Paseo 2016, Day Three: Pondering The Future

Boy.  I am tum pluckered.

It was raining a bit this morning, and I guess overnight as well.  It made things cooler for a while, until later when it was just more humid.  I had taken everything down last night because of the possibility storms, so this morning I completely rearranged it all.

The picture of the First National Center, "Skyline Signature," continues to be the most popular of my photos, though no one liked it enough to take one home with them.  The pictures that someone did take home were "No Time Left For You" (the parking meter) and "That None May Penetrate" (the combination lock.)  Other than that, I only sold one of the letters, and finished the show just short of making back the entry fee.


Late in the afternoon, another artist came around, and she was very complimentary of my work.  But she told me something I had already been thinking about: I'm surrounded by crafts and resale items, and it's hampering my sales.  Not that the show was good this year anyway, she said, but she thinks that I should be in the "real" Paseo show, and not Kathy's.
    I decided to check on the possibility of that, so during a restroom break, I headed north and spoke to a randomly selected artist about how does one get into the "real" Paseo show?  My question confused him at first, because, as it turned out, he was part of Kathy's show as well.  In fact, there were two more booths in Kathy's show north of him, the last being #120.  (I was in #29.)  I had no idea that the show was that big.  He also told me that the "real" Paseo show uses Zapplication  for their entries, which is why he's doing Kathy's.  I understood, because Zapplication is the reason I hadn't been doing the Stillwater show, nor the OCCC show for the last several years.  So, considering all this, I've decided that the thing to do, to try, is to just note on next year's application a placement preference.

I met a couple of interesting people late in the day.  One was the lady who owns the Empire Pizza building, which once was the Friendly Laundry, the subject of my pen & ink drawing "Almost Friendly."  She said that she once had all of those letters, but she doesn't know where they are now.
    The other was a lady whose father was the man who built the wall that is the subject of my pen & ink drawing "Freshly Fallen Silent Shroud," as well as the walls at the entrances to Fink Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, and other places in Edmond.  It seems he was the go to man for those kinds of rock structures, and the city of Edmond relied on him to get the job done.

It was also nice to see friends Michael and Josh, who I haven't seen in a while.

As far as I know, this is the last show for a while.  I always refer to the day after the last art show as New Year's Day, because it's the day I get to start working on the stuff that I want to do instead of what I have to do.  Not that I won't jump at the chance to show my work if the opportunity arises, of course. 

Paseo 2016, Day Two

Well. I could replay the video from yesterday, but I think I'll skip it.

I've been using a particular frame for all of my digitally enhanced photos, but yesterday when I was putting up the most popular of those pictures, I noticed that the frame was damaged.  I had thought the frame was stained wood, but it turns out that it actually has a thin layer of composite (that plastic plasterish stuff they use to create the filigree on ornate mouldings) which had just been painted to look like wood grain.  I called Denton's to see if they could cut a quick replacement for me, but they didn't have enough moulding to make a frame that size.  So, when I left the show last night, I took that pic home, along with another of the same size, so I could switch them out.

This morning, I got up at six again, as I do on show days, hurried to get showered and dressed, and went out to the studio to fix the frames.  When I was done with that and all the rest of the stuff I needed to do to get ready, I left the house at 7:30.
    When I got to the show, the first order of business was to rearrange the screens as if I had a corner booth.  My neighbor to the north doesn't have walls, and there is a two foot "alley" between booths, so a corner arrangement would do a lot to increase my street visibility, and it would give me a place to stay out of the sun.

As I was putting up the pictures, I noticed a chip in another frame.  I don't believe this particular moulding is going to stand up to the rigor of outdoor shows.  I'm going to have to find something else.

Even with these two extra tasks, I was finished and ready by 9:00am.  The show opens at ten.  I should have brought a book.

Crowds were pretty thick all day, but sales were few.  A lot of that can, of course, be blamed on our State's economy at the moment, but the heat had a lot to do with it too, as attested to by the fact that even the $6 letters weren't selling.  But a lot of people were taking my new cards after having discussed a particular piece, so perhaps there will be residual sales later on.

My phone said that it was going to rain in the late afternoon, and when that failed to happen, I felt ripped off.  Rain at a show is seldom a good thing, but if it would have cooled things off, that would have been a blessing.  It did cloud up late in the evening just about closing time, but it had all moved east by the time I left.  There is a chance of storms overnight, so I took down all my pics and wrapped them in plastic.  I think that tomorrow, I'll completely rearrange things. 

Paseo 2016: Set-up and Day One

And now for the theme of today's show...

Ya, seriously. But it's still better than wet wet wet.

Alright, I need to go back in time a bit to day one of the Edmond show.  I had asked our friend Randall if he'd like to help me set-up, because the man-spouse has a job (yay), which means he wasn't going to be available (boo.)  Randall said yes.  BUT, Randall is notoriously flaky when it comes to scheduling stuff, and sometimes he bails -- that is, he's nowhere to be found -- when we are expecting to get together with him.  I called him the night before the show and got no answer, and the morning of the show I was running just a hair late, and I'm sitting at the corner of 2nd and Littler trying to decide, do I go left and go on to the show, or do I go right and pick up Randall?  I went left.
    Last week I dropped by his house for a visit, and he asked me why I didn't come to pick him up.  The reason he didn't answer the phone was because he'd gone to bed early so he'd be ready in the morning.  And he was ready, an hour earlier than I was expected.  So now I'm feeling ashamed and embarrassed, and I'm feeling like I don't have the right to ask if he's available for this show.  Fortunately, he strongly hinted that he wanted to be asked.

    I picked him up at his house, and we went to my parents' house to get the truck, and he met my Dad.  Dad started talking about some work he needed done on rent houses, and Randall said he should hire him.  But then he said that, maybe not because he cusses a lot, and "joo  wadden unnerstan my oxcent."  Dad said that was okay, because he can't hear anything anyway.
    After dropping by my house to get the tent, screens,  and furniture, we headed on down to the Paseo.  The Paseo was a revelation to Randall, and he says he can't wait to come back when the show is open.  We set up the tent, short, stuck the screens and furniture underneath, strapped it down tight, and headed home.  On the way it started raining.  Dad called to say he wanted the truck back in his garage because the TV was saying we had impending hail.  On the way, Gaby happened to meet up with us on the highway on his way home from work, and he followed us the parents' house.  Once there, Randall met my Mom.  Randall is not known as a charming person, and sometimes it seems like his favorite two hobbies are criticizing and complaining, but he absolutely charmed the socks off my parents.  The five of us had a nice long enjoyable conversation, until it was time for us to go.  The hail never came.

I never sleep well the night before a show.  I tossed and turned a lot, and when I did sleep I had weird dreams. 

When the alarm went off, I got showered, dressed, got the truck packed, sandwiches and coffee made, made sure I got those items that I was afraid I was going to forget, kissed the man-spouse good-bye, and left the house in fifty minutes.  I stopped by the ON-cue and got ice and Cheez-itz and Rolaids.  I got to the Paseo early enough to get a decent (though not terribly close) parking spot, and had plenty of time to set up.

I forgot my phone.

DANG-it.

Can't use The Square without a phone.

So, now I'm borrowing other people's phones trying to wake up the man-spouse.
"Hello? This is Gabriel." (Finally!)
"I forgot my phone."
"I can tell.  I'm talking to you on it."

He arrived with the phone a little over half an hour later, and he stayed for about an hour.  After he left, I got to use The Square for the first time, and several hours later, a second time.  So easy.  I should have done this ages ago.

Crowds were good all day.  We didn't even get the 3:00 lull.  Did I mention it was hot?

Prepping for Paseo

    I am looking at the weather report on my phone (cuz I have a smart phone now and I can do that,) and it's saying that this weekend will be mostly cloudy with only a slight chance of rain.  Not ideal, but after having to pack up the first and third nights during thunderstorms  -- no scratch that.  Saturday night I closed down during a thunderstorm.  Monday night I tore down during a monsoon.  So after last year, I can deal with a cloudy day.
    I did something yesterday that I should have done a long time ago.  I got The Square (cuz I have a smart phone now and I can do that.)  My only excuse for having not done it sooner is that when one is not tech-savvy, everything seems like it should be more complicated than it really winds up being.  And this was really easy.
    Once upon a time, I accepted credit cards the old fashioned way, through a credit card service with a machine that processed the cards and payments automatically.  The fee wasn't bad, but they had me renting (to own) a  machine that ultimately cost me over a thousand dollars, and then on top of that, they insisted I start paying for ID theft insurance, which was going to cost more than I was making in credit card sales.  Totally not worth it.  So I stopped taking cards altogether.  The Square is so much easier, and I won't have to deal with all the bullmumblemumble.
    Today was spent matting and framing replacements for the pics I sold at the Edmond show.  I went to Denton's to pick up some matboard, and on the way I thought it would be a good idea to stop by the Paseo district to see if they've already laid out where the booths are going to be.  completely forgot about it till I got back home.  They've got a really cool thing.  I'm in that portion of the show that is being run by the heirs of Kathy Jacobson, and they own the parking lot that much of the show is in.  a few years ago, they drilled holes in the parking lot and put in some sleeves for large eyebolts that the artists use to anchor their tents.  It is THE reason we didn't lose everything during last year's monsoon.
    Sometime in the next day or so, I need to go to my Dad's house and make up some more business cards.  I had intended to get ahold of my old printer and have her make up a box of cards for me, but I procrastinated myself out of time.  Still needs to be done, tho. 
    Other than that, I believe I'm ready.

Everything Is All Over The Place

    Once upon a time, I had a Chevy Astro.  It was the perfect vehicle for transporting my art show.  But life changes and mechanical problems made it necessary to get a different vehicle, and though the little sedan I drive now gets great mileage and has few problems, it isn't big enough for my show. 
    So, for the last several years I've been borrowing my Dad's old pickup truck for my show.  But my Dad has a lot of rental property, and the truck is always packed with the tools and things he uses to fix whatever maintenance issues come up at houses he owns.  So before each show, the truck needs to be unloaded, and after, reloaded.   The stuff that gets unloaded gets piled in the spot in the garage where he would normally be parking the truck, so until the truck is reloaded, it has to be left outside.
    Outside is where I left the truck when I returned it.  I told my Mom that I didn't have time to stay and help load, but that I'd be back the next day (today) after I got up.  When I got there this afternoon, I found Dad upstairs.  He told me that Mom had told him I'd be there, but he had told her that he really didn't want to load the truck today.  We went down to the garage, where he explained that there was too much stuff in the garage, and most of it didn't need to go back into the truck.  And it didn't help that his shed, which is actually a detached one-car garage, is also full.  We discussed storage options and strategies for tackling the project, but whatever he does, it's going to be a big job.
    My Dad and I have the same problem.  We have a place for everything, and everything is all over the place.  The only way to solve our problem is to drag everything out of our respective sheds, our respective garages, and my studio, sweep the floors, and put everything back in in a more organized manner, perhaps disposing of a few things along the way.  But this requires time, energy, and good weather.  Lately, all three of those things have been in short supply.  A little help wouldn't be a bad thing either, but the usual minions are busy as well.
    My next day off won't be till Sunday or Monday, and I've suggested to him that I might be able to help.  He's a little less patient, though, and even though he's a champion procrastinator, just having the truck sitting outside is going to bug him.  He'll probably have it done by Friday.  That'll leave me without an excuse for getting my own stuff done.  Oh, well.

Edmond 2016, Day Three

    Well, I started out the day by spilling coffee on my shoes.  Is that a good omen?
    Another sunny but cool day, with a bit of wind.  Crowds were great.
    I put out some stuff that I hadn't had out the first two days, one of which was my tub of  names, a collection of letters from the Letters Project that I had matted into three, four, and five letter names.  The main reason I hadn't put the tub out before was because I wasn't sure where to display it.  I wound up just putting it on the ground next to the print file.  Turns out, that was perfectly adequate.  People didn't mind squatting down to thumb through it, and two people found the name they were looking for.  Over all, the letters made up almost 19% of my sales.
    It popped up in my Facebook newsfeed that I took the original photo for my new picture "Garden Party" five years ago Saturday.  By the end of the day, that was the only one of the new pictures that had sold.  Surprising, because everyone seemed to gravitate toward the pic of the First National Tower ("Skyline Signature.")
    The vet called in the middle of the day, and left a message saying that the schnauzer's x-rays showed that she had a partially slipped disk, and that if the medication and rest didn't fix the problem, she might need surgery.  Fortunately, the meds seem to be working just fine.  As long as we can keep her from re-injuring herself (she's like Bambi on the ice in our dining room) then she should be okay.
    It was a pretty good show this year.  Not spectacular, but I made enough money to cover my booth rent and pay for the time I was taking off from the job.  Plus, there will be residuals.  One person says she wants to order three of my Scrabble pics.  I talked to one fellow who says he might be interested in buying one of my big originals.  The conversation was not satisfying with him, though.  I feel like I failed to communicate effectively to him how to get ahold of me outside the shows.  Also, one of my regular collectors (yes, I have a few of those) plucked a print out of the bin and said, "Frame this for me."  I'll have that done for him in a few days.  And a couple for whom I had done a drawing of their house years ago wants me to do another one.  So, as you can see, the end of a show is not necessarily the end of the show. 
    Next up:  Kathy's Paseo on Memorial Day Weekend.