Opening Night Scrapbook

Who says art openings are stuffy? We had a wonderful time last night. About 40 people joined us and shared in this exciting milestone with me. Here's our friend Megan Cabral and her mother Ferris, who we met for the first time, chatting with fellow artist Paloma and Paolo, Megan's husband.

Many friends came. Here are fellow artists Pat Pauly, Nancy Murty and her husband Paul who got the supreme honor of getting their photograph taken with The Artist.

Here are fellow friends and members from our RAFA group, Rochester Area Fiber Artists. From left to right are Jeanne Simpson, Pat Berardi, Barb Seils and Marcia DeCamp.

There's my incredible husband in the dark blue shirt serving as bartender. He certainly should win an award for all the work he did to help make this exhibit so successful.

Janet Berlo, left, is the author of numerous books, a professor of art history at U of R and a truly special and talented friend. She's chatting with Randall Cook, a textile artist in Rochester who I met for the first time last night. On the right is Heather Layton, who teaches art at the university and is the director of the gallery. She arranged for me to exhibit there after Janet recommended my work to her.

This Pages piece got LOTS of attention-- a university committee will be meeting within the next two weeks to decide whether to purchase it for their collection and exhibit it in the Gleason Library! I feel honored to be considered and am excited at the prospect of my work being part of a private university collection.

Joy Duskin, another artist friend, stopped by and so did Anais Salibian, an amazing writer; both signed my guest book. I didn't have time to read the comments last night so will look forward to reading them all when the exhibit ends.

The credit for all these terrific photographs goes to my stepdaughter Jackie, above, with her husband Jim.

Here's my dear husband and me together at the end, a bit punchy and tired but definitely delighted at how much fun it is to host an opening! The lovely flowers on the left were a gift from Janet and her husband Bradley.

Many thanks to everyone who came -- it was everything I could have hoped for from beginning to end -- and to many friends who couldn't be there but who sent best wishes and congratulations via e-mail. It is magnificent to have the support of friends, family and fellow artists.