Got a little surprise recently from an organization that continually rejects my work. (LOL, such is the life of an artist who colors outside the lines and refuses to grow up..)

From the Mixed-Up Files of NOT REAL ART: An Exhibition Statement From Curator Morgan Laurens

When 12-year-old Claudia runs away from home, bored with good grades and going to bed on time, she and her brother sneak into the Museum of Modern Art and wait for everyone to leave. Keeping a low profile, the pair join school-group tours during the day and hide in bathroom stalls when the museum closes. At night, they bathe in the Met’s fountains, collect “wishing coins” for lunch money, and sleep in the museum’s fabulous collection of antique royal beds despite the heroic efforts of many a velvet rope.

One day, a sculpture by an unknown artist arrives at the museum, interrupting Claudia’s idyllic vacation from “real life” with a pressing mystery: Who carved the marble angel? Where did it come from? And why did its previous owner auction the masterpiece for a paltry $225? It’s a riddle that catapults precocious Claudia from the humdrum suburbs of her Connecticut home to the gritty, glamorous streets of New York City and back again—this time ready to “tiptoe into adulthood.”

This delicious coming-of-age mystery (which is both a who- and whydunnit) is the crux of E. L. Konigsburg’s classic children’s book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I read under the covers with a flashlight when I was about Claudia’s age. Drawing inspiration from the novel’s “top secret” title and its enduring motifs of wonder, adventure, beauty, mystery, independence, and creativity, our 11th and final exhibition of the year includes slept-on staff favorites from NOT REAL ART’s very own “mixed-up files.”

In celebration of our first year of in-house exhibitions, From the Mixed-Up Files of NOT REAL ART includes 18 works selected by staff archivist Kirsten Bengtson-Lykoudis, founder and publisher Scott “Sourdough” Powers, and yours truly, editor in chief. Countless bookish children have discovered Konigsburg’s classic novel since I first flipped its pages under my panda bear blanket as a shy sixth grader—somehow, we, like Claudia, became the unlikely heroines (or heroes) of our own stories through the magic of art and adventure. I hope this show does the same for you.

View the exhibition HERE