ADRIAN PIPER: Painted a set of clothing with sticky white paint with a sign attached saying "WET PAINT", then went shopping at Macy's for some gloves and sunglasses.
NANCY DOUTHEY: Painted a set of clothing with sticky white paint with a sign attached saying "WET PAINT", then went shopping at Macy's for some gloves and sunglasses.
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WET PAINT. Dries faster than I thought.
People. They noticed. They looked. They talked. They stared. They questioned. They wondered. They laughed. They smirked. They whispered. They avoided. They turned away. They looked back. They thought.
I walked many many blocks, before arriving to Macy's to shop for sunglasses and gloves. I thought I might not make it in the door. WRONG. At that point I had to focus again on the moment reminding myself to let go of expectations, preconceived notions of what might happen because in no way would any thing that I could play out in my mind be what in this real moment be. I let go. I started in my search for some shades. Shades I knew that I would be happy to invest in for the summer. I thought I would get some white frames, I'd wanted white frames for sometime now and thought this was the perfect day to get them. Well it became the perfect day to purchase them when I was graciously helped by Michelle. She approached me slowly from behind, completely at ease, and rounded in front of me as to help adjust the mirror for me to pick from the hundreds of options. She noticed I had white frames out and worked from there. She talked about the shape of my face being square and that I needed to stay away from the strong angles of a square shaped frame. We continued for ten to fifteen minutes, but I may have rushed it as to not be a complete obsessive and annoying indecisive buyer...I bought. I am happy to be able to say this as it makes me nervous just to write it. Is this something that is normal in my behavior? I would say in some ways yes, and in many ways no. At this moment was I thinking of Julia's time, was she ready to stop taking photographs? I quickly reminded myself to relax, I am here to experience this and Julia is part of that and is also willing. Focus. Be. As I approached the check out counter Michelle cleaned my glasses and casually asked me what my sign was about, was I an artist? I answered her with an explanation about what I was doing and that there was a history of this work by Adrian Piper. I said no more about it as she replied with "I wish I was creative." I asked her what she enjoyed doing and she talked about her singing in church. I told her I also sang growing up in my grandmother's church. We talked about music and how it was an artistic form, and that she should keep singing. I thought, I should keep singing. Her story reminded me of part of my own history. We had connected long before this story. We were both very comfortable in our interactions prior to this moment. I did not think of her as a hard sales person, but she was doing her job. She made me feel at ease, she accepted me quickly, she did not avoid or reject me in anyway. For that moment she wanted to know me better and in that moment I had a chance to get to know her.
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