A FRIENDSHIP BEGINS...

How do Friendships begin? What type of chemistry is involved in a Friendship and what does it take to keep one going, like ours, for 24 years? Just what is involved in being a friend to someone, rather than just being friendly towards another person? What must one do to maintain that friendship over a long period of time, and what should they tolerate or not tolerate from a friend? Just what ingredients does it take to hold a friendship together? There are some people who complain that they don't have any friends, and that's a sad statement to make.

Me, I have many friends, some going all the way back to when I was a young man. My boyhood friends have all passed away, but these others are still going strong.

This is going to be a continuing discussion on my part, perhaps go on for a long time, then again, perhaps not. For, as you know, life is terminal...for everyone. Closing in on 80 as I am, one is well aware of it, and one does a lot of thinking about the purpose of life, their accomplishments in life, and when that day will finally be here. How will I meet it? How will I be remembered?


Above, me and Andre Andreoli, one of the most sincere and conscientious men (and artists) I have ever known. It might even be said he seemed a bit nutty at times, but artists have that time-honored privilege to be so. Three times he drove all the way down from Santa Rosa to visit me and discuss his relationship with Simic Galleries. I even have letters from him, and I always reassured him and helped patch things up.

TOMORROW
Tomorrow is always the magical day,
Yet, Tomorrow's a day that may never come.
Tomorrow might only be hours away,
But there's no guarantee for anyone.

And, there, in the first verse of my poem, it tells the story. At my age, and also at your age, things can change in the flicker of an eyelash. Whether age 10, 40, or 80, no one has a guarantee of Tomorrow. What would we be in life or do in life if we did not have friends?

You, by the way, have a rare gift, a personality that attracts people, a smile (distinctively gap-toothed) that captivates people immediately, and a self-assurance that imparts a feeling of trust to others you meet, as happened when we met in Los Angeles about 24 years ago. You walked into my gallery and I took a liking to you immediately, the beginning of a business and personal relationship that has continued o'er these years...until now. I've always followed my compass heading, true North, but what about yours?

So, give a thought to those first few dinners we had together in the Burbank area, Serbian cooking, I believe it was, and our conversations then. Of course, you weren't driving a Mercedes SUV at that time, either. It was just a dream, a vision, that would begin in Carmel a couple of months later. We became good friends, and as you know, whenever you called upon me in the name of friendship, I came to your aid. Somoe of these incidents I'll be writing about as I go along.

I think it was the summer of 1980 that we had those dinners together, but am not sure. I do, however, have a few file folders of letters that go back over the years and can check up on it, perhaps right to the day. I just like to make sure that what I write is correct, the truth.






Here's another picture that should bring back memories.



Free Hit Counter