Woke up to the Chicago skyline, a little hazy, but prospects of sunshine ahead.

Grant Park at 7am Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Navy Pier gives us its annual finger from the lake  - it’s the long arm at 3 o’clock in the pic.

But despite the prospects of sore feet, aching backs and the inevitable snafus of all art fairs, I expect we’ll have our SOFA booth set up by the end of the day.

Just in time to celebrate.

A lot of waiting.

United We Sit.

Ryan, Jamie and I set off for Chicago early this morning to set up our SOFA booth….it’s approaching afternoon. We’re still in Portland. So is our (broken) plane.

Sigh.

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A lot of Bullseye’s gallery team spent the last week on the edge of our seats.

2006 e-merge finalist Robin Provart-Kelly was battling a coven of kiln witches in order to get a piece to us in time for SOFA Chicago. After what seemed like a lifetime of hell in the hot zone, we got an email from Robin with a 20 point EUREKA and a picture of this amazing pâte de verre work.

Robin Provart-Kelly, “Bounty”, 2008. Pâte de verre and kilnformed glass. 3.5″ x 8.25″ x 8″

It’s missed our outbound SOFA truck, so it’s traveling solo to meet up with us when we get to Chicago. We’re all elated - and minus fingernails - to be able to show Robin’s work for the first time at the fair.

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We’re only a week away from SOFA Chicago. Love it or hate it, SOFA is THE event for artists and designers in our field. It’s where the most important collectors gather to spy and buy, to check out the best of contemporary glass (and other media, but let’s not get off track) and to see what’s new in the field.

An old SOFA. In 2006 we used our booth to spotlight some great talent, artists who had worked at North Lands Creative Glass.

This year we’ve dedicated the Bullseye Gallery booth to showcasing past participants in our biennial e-merge competition.

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