SOMEONE GRABBED MY ASS AT THE AWOL SQUARE FOOT SHOW and

Ya. You heard me!
As you may know (cause I have been relentlessly tweeting and blogging about it) I am part of the AWOL Square Foot Exhibition this year (for the first time in 7 years)!
Now, the art community in Toronto is actually strangely small......a couple of years ago at The Artist Project I was across from AWOL Gallery. We spent the weekend commiserating and kvetching....it was fun! So I thought 'why not' do the show this year??? It could be fun!
BUT THEN TRAGEDY STUCK!!!
Ok....so here's the story.....
On Monday I got an email from the lovely people at AWOL telling me that the toy donkey from my art piece walked away! I couldn't believe it!! 

I mean...COME ONE.......anytime someone has touched my ass, I have usually known WHO it was.
(I said usually....stop your judging!)

Seriously, what kind of a person steals objects off an artwork?
Right then, I decided to put on my best Jessica Fletcher.....and scour the crime scene for clues!
"Rob Croxford and the Case of the Grabbed Ass." 
It was all very Miss Marple.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I give you exhibit #1:

(insert clever ass comment here)

So....after dusting for prints and using my electro-mass-spectrometer  (I learned that one on CSI)....
I found NO CLUES in the case of the ass-napping!!!!!
OK TRUTHFULLY, none of that happened.....what did happen was........I scoured the Value Villages and model stores on Tues/Wed to find a replacement.....finally after HOURS of looking I gave up.
Thankfully husband has my back (or in this case - my ass) and found a nice small ass to replace my missing one.
Then I went off to Twist Gallery (1100 Queen Street West, just west of Dovercourt) to fix my art piece.
I was IMPRESSED - it was super well hung....(you know what I mean) there was like 1500 or so pieces all hung with care...it must have taken them FOREVER to get it all up!!
Anyways, it took me a while to find 'Audacity' 
(No, the irony of someone taking a chunk from a painting called 'audacity' is not lost on me!)
Here's why it took so long to find my art pieces:

YEOWSA! That's a lot of art!

It is actually a great way to get VERY AFFORDABLE art. 
At $225, you can get an original from some great toronto artists including:
Randy Hryhorczuk
Cindy Scaife
Kelly Grace
Stewart Jones
Laurie DeCamillis
Brian Harvey
as well as a bunch of the AWOL artists like..
Pamela Rosales and Paul Robert Turner
Oh and yes..there are about 550 OTHER artists across every discipline there too!!!
CRAZY!!
Here are a few more photos from the show:

(Find mine.....win a shiny quarter.)

Buyers? Artists? ASS GRABBERS??
(they look suspicious)

Photo reconnaissance for future stealing - or harmless photographing?
You be the judge!

This piece of mine was sold! HUZZAH!!

Love the cotton candy!!!!

So, as you can see it is quite an exhibition. Well worth a look-see!
Give yourself at least an hour to look!
Here are the deets again:

The 10th annual original Square Foot Show runs until Sunday August 19th, 2012 at Twist Gallery, 1100 Queen Street West, Toronto. GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday - Saturday 12-7pm & Sunday 12-5pm 

That gives you a couple weeks to check it out! 
Go and buy a very reasonably priced artwork!!
For me, I learned a powerful lesson from this whole thing:
Make sure you cover your ass! 
;-p