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JULY 11-AUG.1, 2008 [Click here to tour the online overview of the show] 10 Years of Magical Thinking art, echoes, and a few things you left behind Beyond grief and memorial, the space that follows a partner’s death is filled with weirdness and wonder. Physical artifacts left behind, of course, but also things remembered, maybe imagined, certainly dreamt. Possibilities turned inside out and back again. Joan Didion called this odd space her Year of Magical Thinking, in a best-seller (later a Broadway play) about the aftermath of the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. But the strangeness of sudden loss, at any age, doesn’t end in a year - it just morphs into new, unusual things as time goes on. Not necessarily sad things, but things to look back on and wonder: What did they mean then? What do they mean now? a wallet, fat and intact with every single thing it carried, the day you entered the hospital, and the day you left a somber self-portrait, a good likeness in oil on canvas, discovered folded up, hidden away, unshared a vision of wasps and doves who kept watch over your final hours the video record of a dream house, just before it was turned back into a dream Via mixed media, video and installation, this show explores the beautiful, curious, mystifying elements of the aftermath of a death. Like Didion's tale, it tries hard not to be a downer, but rather, to borrow language from a New York Times review of her book, serves as "a traveler's faithful account of those harsh but fascinating cliffs..." Click here to enter an online version of the show ... * * * "10 Years of Magical Thinking" marks, to the weekend, the 10th anniversary of the death of my partner, Gray McGhee, from acute leukemia. Against expectations, life has offered up much to celebrate since then, including the creation of this new art space, in Chicago and online. The exhibit's opening reception is Friday, July 11, from 6-10 p.m., during the Chicago Arts District's 2nd Fridays Gallery Night in Pilsen (18th and Halsted). More than 30 galleries will be open to the public from 6-10 p.m. within(Reason) is at 1932 S Halsted, Fountainhead Lofts Building #408. For a map, visit this page. The exhibit can be viewed by special appointment through Aug. 1 by emailing ron@ArtWithinReason.com or phoning 773.562.7474.