One year ago today @joeyldotcom shows up at my office, camera in hand.
The first thing he says: "I don't know who won."
We spend the next hours meandering the halls. We talked, he filmed, I sweat.
Don't get me wrong, Joey was cheering for me, and I appreciated him for it. I also felt he knew he'd get something good on camera, win or lose.
The call comes in. It's @SamSpratt. Joey is behind me, camera locked in.
The first thing Sam says isn't about the words. I forget them. It is the tone. Fack. It wasn't to be. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe Sam enjoys a subtle misdirection.
The next line was a 180. "You won."
The call spills out into the hallways, and we chat a bit. He talks about the day being a blur. Something about an institution. Of course that would go on to be a months-long exhibition at the @ToledoMuseum, where all of the Masks gathered, and the Joey Lawrence documentary debuted.
It feels absurd to me that a year has passed since this day, but as you well know, time is a fickle beast.
'The Mask of Creation' is a special one. Yes, it is a prize, a finish line of sorts. It is also a beginning. Raw and unadorned. Its gaze is a prompt, and that is what inspires me about it today. Choose your own adventure.
Whatever that is, someone wise once told me: "This can be real."
