This weekend I will be participating in the Paseo Market Festival, which is my first art show in three years. My plan had been to take 2020 off in order to get some new work done and lick my wounds. 2019 had been a real disappointment. The Edmond show was mostly rained out. Sales at both shows had been insufficient to cover the cost of the entry fees, and then the night before the last day of the last show there was a thunderstorm that severely damaged my tent. Two of the legs were bent, and one of the side trusses had mostly broken at a weak point and was hanging on by a thread. It was all very discouraging.
Over the summer I was able to bang the legs back into shape, but the truss had broken right where the corner brace bolt pierced it, and it was irreparable and would have to be replaced. Unfortunately, this particular model had been discontinued, so parts were unavailable.
I was one of the fortunate ones. Other artists' tents were a tangled mess.
Then the pandemic hit and EVERYBODY wound up taking the year off, so my plans for furlough made no difference. Those artists who had signed up for the Edmond show that was supposed to have been in May 2020 showed their work in September 2021 instead.
The weather was actually quite nice for that show, and when I didn't receive a notification for a spring show in 2022, I wondered if they had decided to move the show to the fall permanently. Nope. As I was driving down Boulevard one evening I spotted a bus stop bench advertising the show that was going to take place in three weeks. I immediately sought out the show organizer to find out why I hadn't been notified. Turns out the new show management had decided to send out emails instead of postcards, and they had lost my email address. The young lady in charge was very apologetic, and promised me first choice of booths at next year's show.
A few days later I got a call from Robert Clark, telling me that the Paseo Market Festival was starting up again, and would I be interested? AB-SO-LOOTLY. So that's where I will be this coming weekend, back in my old booth space on 28th Street in a brand new tent. I need the sales to be good. The entry fee went up by $150 (what the hell, Robert?), but I have three new pics, and one of those is my new Skirvin drawing, of which I have prints. The weather report says it'll be hot and humid, with a 60% chance of rain. I'm nervous but excited.
Hope to see you guys there.
