Venice Is No Longer an Idea on a Calendar

September is close enough now that I can feel the difference.

Venice is no longer a sentence like, I have another exhibition coming up.

It is a room.

It is shipping.

It is original paintings that have to be prepared to travel.

It is dresses spread across workspaces while we decide what still needs another layer of paint.

It is models, jewelry, schedules, flights, messages across time zones, and a thousand tiny decisions no one will ever see once the doors open.

On September 17, I return to Palazzo Pisani Revedin for the Venice International Art Fair.

This time, the presentation is not only about paintings hanging on a wall.

Opening night brings the different parts of Ourea Luna into the same space: original art, hand-painted dresses, movement, a runway presentation, and live painting.

Afterward, the dresses will remain with the paintings on mannequins so visitors can see the conversation between the canvas and what the artwork can become when it moves beyond it.

That idea still gets me.

Because not very long ago, so much of this existed only in my head.

Now there are people attached to the plans.

There is a room booked.

There are paintings chosen.

There are dresses becoming.

There are shipping numbers and deadlines and things that still need to be paid for and figured out.

The romantic version of the dream and the logistical version of the dream are now living in the same house.

And I think that is how I know it is real.

My exhibition week runs through September 24.

That final day also happens to be my birthday.

I do not know yet what that day will feel like.

Maybe that is part of the beauty of it.

I do not need to know the ending before I arrive.

Right now, I only need to keep making the next piece ready.

— Patricia Graham
International Contemporary Artist
Founder of Ourea Luna