Kismet, Karma and Google Maps

I recently pointed out to David that he has been falling down on the Flog.  Just because he spent the last few months traveling, opening an art gallery, convalescing from a nasty cold, moving into a new home (which involved consolidating three households), entertaining visiting friends and relatives, relapsing and re-convalescing from the nasty cold, attempting to ascertain how unpacked boxes in the garage  seem to propagate and failing miserably at reining in his entrepreneurial tendencies (investing in at least two other businesses that I know of), doesn’t mean he should abandon the all important Flog. 

After all, there are dozen(s?) of you faithful Flog-ites who have been waiting in breathless anticipation for David’s next observations.  Well, I have taken matters into my own keyboard.  I have had to put my editing axe…uh…pen down to step into the role of High Priestess of the Art Gallery, but unlike that slacker David, I can multi-task. 

What about David’s travels, you are wondering?  Keep wondering … that’s a Flog for another day.  Today, I will tell you of The Eye of the Beholder … David’s new art gallery near Old Town Scottsdale (5^th Avenue and Marshall Way).   The Eye, was born of a combination of David’s desire to display the portion of his massive art collection that would not fit on the walls of his home and some dumb luck in acquiring an ideal gallery space in an ideal location with ideal terms.

It began with a bag of small petrified wood pieces purchased at the lone retail establishment at Ft. Courage (somewhere along the I-40 between New Mexico and Arizona).  I’d given them to my jewelry designing mother who decided to drill holes in them.  Thus began the search for drill bits that would cut thru petrified wood.  Mom handed me a bead magazine and pointed to an advertisement in the back for Diamond Drilling (or something like that).  I called the number which was disconnected, then noticed the magazine was five years old.     I Googled the company name and found a current number which was answered by a gentleman named Elliot.  He indicated he was no longer in the bead business, but after explaining what I was looking for, invited us down to his office.

We went, and got the grand tour of Elliot’s ginormous, un-named office building which housed his collection of collections (he collects everything).  Two hours later, we left with a set of hollow, diamond edged drill bits. 

Fast-forward six months.   David is in Old Town Scottsdale taking a look at a retail space that a friend has mentioned is for lease.  David doesn’t think too much of the space but continues looking around the neighborhood.  He comes across a vacant, dusty windowed building on Marshall Way and takes a photo of the “for sale” sign in the window.   When he shows it to me, I tell him I think I recognize the name and tell him about Elliot.  The phone number on the sign is disconnected and I couldn’t remember the name of Elliot’s business, but I remembered where the building was.  I Google-mapped it and came up with a business name (but no phone number), and give the info to David. 

A few weeks later, David calls me as he is leaving a hospice facility where he has been visiting a friend … which happens to be directly across the street from Elliot’s building.  David goes to the building and three hours later emerges with a new best friend – Elliot.  Two weeks later, we have a short term lease on the Marshall Way building and we are officially in the Art Gallery Business.  We have a Gallery High Priestess (me), a Gallery Master (Kris – although I tried to sell him on “Gallerina”) and Schlepper (David).    

Oh, and we have some art.   For sale.  Stop by, visit us on the web, or call us … we almost certainly have something you can’t live without (Eye of the Beholder).  You can thank me in person for updating The Flog.

Regards,

Mean Eileen, Editing Queen and High Priestess of the Gallery

Eye of the Beholder   4251 N Marshall Way  Scottsdale, AZ  85251