Day 3 - Exhibition Opening and Vernisage - February 16th 2007

The morning began early with breakfast at 7:30 and off to the gallery for 9. By this time we'd learned that Mitch and Cathie had received their paintings from Customs as well as their clothes. This morning was spent organizing the layout of the art in the court yard. The artist framers would hang the pieces where he wanted them positioned. Bettina was busy making art labels and printing text of which I asked her added help to organize. We agreed to give "Cosmic Vision" as the title to our group exhibition and to have the gallery staff type out English and Spanish announcement of the exhibition at the Casa de los Tres Mundos entrance. Meanwhile, the radio announcements continued playing every half hour on a local music channel. Betsy was busy drawing and creating watercolor sketches in the surrounding territory but checking in to see whether her immediate help was needed anywhere. It was good to know where everyone was at all times.

In the meantime Dave was reconsidering his travel plans to accompany Erik back to Costa Rica after the workshop on Friday, February 23rd. Erik was now planning to return to San Jose in Coast Rica for a possible second operation on Monday. His left eye was worsening, as his retina was not recovering as he had hoped. He had accidentally poked it out with a pair of needle nose pliers while pulling on the electrical harness in the engine of one of his vehicles on December 22nd. Erik needed to get to a follow up appointment with his specialist surgeon; as a consequence, he may not be able to get back for the balance of the workshop. If things turned for the worse, then Erik wouldn't have to be burdened by anyone's presence in his home after surgery. As a result Dave had rerouting his ticket to return to the UK on the 23rd from Managua with the rest of us.

The afternoon work continued for the final countdown. Amy Hartmann and husband Joe Gordon had finally arrived to Nicaragua and taxied over from Managua, and joined Gayle and their party for some sight seeing in and about Granada. Bill in the meantime had decided to take a siesta and had gone back to his hotel room with a continued sore throat and general fatigue. Cathie and I had gone over to a near by bank a few blocks north of the Casa leaving Mitch to finalize his paintings and text. Cathie wanted to buy a tape recorder to capture the general sounds of the country during our stay as part of her college project. She also needed some more cash, which was deposited into her account the day after their departure. I too needed a bit more Cordoba, but more so, I was looking for name tag holders in some hopeful stationary shop for our delegation. The afternoon siesta begins after lunch, about 2 PM and lasts 'til about 4. The heat of the day with the 95F temperature, strong sun and coupled with stifling humidity was wrecking havoc on all of us. We all agreed that we would return from where ever to the gallery for 5 PM to finalize out evening plans. I had gone back to the hotel for an afternoon swim, change clothes, rehearse my presentation and to think about what I would say at the exhibition evening opening.

Around 5 all the artists had returned from their perspective side trips and reassembled at the gallery. Everything was finally in place, except perhaps a change of clothing for the opening. This lead time gave us all a chance to attend to our personal needs, enjoy a few beers at the internet café next door, as well as get cleaned up for the evening verinsage. Bill had also returned in the meantime from his siesta, but sat elsewhere within the gallery to finish up some e-mail regarding his research and to wait for his party to return from their outing.

Before re-joining the group, I spoke to Fernando Lopez with Erik to inform him that the IAAA would like to make a donation to the education program of the institute. I mentioned that it was my intent to announce this tonight but that the actual physical presentation would be made on Sunday before the media after my power point presentation. This would provide further opportunity to have a photo opt available. He agreed that this would be ideal for Sunday and would see to it that the press did come to this event as well. I also requested from him that I would appreciate a signed acknowledge letter from the institute for our organizational records. This he would provide for me later in the week before the exhibit ended.

By 7 PM we had all returned to the gallery, having discussed our plans for tomorrow and the week ahead. Erik had confirmed that he would be leaving to return to Costa Rica for his appointment with his surgeon in San Jose. Not long after our arrival, the public continued to come and go into the gallery to view the exhibition. The 3 by 12 feet IAAA banner was spectacular and hung outside the gallery announcing the exhibition venue. The press began to arrive and had begun to seek out Erik as our Spanish speaking spokes person. I listened to their questions and answers then asked the journalist that he make the opportunity to speak directly to Bettina Forget about her art form; Betsy Smith who had received the first place EuroMIR '95 art award and selected by the MIR cosmonauts to keep her work from 130 submissions in orbit for a year on board the MIR; and then Mitch Bentley who was an art historian who could give an explanation of the rise of this genre as well as view his digital work he had brought with him to Granada. Several artists were now enveloped with media people and interest groups about their artwork. Hand signaling, facial gestures and stranger still, vain attempts in Spanish, circled the constant trials to converse in English, UNTIL, an interpreter would arrive. Erik and a few of the gallery staff included Armand, a resident Nicaragua artist, managed to salvage the opportunities to be understood by the press.

The four walls of the inner court yard of the gallery had the public milling about, looking at the art works, discussing the various concepts they were seeing and reading of the artists' biographies and enjoying the drinks and snacks available at the service bar. I too got an opportunity to enjoy a couple of stiff glasses of dark rum and coke.

Around 8 PM, Señor Fernando Lopez drew the crowd's attention, summoned Erik and I to the podium, then asked me to round up all the IAAA artists to the front. Fernando announced opening of the week long exhibit and introduced Erik as the Workshop Coordinator. Erik spoke for a while about the genre of space art and the impact of this art upon the community. I was introduced as the president and after a brief comment on the privilege of exhibiting at the Casa, I pointed out that on Sunday there would be further media presentations in the evening by way of a power point presentation by me and Mitch Bentley. I invited them to that opportunity to see how we as artists pursue this legacy of space art. At that point I introduced each and every artist with a little summary background of their accomplishments.

Dave was introduced as our Euro-VP, an artist/writer and Rudaux Award recipient—our acknowledged and one of our 14 recognized grand masters of the genre. He has been painting since 1952 and has had a major impact of inspiration upon many members of our organization over the years. Betsy was introduced as an American artist and UPS pilot from the USA with the distinction of having had her art selected by MIR space station cosmonauts for a year sojourn in orbit during the jury part of the First International Space Art Exhibition in Orbit, a EuroMIR '95 enterprise. Bettina was introduced as an international artist currently living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and an artist who has traveled to study art in my diverse locations all over the world including Singapore. Mitch came next, introduced as an American artist who would be able to speak at length on the history of Renaissance art and the rise of space art as a genre beginning about the 17th in Italy. Finally, I apologized that Bill, our senior scientist, artist/ writer and another Rudaux Award grand master of the genre, was not present but that he would be available on Sunday for any further interviews. Bill apparently had left for supper with his wife and family when he thought the thinning of the crowd implied that the formal opening wasn't going to happen as initially planned for 7 PM.

Finally I drew the audience attention on Sunday, the IAAA would formerly present a donation of $500 to the education program of the Casa de los Tres Mundos via the Cultural Director, Fernando Lopez, to continue their superb work in providing and stimulating the cultural activities of the Granada. Fernando then thanked the IAAA artists and asked the audience to enjoy the balance of the evening.

With this formality behind us, we all left for supper around the corner passing a Thai restaurant called the Third Eye. The initial plan would take us down a street that was severely run down and filled with dilapidated structures and houses. Even this street was riddled with pot holes, telephone poles and wire that were more from the 1930s and 1940s than what we see outside in the first nations. People, families sat outside socializing while young toddlers played street games in the dark and sometimes unsupervised, or so it often appeared. The little travel eatery that we first went to was full, so we turned around and headed back up the street to the Third Eye. How wonderful it felt to sit at long last, converse and reminisce about the successful events leading up to the opening. Tomorrow our first exploratory venture into the countryside would begin.

By 10:45 we were all back at our hotel, as we would be having breakfast early at 7:30 AM in order to catch a bus to go to Masaya Volcano National Park for our first extreme adventure outside of Granada.

Next: Day 4

---

| HISTORY | HOME |

---