in the suit, though. In addition to being buried under rubber for all that time (the thick silicone of the mask covers/clings to my entire head and shoulders, then the weighty headpiece on top of that), the paint on the headpiece (actually thinned and pigmented rubber cement) had not fully cured yet, so I was breathing some significant fumes all night. By about 8:45, I looked at my wife and said, "I think I need to get out of this... RIGHT NOW." One serious sweat-mopping and face-scrubbing later, I felt a little less strange. I then had a bottle of Schlitz; I didn't even know Schlitz was still being made...

Finally, I want to mention that we have already raised a nice chunk of funds ($175 in the four days the show has been up) for the MSPCC, between contest entry fees and sale of entries on opening night; also, several artists have designated a portion of their sale proceeds from their works to the organization, so the number should climb even higher.

I will be posting a full wrap report on Garamania within the next day, with many more pics, so stay tuned!

Again, thanks so much to all of you for being so GARATASTIC, so utterly PYGDERFUL, such amazing and monsterly art-stars!