March Madness

Providence Art Windows officially opened last night, so I popped over to City Hall for the reception then hit the streets to check out the other windows and see how my window, just to the right of the Haven Brothers truck, looks at night.  The city was crazy with some NCAA Basketball nonsense, but once I got out of gridlock and parked my car it was easy to walk a few blocks from the beer-tent district over to the white wine and cheese part of town.

It was warm enough to feel like a summer night, and lively enough to feel like a big little city. I checked out the other art windows, then on Westminster Street I spotted the "Art for Chile" benefit silent art auction I had heard about. There was some really nice work in the gallery and I decided that I'd "spend" my prize money there, as all the proceeds go to aid the earthquake victims. I was very tempted by some of the prints and small paintings, but I then spotted a beautiful blue necklace and paid the "buy it now" price.  The only problem is I don't really feel that I've been all that charitable. The painting prize was money out of nowhere, and now I have a nice new necklace. So I'll just have to send a like amount to Haiti so I can feel a little more virtuous. But no more earthquakes.... I can't be winning prizes every month.

The auction is going on until Sunday, so stop in, buy some art and feel like a hero.

A few doors down there's a show at Craftland by Shannon Rankin. She works with maps to make elegant distillations of their symbols. It's worth checking out too.