6 Degrees of...

I believe random happenings pre-determine a patterned path. Let me illustrate:

I dated Andy, owner of The Filling Station Coffee Drive-Thru for four years. He went to Sonoma State in Santa Rosa.

I met him by being a regular customer. Our meeting happened because I wanted to see the inside of his coffee house. He invited me in. I told him it reminded me of Aroma’s coffeehouse in Santa Rosa, California. It didn’t look anything like Aroma’s. He said he used to live there and loved Aroma’s.

I went to a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book to learn how to make artist books out of polymer clay. The instructor used cut up pieces of rubber stamps to make designs in the clay.

I told Andy about the class. He told me he used to work at a Rubber Stamp factory in Santa Rosa.

I decided to do a mail art exhibit at The Empty Space. A friend of mine told me to talk to Jennifer Randall, a local artist. Jennifer put me in contact with John Held, Jr., a well-known artist stamp and mail art scholar, collector, curator and creator. John came to Bakersfield to give a lecture on Mail Art. We became friends.

John invited me to a Dada dinner in San Francisco. I met a gaggle of mail artists, including Picasso Gaglione, a mail artist and rubber stamp maker.

Not long after that visit, I came up to San Francisco to visit with my artist friend Jan Stevenson. I met her at the Polymer Clay class at the San Francisco Center for the Book Arts. I also stayed a night with John Held, Jr. who put me up at a friend’s house. John told me Joel, the owner of the house, used to own a rubberstamp factory in Santa Rosa. Andy used to work at that factory.

I recently subscribed to Timothy McSweeney’s Journal and Believer magazine. I received my first issue of Believer magazine that came with a great CD featuring “excellent bands covering excellent bands.” I played the CD at my recent Exquisite Corpse gallery opening.

The Exquisite Corpse show inspired a new project idea that involved creating artist stamps. I talked to my friend John to see if he knew someone that could help me make my first set. He introduced me to Tim Mancusi. Tim is Picasso Gaglione’s cousin.

I recently met Tim at Aroma’s Coffeehouse in Santa Rosa to discuss my artist stamp project. He lives in Santa Rosa. He told me he used to work at a local rubberstamp factory. He remembers Cesar, Andy’s co-worker, but not Andy. He makes a comment on how everyone in connected to everyone else if we only just took the time to talk to each other.

I visit with John after meeting up with Tim. We go out to dinner with his friends, Andy and Alissa, from the band Vetiver and have inexpensive sushi. I find out that they just got back from a 3 month tour of Europe. Alissa is a musician and a photographer. I invite her to participate in a show at The Empty Space Gallery. She gives me her website and contact information.

John asks if I want to check out his mail art exhibit at Linc Art gallery and an exhibition at the San Francisco Center for the Book where Picasso Gaglione’s antique rubberstamp collection is on display.

I get home from my trip and check out Alissa’s mittenmaker website and Andy and Alissa’s Vetiver website. As I’m reading their website I notice they announce that they are in a recent issue of Believer magazine.

I find out that I have been happily listening and singing along to their amazing footstomping cover of Michael Hurley’s “Be Kind to Me” from the Believer magazine's free CD located in the 25th issue .