Stories

Taos Studios                                         David's Desk                                                                       c-2005

Stories

I woke up early this morning and got through emails and some code research I needed pretty fast.  I showered, wrote Edy and good morning Txt and donned “business attire” for a morning trip to the Design Center. I had a few folks I wanted to see and also needed to do some database updates while I also shopped for some personal items for our place too.    

“Back in the Day” we did not have Design Centers. We had to annually house all new samples of everything in our Studios. Salesmen would rent out blocks of rooms at a regional Hotel and we’d spend hours getting to know each other and their particular lines a couple of times a year. It was a total community with much “libation” and many laughs. In fact it was during these presentations I had my 1^st Single Malt Scotch.  Twice a year we’d go to NC for Market and other times hit NYC, LA, Dallas or Europe for specialties and always run into a familiar salesman’s face.  Samples usually took up 8-15% of our Showroom Budgets and 20 to 50% of the floor space. Not Cheap.  When the first Design Centers opened we wondered “who in the world would ever use them”? Enter recessions and economic downturns and voila’ “we got it”………AND then got mad when “others” tried to access them…...Eventually these salesmen went on to own or run many of these companies which came in handy down the road.

So, as I walked through the empty quite halls of the Design Center looking at fabrics and carpets I could identify from fifty paces I spied one of the 9 people I know in Texas. "KB", A Super Furniture Rep. “Small World” I thought as I walked up to him to say “Howdy”. He was surprised to see me too and introduced me to the current President of Pearson Company, Mike.

We all chatted about the company and I told them of the soft place I have for their products because my mentor used to design for them many moons ago when they were still quite small. “Every Ottoman had a story” I said referring to the upholstered foot stools, not the bearded heathens. Actually the stories are probably on their 3^rd or 4^th Generations as all of my staff and interns had to endure them from me as projects developed and I then taught them to design furniture. I am sure they have passed them along with a twist.  Mike and KB had to get ready for a dog and pony show so we said ciao and I continued down the hall thinking about furniture, furniture design, and times past.

While digging through some photos last night to send a colleague I was reminded that it was seven years ago to the day that I had Celebrated the Opening of the Taos Studio and Galleries. WOW seems more like seven lifetimes! So much has happened in such a short time.  Like the children’s song “High Hopes”, I had so much riding on the success of that venture that I failed to realize that it was not at all what I really wanted. It was what I thought I wanted, at the time.

I had plans to buy my building and another huge ranch north of town to create what I called the Tao-Haus. Ranch, Factory, Living for Employees all self contained.  I had already bought 2 East Coast  factories for the equipment and was in the process of shipping it all to NM. The Galleries were the showrooms for my designs and I had a cool $100k Petrified Wood Desk amongst lots of other specialty goodies and important artworks to make sure it would be a huge success. My plan was to soon start fabrication and have them available in all the Global Design Centers.  

The Universe was kind. It did not take too long to see that the economy in NM was the precursor to what was happening nationally and I now feel so fortunate to not have been saddled with any additional holdings from that Ego-folly. “ Whewwww”…….. was the actual sound I made when the photo files emerged on my computer. What a story.