Things have been insane. I’m sorry it has taken me a moment to get this post up, but….
Where do I begin? First of all, thank you to all my friends. Before I flew out to NC last week, I practically had a nervous breakdown. I’m not even kidding. I didn’t realize how much stress would be involved with orchestrating a show of this size. If I truly knew what I was doing, or getting myself into, I would have been prepared for the amount of pressure I would endure. Experience point: +7. So yes, thank you to my brother and all my dear friends. Last week, when I was ready to quit, I got a call from Shane. He asked me if I was excited about heading out to NC. Honestly, I wasn’t. I was frustrated with so much. He reminded me of an important fact about life. That it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. I quickly felt my eyes fill with water. It was a pivotal moment in my week / year. He was absolutely right and to make it worse, I am aware of the life lesson and I have over looked it so many times over the year. WTF… So please, bust out a piece of paper and write: “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” Damn it I am an idiot sometimes. I quickly put things in perspective and started enjoying the brutal nature of the beast. My friends are brilliant – thank you for your thoughts, phone calls, e-mails, text messages and support. I would have never been able to produce this show without you. I push myself to be better because of you, I question everything because of you, I live because of you. I’d like to give a special thanks to Mr. Page. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you dude. You have always been a huge influence in everything I do. I appreciate you and all your help. Plus your tunes were extra sick on Friday night. Thank you. Coco, thank you for being so rad. Kamie, thank you for flying out from AZ and being there, it made a huge difference. Thank you ladies. Eric-with a K-Saunders, you’re the man. It simply would have not been the same without you. Also, thanks to those cats at Wootini: Casey and Mike, I’m glad we were able to bring it all together. Thank you – thank you – thank you.

The show was a success. There really isn’t much more that I can say. Each of the artists were extremely kind and have been a joy to work with. I never imagined that I would be hanging original Morning Breath, Andy Mueller, Brian Flynn, Andrew Pommier, Ethan Anderson or Dustin Koop work, but I did. I never thought I would be associated with these dudes. They are amazing. AMAZING. Thank you guys. This is just the beginning. It all starts in the next few weeks. I’m taking a week to decompress, (probably not, but I like to think I will) and will hit the ground running again. Watch and see.

I’ve decided NOT to publish photos of the actual work – if you really want to see it, you should go over to Wootini – or be in Tulsa June 6th for one great big party @ Artifacts followed by a special LFP party at Tiny Lounge. Boosh.

*duane fernandez