State of Things

I threw an event and then a wedding back to back and now I’ve returned to Barcelona and my new husband and I are packing up our apartment, putting as much as we can into storage so we’re ready to leave town when an opportunity to go to London opens up – and meanwhile moving into a flat on a lower floor near the great Santa Catarina market. Good. We no longer have to out-manipulate each other into walking up and down the six steep flights with Niji to walk her. We no longer have to buy lemons in wasteful Styrofoam packaging where the hidden bottoms of each are moldy. And the apartment is light filled, clean, and clear of all of our own belongings which we desperately need a vacation from.

Isn’t that funny? We spend so much time shopping and adding to our collection of goods and then we just want to turn our back on them. I can spend three minutes or more holding up a pair of pants contemplating should they stay or should they go? It’s a great but exhausting exercise. Can’t wait until those pants either go to a deserving person who will actually wear them or if they are one of my self-determined ‘collectibles’, go into the box. All of this is in hopeful preparation for a move to London or as we’re saying London or New York – but with a strong lean toward London. We’re done with Barcelona. It’s had its time and we’ve stayed too long. It’s a pretty city but just utterly wrong for both of us, for various reasons. We came here thinking we may open a store with the same theme as this site but realized the market and the timing was wrong. But now with London looking like the obvious choice and conversations flowing with great companies I’m interested in getting involved with there, yet still knowing it’s not the kind of city you just show up in like Barcelona, we have to prepare.

I’ve also just finished, well August now, a novel that I started writing in January of 2007. It’s no small shakes. It’s been my big secret and the most important thing by far I’ve ever done in my life. Before the storm of work that late summer brought, I finished the final draft, put it away, and began working 12-18 hour days on the what women make exhibit. And then the wedding which turned out to be more lovely than I could ever have imagined. My father, my mother, my sister and maid of honor, my other sister I hadn’t seen for three years – 16 now and so gorgeous it’s terrifying – the hug that lasted endlessly, i didn’t even realize how hard it was to not see her all this time… The emotion of it all and seeing my handsome husband waiting on the grass near a labyrinth and his wonderful parents and sister, all my closest friends and it being so frankly obvious why they are my closest friends. It was a giddy laughfest. So now, this most of important of all things ever, has to be addressed – The Book. I can talk about anybody else’s work until the cow’s come home but my own – which is so much a part of me and basically turns my personal history inside out for the world to see – is another thing entirely.

I am envious of these other bloggers who update daily and have huge brilliant photos parading down the page constantly. For me, to get the exact right talent that reflects the wwm criteria and the mission is really difficult and it’s only part of the work I do. I hope if we do get to London quite soon, I can get a good schedule going again. It’s come to pass that most of the artists and designers that I’ve shown are not quite ready for selling, either the work is in prototype phase, which is what makes it so forward-thinking, or it’s too expensive, or it’s too complicated, so I have to find some great stuff that is accessible and ready for the public as well as this great stuff that’s symbolic of the future. For now, I’m going to keep blogging and hopefully add value to whatever else you’re reading about in the way of women, creativity, culture, and innovation. And pay attention to humbly trying to get publishers and agents to take a look at my book. I know it may be a very long slog. Wish me luck.

-Chauncey