Mikey Welsh / Michael Hoffee

As Mikey talked, it all sounded so simple. "John, how you doin'?", he asked. I was standing in a ticket line with Mrs. Outsiderart at Bush International Airport waiting to see if I would be able to fly home. I was real glad to hear Mikey's voice. "I'm doin' good, Mikey", I said, "I miss you." Mikey and I haven't met but I talk or write to him whenever I can. It's good for me. "Yeah, I miss you too. Hey, I got some good news for you", Mikey said. "Me and Michael Hoffee did a collaboration for you. I think you're gonna like it. It's finished so I just need your address again man." Everything after that hazes up. My mind went blank, the itch rested just above my skin and I could feel my heart straining to move around my body. As Mikey talked on, described how Michael Hoffee initially reached Mikey with the idea, I thought of the colors bashing against each other but finally finding a resting place. I imagined towering figures blazing with ideas from opposite ends of the country, Mikey in New England and Michael out on the West Coast. I thought of the pieces from these two already in my collection and wondered how me. Two days later, at home, I got the box and unfolded the canvas. And unfolded. And unfolded. Sixty-two inches by seventy-four inches. I'm still looking for the right words to say thanks. Unbelievable.

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