Cratin' up the Art

The first exhibition of what I hope will blossom into a national photographic stadium tour opens Friday, January 16th at the Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, GA, aka Hotlanta, aka the A-T-L. Come on down and have a glass of wine and look at some really beautiful photographs of Cuba.

I spent the morning putting the framed jewels in packing crates. Laura and I are going to drive the snaps down to Georgia, but I wanted to wrap them nice and tight irregardless, in case they ever have to be handed over to UPS. This meant relying, as always, on the infinite generosity, hospitality and expertise of ATLAS Industries, aka Big Joe, aka the Toothless Wonder of the Gowanus.

First, many, many layers of cardboard, and lots of that Saranesque wrapping medium that is miraculously bomb proof even without glue. It just somehow frictionalizes onto itself. Don't leave home without it.

Here two bundles of framed prints are dropped into the first box. My man Adam Clemens helped me build twin custom plywood crates. What this actually means is Adam built two fabulous containers while I stood around snapping low res camera phone photos and occasionally picking up an errant drywall screw. I did manage to pour the styrofoam peanuts around the edges, though.

The boxes, palleted and stickered "fragile" and "this end up," in order to guarantee maximum abuse at the hands of the shipping union. ATLAS only allows into the shop sheets of birch plywood that were hand-loomed by Russian grandmothers, so these crates ended up looking nicer than my furniture.

Chico promised to stand guard until the art is loaded and on its way.