Part 2 on SEMVA - Magic

Our gallery is located right downtown in Rochester Minnesota. It’s in what people call the “Peace Plaza”. It’s a large courtyard surrounded by many shops and one of the most unusual Barnes and Nobles book stores which is housed in an old movie theater. This summer was marked by the completion of a major renovation project to the courtyard itself. That night there was a good deal of commotion surrounding the reinstallation of a fountain that was taken down at the start of the renovation and was being reinstalled (this time it was moved right in front of our gallery!).

An elderly woman rode into our shop on one of those three wheel mobility chairs. She was dressed very “artsy” and she was so thrilled to have found SEMVA. She said she had lived here for 20 years (just a few blocks away) and never knew we were here. She looked at some of the clothing our artists make and jewelry but mostly she and I talked. She described the evening as magical. Finding our shop was a thrill for her. Our doors were open, the summer air and music moved wonderfully through the shop and there were cranes and workers and news stations outside the door attending to the reinstallation of the fountain.

I finally asked if she was an artist herself (she dressed like one) – she said no, not any more. But there was a time 30 years ago when she lived in New York City that she studied sculpture with a master. She went on and on about this gentlemen who used a 12th century technique in bronze. She was so sure that if she could only remember his name I would have heard of him. The only damper to the magic of this evening was that she appeared very stressed that her memory would simply not give up the name.

At that point the fountain installation had reached its peak. The fountain is, itself, a bronze. It has doves flying up together and the water comes out of the top. I think the term Peace Plaza may have come from this fountain. I felt it was a compassionate diversion to point her attention to the activity outside since the name wouldn’t come. I was also interested in watching the installation myself. She was very interested and said; yes I think I’ve taken up too much of your time already, thanks for the wonderful conversation (she was there for nearly an hour). She assured us she’d be coming back regularly to the gallery and she quickly joined the crowd outside the door.

There were hundreds of people filling the plaza from local news crews to diners to people there just to watch. I think that it had been down for two years or so during the renovation. With the war and all it was an emotional moment.

The artist who designed the sculpture flew in from New York City for one evening to supervise the reinstallation of the fountain. His name is Charles Gagnon it was her old instructor and she quickly met up with him. She came back into the store so excited to share his name and to let us know that he was out there and that she got to talk to him again. Pretty magical evening indeed.

I weighed 231.4 today