Jane Seymour- New York Art Expo 2008

Although the highlight of my annual ‘trek’ to NY for the art expo has always been seeing Jane and Susan (Jane's art director) exploring Jane's new artworks and catching up with her latest projects, I was especially looking forward to the trip this year. Not only would I be reconnecting with some special friends but also meeting some new ones for the first time, among them some from Europe who had decided to join us this year just to meet Jane. Our group of six had arranged to stay at the same hotel, which became our ‘base’ for the weekend. It was instant comaraderie as soon as we met. There is something about meeting friends through a mutual hobby- in this case our appreciation of Jane and her work, that simply erases any feelings of shyness; you share something right from the start, as if you shared a secret language, a little like belonging to that secret club you were a member of as a child. It wasn’t long before we were exchanging stories and telling jokes as if we had known each other forever.

The first evening we had reservations for dinner at a nearby family style Italian restaurant. It was one I had been to years ago and had remembered as being excellent. Unfortunately my memory had not included details of the size of the meals. Carmines, serves all food on platters; diners choose from a variety of platters to share among their party. After being told by the waiter that each platter would serve around 3 people we determined that 4 entrees shared by 6 people should be just about right. Well perhaps it was a matter of perspective, or perhaps our waiter was referring to a nice ‘typical’ Italian family of 10 or so but these platters were huge; so large in fact that there literally wasn’t room for all of them on the same table! In fact when the waiter asked if we needed anything more we jokingly said, “yes, another table to put all this food on!”. The food itself was excellent from the antipasto to the veal to the ‘special’ (which we later learned meant specially priced to be MORE then anything else on the menu) but we had to fight the urge the entire time not to invite a few strangers to sit down and join us so we wouldn’t’ have to waste all the food! The walk home from the restaurant was highlighted by sudden snow flurries, which certainly to those of us from the New England area was hardly a rarity. However, when  this is the first time you’ve even seen snow, which it was for Sofia, who had come from Portugal, a few snowflakes becomes an ‘event’. What fun to see the ‘curse’ of the New England winter through her eyes. To her, snow was a wonder and suddenly to us it became a gift, a special experience to share with our new friend.

Saturday morning, found everyone in great spirits, all donning the same ‘dancing heart’ necklace designed by Jane. After laughing about Jane’s likely reaction to all of us wearing her necklace, we officially dubbed ourselves ‘the open heart’ club in her honor. Although the Javits wasn’t far from our hotel, it still wasn’t walking distance. So we hailed two cabs which were conveniently waiting right outside the hotel and set off. Ah the best laid plans. Our group arrived first at the expo center (or so we thought) although we couldn’t figure out why since the other group had been ahead of us. After waiting approximately 10 minutes with no sign of our friends though, we began to get a bit uneasy. We joked about them getting kidnapped, and though we weren’t seriously worried we couldn’t imagine what could have happened- why weren’t they there? Well again, it’s all a matter of perspective, in this case the driver's perspective; who apparently had the option of dropping you off on two levels. Our friends it turned out, had been dropped off at the upper level and were desperately searching for us not having any idea we were downstairs the entire time! Eventually they had given up and left a voicemail that they were waiting for us at Jane’s booth! Luckily, Jane’s booth was easy to find- a lot easier then our friends had been!

Jane actually arrived moments after we did, as usual, slipping in quietly, appearing right next to us with no warning. She smiled at seeing us but cautioned immediately that she couldn’t come close as she was ‘sick’. Nevertheless being Jane Seymour, she of course didn’t actually look sick, but instead quite striking in her vivid red dress, long hair flowing past her shoulders. She greeted everyone warmly and with a trace of astonishment; her eyebrow raised in that comical ‘Michaela’ way, when I introduced our European friends and announced they had come to the U.S. this weekend solely for the purpose of meeting her!

The first thing I noticed as I glanced around Jane’s booth, was that the configuration had been altered. I recalled how last year, the side which was open to traffic had been flanked by another exhibitor; who as I was later told, had become increasingly frustrated and finally angry by the steady stream of customers to Jane’s booth, who had all but ignored his offerings. Not only that, but to add insult to injury as they say, the other exhibitor had seen little but the backs of Jane’s customers the entire weekend! Presumably, the Javits organizers had dealt with the problem this year, by shielding whoever  had the booth opposite to Jane, by a partition which opened into their own ‘inner’ booth.