A Year of Fridays
Part III: March

The whole idea of First Friday is to gather as many people as possible, in one general area of the city, to experience something new. Most of the time, if you know much of anything about the art world, nothing you see is terribly earth-shattering; maybe one or two interesting pieces in a sea of thoroughly average ones. If even half of the galleries you go to are showing anything of real worth, it is an exceptional night.

But on very rare occasions, if you are lucky, you may not only experience something new, you may gain a new perspective as well. Perhaps not even in terms of art, but on your life, or the world around you. That's the power of art; not only that we may see something new, but that we may experience a whole new kind of seeing. The word for it is "revelation".

On this cold, strange First Friday, I was fortunate enough to see new things, yes. But in the long run, it is the accompanying revelation that I will value most.