I thought this was a real New York story worth sharing. On Sunday morning I got up early to do laundry. Put on my "doing laundry" clothes which consisted of baggy paints and an old tee-shirt. Headed to the laundromat around 8:30am and started loading the machines. Another customer, Diane, was talking to the proprietor and I could tell right away she was not from New York, not with her Austrailian accent :-). She noticed the picture on my tee-shirt which just happened to be a painting of Sydney Harbor by Australian artist Ken Done, quite the coincidence! Well, we started chatting about art and I mentioned that I had an exhibition of my paintings currently on view and gave her an announcement card. Diane was very enthusiastic so I mentioned that if she had time, I'd be happy to take her to the show. As she was leaving to travel back to Australia later that afternoon, she said it would be great and so we planned to go after our laundry was done. She left and I headed home once my clothes were loaded in the dryer. Forty minutes later, as I was locking my door ready to go back to pick up my clothes I heard a door close on the floor above me and someone came walking downstairs. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was none other than Diane, yet another coincidence! We were both gobsmacked. It seems she had been staying in a friend's apartment for several weeks while her friend was away. Our paths had NEVER crossed in all that time and here we were, on her last day in New York, bumping into each other on the stairway in my building. We headed off to see the exhibit and being the ardent New Yorker that I am, I pointed out various points of interest along the way, a regular tour guide. Stopped in to the gallery to see the show which is normally closed on Sundays and as we were there people came wandering in. We then proceeded to walk around midtown where I pointed out many of the buildings that had appeared in my paintings such as Alwyn Court and other points of interest. Diane got one of my giclee prints and we went over to 45th and Fifth Avenue so that she could see the actual place that had inspired the piece. A passerby asked if we wanted our photo taken as she thought we were tourists but after showing her the print, she became the excited photographer, snapping photos of us on busy Fifth Avenue. Diane is heading home to Australia with many memories and even more photos. All in all it was an unexpected and delightful meeting and one that I'm sure neither one of us will soon forget.
