Put a bid on it
Auctioneers astonish and confuse me, but I stand in awe of the bidders. How can they tell what the auctioneer’s even saying? Did I just buy a bridge in Brooklyn or something? Can’t I just bid and pay?
Why, yes, yes you can,… at the Artist Trust online auction. Last time I checked the site, two people were bidding on the collage I donated for this fundraiser. In an ordinary year, the auction is Artist Trust’s main source of funding for grants and other resources artists need. Once the pandemic struck, though, Artist Trust redirected their funds into emergency cash grants for artists. You remember how dire the need was last year, don’t you? Those grants were a lifesaver for some Washington state artists.
Supporters bid on artworks at the 2019 Artist Trust auction gala. Photo credit: Andre Ruth
Usually, a live auction follows a silent auction/ cocktail party. But because of pandemic gathering restrictions, the event’s become a month-long silent auction you can attend in your pajamas. If you’re in a position to do so, please find something you like and bid on it now — and keep checking your bid. Remember, no auctioneer this year to tell you if the artwork is yours… and my collage is only going to get more expensive from here on out.
Full circle back to BONFIRE
My collage work has returned to BONFIRE Gallery, this time for a good long while!
Installation artist June Sekiguchi with collage prints by Lisa Myers Bulmash
A little backstory: At the end of 2016, gallerist William Gaylord invited me to submit work to an art fundraiser he created to support “the resistance” to the 45th president’s administration. Half the proceeds would go to the artist, half to an arts and/or social justice organization. That event became “ARTRUMPS: Resistance and Action” in spring 2017.
When one of the original collages sold at the reception, that allowed Bill and me to donate to the Equal Justice Initiative. This month, Bill continued his support of my work: he bought prints of the original ARTRUMPS collages and had them framed. And now they live in the gallery.
BONFIRE gallerist Bill Gaylord points to his framed prints by Lisa Myers Bulmash
I’m happy to say I’m not the only artist Bill’s helped. During the worst of the 2020 pandemic lockdown, the gallery closed, like every other gathering space. Since he couldn’t do business as usual, Bill occasionally lent the gallery to artists who needed a larger, temporary studio space. Cool, huh?
My artwork is often very personal, but it’s also work work; I make things for myself and strangers. I’m glad to let them go to an art collector. They buy my art, every day it keeps speaking to them about something important, I have more studio space to make more art, and then a new piece speaks to another collector. Repeat as needed. It’s the circle of (an artist’s) life.
Living in the eternal present
Do you think Albert Einstein unintentionally warned us about how much quarantine sucks, even though he was talking about living in the moment? “Life is a preparation for the future, and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”
It sure feels like we’re living in a Never-ending Now. I go to the studio, but it’s all I can do to complete just one task. It wasn’t until this morning that I remembered something due to happen in the future: I’m expecting a new collector to send me the final installment payment for the “Blue-Rare” collage.
I sent the first invoice at the end of December 2019, and I’m immensely grateful for the payments. But right now something else is more important to me: this collage ties me to a past, present and future. Time is moving forward. Glacially, but still moving. So maybe there will be a day when the COVID-19 quarantine ends… maybe?