Max Ferguson

About a year ago, March 2009, I was at the newly opened Simon Sips. Espresso. Double Cream Cake. Afternoon newspaper.

Simon Sips is no longer there, having been replaced by Bluebird Coffee Shop. But on that afternoon I just happened to be sitting next to a man with a manual camera. He was having coffee with a woman. He snapped two shots, pointed the camera at me and snapped another.

"I hope you don't mind," he said. I nodded, no I don't mind. And then turned back to the paper. He spoke again, "I'm a painter." We had a brief conversation, exchanged information and that was that. I went home and Googled him (of course ;). The man turned out to be Max Ferguson - I knew the name was oddly familiar! I had seen his work in various publications in the past. Tiny, tiny world.

March turned to April turned to summer and then fall and winter.

One day I received a voicemail. It was Max. "I have a painting of you to be exhibited in Gallery Henoch. It needs to be varnished, almost completed. But let's meet up and I can show you what I have thus far."

We met in the lobby of a Chelsea building. So strange, meeting up with a someone I had seen just once before, almost a year ago. Max had the painting with him, the one pictured at the top of this post. I remember that day at Simon Sips quite well. Afternoon cake (you can see the Double Cream Cake in the piece!) followed by dinner at Motorino with Eric. I did my taxes later that night too :)