We're always caught between yesterday and tomorrow, there's nowhere else to be. But sometimes, like now, that awareness is more acute. Saturday is the grand opening celebration of
Artasia's new space at 181 N. Broadway, and my mind keeps wandering to the beginning. If our son
Eli hadn't washed dishes at William Ho's on Oakland Avenue in the early 80's, would he have lived in Asia, married Pauline, had four children, opened Artasia?
Bill Ho's brother was about to open up a language school in Taipei and offered Eli and his friends jobs teaching English. So Eli, John L, and Mike R all moved to Taiwan! Adolph, Sarah, Joshua, and I visited him there a few months later, then the five of us, CHINA SURVIVAL KIT in hand, meandered around, off the beaten path
in China.Eventually Eli married
Pauline, whom he met in Taipei. Their first step towards Artasia was selling Chinese rubbings at the Someplace Else Fair. And now it's Artasia Gallery and Museum, 12,000 square feet of art, crafts, furniture, altars, musical instruments, a collection of Buddhas that scholars come from all over to study, everything imaginable from China, Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia.
Okay, I'm the mother and somewhat partial. Being the mother also gives me an inside track, for I've tagged along with Eli, still off the beaten path, as he seeks out artisan workshops in his quest for whatever is unique and beautiful.
And Saturday, November 11, will be your inside track. The party's from 3 to 11 at 181 N. Broadway in the Third Ward. You can also get a sneak preview of Rosenblatt Gallery, right above Artasia. We'll have an opening party especially for our gallery once we've worked out the details, but
Adolph already has about forty years worth of sculpture set up there, and
I have a few of my paintings, drawings, and prints from the 60's, 70's, and 80's.
