Devon Hunter

I haven’t been blogging much for a few months. I know that. And there’s  no reason, except that I just haven’t wanted to. Something happened a couple months ago, and I felt that I was tired of sharing. I think it was around the time of the Grabby’s. But, be that as it may, this weekend in Chicago has been very up and down, but it has ended on a very, very positive note. That is what I want to share.

To say that flakes and no-shows are discouraging/infuriating is an understatement; however, I did get to spend time with my friend J.P. Barnaby, I experienced the ENO platter at the Intercontinental Hotel, and I met Meghann. Last night was one of those nights where I felt like nothing I did was to any avail – it just wasn’t going to work out with this appointment, no matter how much I tried to be accommodating. That on top of my entire itinerary falling apart made for some frustration and self-doubt that I had to work against internalizing. I succeeded for the most part, and it’s because of the reminders that flashed up from time to time that everything is temporary. August, 2011 will shortly be in the books, and September will be so much better.

At any rate, when I finally gave up on this client it was nearly midnight. I was STARVING. We were supposed to meet at 11, he moved it to 9, then back to 11, then was an hour late, then at 11:45 said he wasn’t coming at all. I’d gotten ready at 8 pm, so four hours later I was bored, hungry, and irritated… and just about everything was closed. I was wandering around, trying to find some place that still served food, and then I saw it: TGI Friday. Oh, fuck my life… Really?? This is all there is?

Well, I’m glad I went in. TGI Friday likes to sell itself as being always in the festive Friday spirit. And, for me last night, it turned out to be exactly the encounter I needed. Meghann came over, and despite the late hour, was very kind and energetic. When she asked what I wanted to drink, I said, “Girl, it’s been a tough day.”

“Oh! Well… here is the drink list.” LOL Awesome. I selected a red wine, and the Michael Jackson song “I Wanna Be Where You Are” came on. Meghann saw how much I perked up to that. She went over to the juke box and said she had a surprise for me. I managed to find something healthy on the menu, and as I was jammin’ to Lady Gaga, Nirvana, and some other hits she peaked around the corner and said, “These next two are for you.”

OMG!!!

She set me up with “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Smooth Criminal.” No. She. Didn’t. YES SHE DID! LOL That was it. I was done. She came over and we had a nice time singing and laughing to the jamz. I showed her my mad skills, all while eating the broccoli that my superhero powers had transformed into chocolate (transubstantiation is just another of my mutant abilities), and we had a GOOD TIME. Just like Friday is supposed to be. And she did this specifically because she knew I needed it. That is so amazing to me.

So, if you are ever in Chicago, you simply must go to the TGI Friday in Magnificent Mile. Ask for Meghann. She is a beautiful person, and she will put some Friday in your life. Her willingness to play with me completely eradicated all that frustration and self-doubt. September will be better. Today is better. Last night was better. Thank you, Meghann!

I absolutely LOVE Chicago! What a wonderful city – no wonder I have consistently heard such nice comments about it. The streets are clean, there is no litter to speak of, the lake is beautiful, the food is good, the shopping is excellent, the people are friendly, and I just went into the most tasteful art gallery I have ever seen. The artists there are just spectacular. If you get a chance, you really must visit Atlas Galleries at 535 N Michigan Avenue. (Click images to enlarge them.)

I was walking back from breakfast, and saw a gallery window above me on a bridge. Out of curiosity I went upstairs and landed smack dab in the middle of Magnificent Mile (and it is aptly named!). The sculptures and canvases on display were fantastic; however, between two columns my retinas were seared by the most intensely monocrhomatic red painting I’d ever seen. I was instantly enthralled and felt compelled to get a closer look.

The canvas was overwhelming in person. I started crying. I know: That’s gay… but I’m an artist, and I get very emotional when I am in the presence of brilliance. The paint had been applied very thickly in lush layers of comingling reds, crimsons, and burgundies, accented with razor thin lemony yellow crests on the frozen waves of sanguine oils. It looked to be slathered on like icing on a cake. And this is what is even more impressive: It was a still life. “Just” some flowers. How many fucking times can someone do flowers??? But this artist managed to breathe life and movement into her flowers – I looked around and she had done LOTS of landscapes and flowers, and ALL of them looked to be moving, breathing, and glowing in the light of whatever seasonal sun was captured.

JalinePol W creates masterworks. The textures and colors are vibrant, and it’s impressive that she can create so much depth with such gross swipes of a trowel… But this is where it gets even better: She has perfected a technique of blending colors on her knife so that they bleed into each other without completely mixing. This creates a gradient effect that lets one color exhale into the next. I can only guess that she uses different thicknesses of paints to allow some colors to rest on top of others in order to create the various transparent dissolves that make her flowers look (despite the heavy coats of thick paint) to seem light, airy, and translucent.

She is a genius! I would cover the walls of my home in her work. You really MUST find her pieces. They are mesmerizing in the way they convey tranquility and desparate “aliveness” at the same moment. You could bite into her succulent canvases, and they would erupt or spurt with creative juices. Just marvelous. Stunning. My iPhone cannot possibly do them justice.