Dear Darren,
I hope this email finds you well and happy.
I write in the hopes that you can come to my art show in NYC on Wednesday, January 17, 2018. It’s important to me to extend this invitation to you personally for a couple of reasons.
You were one of the first friends I made in the NY art world when I moved from LA to NYC in 2007. I cared so much about feeling included in this foreign, abstract world that was always a mystery to me while I lived in Los Angeles. In New York, everyone seemed to know one another and help each other to get shows and be successful. In LA, I always wondered why this was not happening for me. But when I arrived in NYC you took me under your wing and introduced me to your friends and colleagues. Rikrit, Gavin, Uri, and so on and so forth. You even helped me convince Gavin to run a printing press in the back of Passerby even though it was on its way out. You never asked me for anything in return, I always remembered that.
While trying to get my footing in NY, I met lots of people; some nice, some not so nice. What’s the expression? The art world attracts some of the world's finest people and some of its worst. I met both. While my time in the NYC art world proved successful in many respects, I still never felt like I belonged.
Then, Darren, something happened to me. I left NYC and stopped caring. I feel like I finally understood why you never swayed one way or another. Why things could roll off your back. You were stable and took care of yourself and didn’t need a group to validate you and your work. You knew that praise from “them" can come and go, and it didn’t really matter when it did because it was always moving. Achieving the ability to be comfortable within that uncertainty was your strength, and for the first time, I found myself understanding it too.
So now, with my show opening, and as a fellow artist, I want to say thank you, Darren. Thank you for extending your hand to me when I needed it, and for letting me learn lessons when I was ready to learn them.
Again I hope you can see my art, and let me know what you think of it. The Show will be at Harper's Apartment, 51 East 74th St., Buzz 2X.
Sincerely,
Joel
