The only thing of value I accomplished today was to nail down the layout of the invitation for the backers audition. Some of that was creative, in that I used ArtRage to sketch out a good-looking sunflower to screen in behind the invitation. But the stem and flowers were really crappy looking, no matter what tool I used. The other problem was that ArtRage doesn’t seem to export transparency, even though that’s what the little checkerboards stand for in its layers.

I lost patience and used clip art instead, manipulating it in Illustrator. It doesn’t look bad at all, especially at 35% opacity behind the text. So that’s done. If only my Epson 1520 still responded to my Intel MacBook. Don’t know what that’s about, and I didn’t have time to figure it out. I’ll print it out on the big printer at school on Monday.

Most of the day we spent in Atlanta. We got tickets to the 2:00 admission of the new Louvre exhibit at the High Museum, and drove up for that. This was a special event, because I had emailed all the people on my “we need to get together” list, Atlanta edition, and suggested we do the High then go out for drinks and dinner.

The Louvre exhibit was gorgeous, as usual, and for me, exhausting: any single object (and these were decorative things) in the exhibit represents more concentrated design and execution that I can imagine. One caveat for everyone: as the Louvre exhibit changes, be aware that only the second floor changes. The first floor is still the display of busts, and the third floor is still the paintings collected by the three Louis’s. A bit of a rip-off, but if you know that going in, I think most of us can deal with it.

We made it to some of the other exhibits this time, including a “Romantic Vision” exhibit of drawings from the Romantic period, and yes, there was one William Blake in the exhibit. Not a very outstanding one, but there it was.

Drinks and dinner were fabulous fun. Carol Rogers “Roget” Reiser, whom I don’t think I’ve seen in 30 years, was there, and we had a good time catching up. Stella Lang and her husband Charlie came for drinks, but then had to skip out for a gala in support of the Museum of Contemporary Art. They were in good spirits. And Rick and Rebecca Rakosczy joined us for drinks and dinner, and we had a good time sharing clueless-college-age-children stories.

All in all a good evening. I feel sure that I shall absolutely without question get Make Way finished tomorrow. I just know it.