Tim Gunn and Me At The Baltimore Book Festival
About Nancy Goldblatt:
I am a professionally trained “Personal Image Consultant,” based in Baltimore, Maryland. I call myself “The Wardrobe Wizard of Baltimore.” I specialize in working with women whose size or shape has changed or who have too many clothes and nothing to wear. I help my clients by first teaching them how to shop in their own closets. They get a wallet of their best colors and line drawings of their best styles. Most of my clients are women but I also work with men. After I work with a client they will knew what clothing to keep, and what to eliminate. They will also know what items they should get altered and how to fill in the gaps in their wardrobe. Best of all , they will get rid of the panic of ” those nothing to wear moments.”
The weekend 0f Sept 25-27th, 2009 was the 14th annual Baltimore Book Festival.
This reminded me of what happened several years ago, (I believe it was 2 or 3 years ago.) when Tim Gunn, of Project Runway, was one of the featured speakers. I am a fan of Tim’s and I was looking forward to hearing him speak. At that time Tim had just gotten his own show and had written a book. He was speaking at the Baltimore Book Festival to publicize his new book.
Unfortunately, I had trouble finding parking and by the time I parked,and walked 5 or 6 blocks to the book festival, I had missed Tim’s talk. When I finally got to the area where he had spoken, I discovered there was a long line of people waiting for him to autograph the book they had just purchased.
His book. ” A Guide to Quality and Taste,” was sold out, so I borrowed some one’s book and quickly skimmed it.
I felt disappointed because I did not see any new information that I had not seen elsewhere. I have a hunch the book may have been written quickly to capitalize on the popularity of Project Runway and Tim’s new show which had just begun.
I was disgusted with myself for not arriving earlier and my lower back was in spasm and I was looking for a place to sit down.
I passed a small table with two chairs. There was a sign that said something like “Sit down, and participate in a psychic experiment.” The experiment was sponsored by students from Maryland Institute of Art. I asked for more information, but mostly I wanted a place to sit and rest.
The experiment was simple, there was a sender and a receiver. I would be the sender. There was a volunteer receiver already seated.
All I had to do was sit down at the table and concentrate on an image in my mind and try to send the image to the receiver. He had a pencil and paper and would draw what he received.
I decided to picture “the happy face symbol from the 1960’s.” I choose this because I was feeling the opposite of happy and I wanted a distraction from my “pity party.”
The happy face I was trying to visualize
I concentrated as hard as I could to mentally picture the “happy face symbol . ” The receiver began drawing after a minute or two. I watched as he drew a line and then made it curve around. At the end of the line he drew two sheep.
The MICA student asked me if that was the image I sent. I said, “No, I was picturing a happy face symbol.”
I looked at the pencil drawing again and started laughing. I was laughing because I realized the line the receiver drew that curved around was the same shape as the long line of people waiting for Tim Gunn’s autograph.
I would not have called those fans of Tim, sheep, at least I would not have said it outloud. But when I saw the picture “the reciever,” had drawn, I realized that’s what I had been thinking. Those “Tim Gunn fans,” clutching their newly purchased books, standing in an extremely long line under the hot sun reminded me (at least on an unconscious level) of sheep.
As I laughed and shared why I was laughing with the MICA student and the receiver my spirits lifted as I realized what was really on my mind.
I was shocked that my unconscious mind would view the people standing in line as sheep. I like to believe it was a combination of the hot sun, my aching back and the fact the book the people standing in line were clutching did not seem to have any new style information.
I am still a fan of Tim’ s. I don’t know what he is like in person but on television at times he appears a bit formal and proper but his genuineness comes through. I am ready now to get a copy of his book and do more than just skim it.
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