On Friday, June 8th, Cheryl, my wife, and I decided that we were going to check out Lancaster’s Gallery Row. A friend of ours was currently showing at gallery there. We tried to make it for First Friday, but it was impossible, no sitter, monsoon weather, no car that would make the trip….Same story as always. But we needed to check it out, just to see what opportunity was there for us. We saw our friend’s work and made our way around town visiting every gallery there. The last gallery that we went into was Christiane David’s gallery. What struck me first was the painting that she had in the window. It was one of J. Scott Wolf’s paintings. It was a beautiful landscape in the New Hope tradition. The second thing that struck me was Christiane David’s “Poppies”. She had poppies and she had lots of them.
Now, it’s not often that I run across someone that’s sort of in the same place as me in their head. Keep in mind that I had never seen her work before Friday and I started painting my poppy paintings when Cheryl’s started to bloom this year. I wanted to see more of Scott’s work and Donna, the kind lady that was working there, told me that Scott had just moved into half of the space in the basement gallery in the rear of the building.
I asked who was in the other half and she told me that is was currently empty, but that Christiane was considering renting it out. I didn’t pay much attention to that when she said it because I thought that there was no way that Cheryl and I could afford a gallery space in Lancaster. We thanked her for her time and decided to take a walk around the block to an antique store, as I’m always looking for mission furniture. No luck.
We were hot and tired preparing to leave town when I decided I wanted to see this J. Scott Wolf’s work. I could see the gallery from where we were and decided it was close enough that it wouldn’t kill me to get there.
When we reached the gallery the first thing we say was the gorgeous courtyard. As we walked down the steps, I saw that half of the space was filled with some of the strongest work in town. The other half was empty. The fresh white walls, new wood floor and large windows made it feel more like a Chelsea gallery than a space in a basement. Cheryl and I stood in that empty space and I looked at her and I said “Sweetheart, could you imagine what we could do with this if we had it?” I asked Scott what he was paying for the space. He told me. I looked at Cheryl. Cheryl looked at me. We both looked at Scott and I said “How about that?”
We both knew right then and there that this was the opportunity of a lifetime for us. It was just what we needed and wanted. Cheryl and I didn’t say a word to each other as we walked back to Christiane’s gallery. I told Donna that I would be very interested in that space if Christiane wanted to rent it. “Yes, She’s considering it, but she won’t be back until Tuesday.”
5 days. 5 days I had to wait.
On June 13th, we went to meet with Christiane and we sealed the deal with a handshake, the first month’s rent and a lot of optimisim.
So, after 12 years of painting full time and 7 years of shlepping work all over Pennsylvania and into New York, Cheryl and I have been presented with this amazing opportunity, the kind that you can’t say no to, and must take the leap and open our own gallery. I have no clue what’s going to happen. Whether we will survive or we won’t. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t do any of it without your support over the years.
Pariah Fine Art 