Thumbelobama Fest

It was fun:  a book party (my second ever)  and a gallery opening (my first ever) and I admit I was a little nervous. But not for long. People did actually show up, not usually the ones who had said they would.  And I got to watch people from different parts and periods of my existence chatting together as though it was perfectly normal. I got to meet Io (pictured below) who loved Cinderella and couldn’t stop reading Thumbelina. She looked a lot like her mother Robin Perl who I’ve known since we were freshmen in college but only recently got back in touch with courtesy of Facebook! 

Thanks to Ariel  Danny Kaye sang about Thumbelina and Ugly ducks turning in to swans. Georgia poured, John snapped. Karen and I argued about whether John McCain was evil or weak and confused. Dean Lozow another lost Brown friend came from Minneapolis with someone I should have met in college but somehow didn’t. Did I mention people actually bought art and talked about buying MORE art and Matthew  BARTERED for it, which was magnificent, since, in addition to playing the accordian, the man  tweaks this  website and teaches blogging tricks. I signed many books with a dip pen.  Darren the framer showed up and was duly praised.  We danced, we ate, we drank. I explained how the story of Thumbelina is exactly like the life of Obama ( both didn’t quite fit in, both travelled the world, wouldn’t be pigeon-holed and with a mixture of politeness and determination became the subject of songs…) And nobody seemed particularly dumbfounded by the blinding  truth of this newsflash. Ariel in a flaming red jacket played gorgeous music from around the world about Barack Obama.  It Barracked.

Oh and I got  a chance to publicly pat  important people on the back like Anne Schwartz, Rachael Cole and Lee Wade from Random House for steadfastly midwifing the book (no small feat) and Kim Maier of the Old Stone House. That’s the summary. It was fun.  Thank you if you came.  I’m going to add just a few more pieces. I can’t stop… If you didn’t come (or even if you did) and you’d like to see the exhibit stop by  the Old Stone House (TheOldStoneHouse.org) on Fifth Ave in Park Slope Brooklyn either Sat, Sun and Tue, 4-6 pm and Thursday 4-8 or call or email about setting up another time.  (Some days it will be Tjasa or John,other days I will be there with my scissors working on silhouette portrait commissions. The exhibit is  going to stay up until January 11th. Held on by popular demand. Sort of. Be well. We did it! Barbara  >