Gather round

Tim Gunn, people! Tim freaking Gunn!

Sigh. I heart him so.

Thus, when I heard he was going to be moderating a panel discussion at the Hirshhorn Museum Thursday night, I said "Honey, take the kid. I've got a date."

I got there at 5:45, just as they were starting to hand out the free tickets. The line didn't look that intimidating. I estimated I was maybe at about spot 75 or so. And at least half of the people in line were fellow Tim fans masquerading as art patrons.

But alas, by the time I got in the building, the coveted wristbands for the auditorium had disappeared (I smell a conspiracy! that room easily holds a couple hundred!), and I had to settle for a consolation ticket to the third floor where they would be simulcasting the presentation.

Up the escalators I trooped, but they weren't letting us up to the third floor yet, so we stopped at the second. Which is where the actual retrospective by artist Anne Truitt was. You know, the thing we were there ostensibly to see.

Now, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with modern art. There's so much that is beautiful, and yet the intellectual challenge can leave me feeling cold. So my first encounter with the works in the exhibit was the typical first-layer understanding of "Hey look, there's some wooden columns painted colors." (The subtext being, as with any modern art experience, "I could do that.")

I reached the end of the exhibit, where there's a film of the artist playing, and as I stood there I realized, "Hey, that's Tim Gunn standing there!" (Subtext: Squee!)

Then it became clear that he had just entered the exhibit and was walking through it before the panel was going to begin. So I, like an increasingly larger crowd of others, walked through the exhibit behind him, pretending not to notice, and carefully examining the artwork while surreptitiously peeking at him, and then catching glances of each other, at which point we'd do a little eye-contact high five.

At which point I realized I'd brought a camera for just such a photographic possibility, so I quietly pulled it out, turned off the flash and began taking pictures of the exhibit. Which just so happened to include La Gunn from time to time. What? He was standing there.

So of course the best picture I got of him all night was the one above, where I accidentally (and red-facedly) left the flash on.

(Oh, and the panel discussion turned out to be fascinating and I learned about a remarkable artist and the ideas behind her works and creation. So maybe I couldn't do what she did after all.)