The End of a 3 1/2 Year Saga

I sit solemnly at a desk of a white washed gallery, looking over bookkeeping and receipts as I have done since January 2007. It is my last hour as prisoner within these somber walls. I look back at all of the memories and the things I have learned. Often have I felt oppressed and cruelly treated, but alas, it took me over three years to leave. I have learned an immense amount about the art world and have had incredible opportunities to run an art fair in Miami Beach and to understand how the gallery market works.

I have made life-long friends and have buffered my resume with incredible qualifications. I have seen how artists are treated and learned how they should act and how to get a show, which will be very beneficial to my future. I have learned how to take care of artwork and how to hang a show, how to do my own taxes and how to ship and handle artworks. I have learned how to talk to clients and how to price my own work. I am thankful for all of the experiences I have had and will carry them with me for the rest of my life.

As I collect my belongings, scuffed and cracked with overuse, I feel at once a sense of dread and an immeasurable lightness. Soon after starting at the George Billis Gallery, I began a novel about my experiences starting out as an intern. The crazy tasks I had to do and the entertaining characters that strolled through our doors. I spent hours scribbling down my stories and reading them aloud to Tamar and Nicole when I came in to work. My writing was immature and goofy then, but I am still very fond of those hand written books. They contained my frustrations and my joys upon first entering the art world. I think about them in my last hours here, wondering how I would have completed those chapters, had I not lost the books. I would have written about crazy artists and "spiritualizing" the gallery to get better sales.

To mark my last days here, I brought in a cake from Billy's that I had inscribed with "Chief Daris Silky Smooz is out!!!". My friends here started calling me that after the number of impromptu spiritual cleanings I had to do of the galleries. I am still unsure why I was the chosen spiritual leader, as I don't believe in the whole mess, but alas, I got to dress up in silly costumes and parade around throwing water and scratching the floor with sticks.

I have seen so many people come and go in my time at the gallery, and find that I am the longest running employee to quit so far. I wonder if I will be missed, as there doesn't seem to be any kind of good-bye planned. Alas, if you are not appreciated for three and a half years, what makes you think you will be appreciated in the last 20 minutes.

I am taking "magic lucky powder" (a vial of burnt sienna) with me.