A Day in the Ozone

Morning on the bayfront is awake and alive way before coffee has animated most folks. The commercial fishing boats are coming in and out, factory workers have been canning all night long, businesses are preparing for the visitors of the day, and all the wildlife around watch us bustling like humans do.

I key the door to enter the warm, eastern sun heated gallery to watch the reflected ripples of the bay on the high vaulted wooden ceiling. Polishing more rocks is the order of the morning and getting to work couldn't happen fast enough with all the anticipation of opening up these beautiful presents.

The morning sun is great for seeing what's really going on inside the stones like this plume agate with marcasite. I often get here very early and when it's time to open the gallery, I put out the signage and leave the door open on beautiful days like this day. Even though there's some glitchy jazz going in the background, the sounds in and out of the gallery can be heard like the sealions barking or people coming in to have a look around. 

A strange set of noises broke the fabulous zone on the rocks and abruptly brought my attention to the fact that a pigeon had decided to come hang out INSIDE the gallery. This has happened before and birds like pigeons and seagulls seem to want to add to the paintings with some of their own paint if you catch my drift. 

Some herding and a cloth draped over a very freaked out bird later, the gallery was back to just me and the artwork. Not for long, though. Some of my favorite visitors were next on deck to drop off some killer bags and hang out.

Here's Kat and Edy, Kat makes the bags and Edy models them for mom. There's much fun to be had with Edy exploring the gallery and it's so great when kids can get the exposure and appreciation for art at such a young age. 

The day blazes by with more stone work, more fun people coming in to the gallery to chat with, play 'lets make cool art arrangements' with, and finally sending art home to happy new owners. The rewards within the gallery far exceed the funny discomforts (like an odd fish smell stuck in your nose some days). Every day is different and new just like the fabulous artwork brought in by the talented, local artists. What a cool job.