Showtime!

 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.

Five Months as a Hermit

 The hotel closed in March. Then it re-opened in July, but has yet to reinstate my department, so I'm kinda in limbo. The only schedule I have is to wake up and drink coffee and do my tumblr post. On Tuesday I do laundry and shop for groceries. Other than that, I don't get out of the house much. I haven't had a haircut since the first week of March. I'm in that awkward stage where my hair is both too long and too short to be manageable. I forget to shave because I have nowhere to go and no one to see, and then my face gets itchy and reminds me that I really don't want to grow a beard. I have days where I'm highly motivated and accomplish a lot, and days where I have trouble convincing myself to do anything.

I love it. It's not sustainable, but I do. After nearly seventeen years of being nocturnal, and the scheduling pressures associated with that, these unstructured days are delightful. Plus I've managed to get some of those around the house projects done that I would never have had time for otherwise.

My best friend is in the same position. He worked with me overnights, as did his wife. She's gone back to work. He's at home. He's bored. He's already finished painting the house, and he's been reading and writing. But there are a lot of pictures of him in his bathrobe on Facebook. He's also been sending naked selfies to to me and the man-spouse for his own amusement. He suggested that I should paint one of them. I said, "Oh like I have time.... Oh, wait! I do."
He said, "Yeah, but it will still take you ten years to get it done." I took that as a challenge, but I still haven't finished the portrait of him I started two decades ago. 

As for me, I have 

• replaced the floor in the shed, which I needed to do because I stupidly decided to use chipboard for the floor when we built the thing seven years ago.
• built a box (treasure chest) for the man-spouse, inspired by the one my dad built for me back in 1969. It turned out really nice, but I'm already thinking about what I would have done differently.
• replaced all the shelving in the utility room. I thought this was going to be a big job, but it only took three hours. I should have done it ages ago.
• washed, waxed, and detailed my car.
• finished the bathroom lavatory cabinet that's been half done since 2008. It looks nice. I'm proud of it.
• built a fire pit to replace the crumbling chimenea. I've been using it to get rid of the old shed floor.
• changed the arrangement of the studio. Nine years ago the man-spouse and I changed the studio from having the framing table run along the north wall to being  massive table in the middle of the room. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I hated it immediately because it created a lot of space limitations. Now it's back up against the wall, and the drafting table is on an island in the middle, and I couldn't be happier.
• started an Etsy store at the encouragement of my friend Charla, who's been having a lot of fun with her camera lately.
• built a Googie styled coffee mug shelf to put in said Etsy store.
• rebuilt the cabinets in the studio, which had been sagging (a work in progress)
• painted the studio a pretty yellow (also a work in progress.)
• listened to several audio books on Overdrive. I expected to get more reading done, but I've only read three actual physical books. I also thought I'd write a lot more, but I've only finished one blog post (not counting this one.)

The last time I was at the hotel, I ran into my friend Melody, who instructed me to get a lot of artwork done while we are on hiatus. I got some done (like "A Straight Line," below.) I expected to do more.

The plan is to finish all the paintings and drawings that have already been started before I start something new. (One down, nine to go.) The reality is that I couldn't resist, and I have four new canvases sketched out. But now I'm back to one of my old frustrations.

I accidentally came across the blog of a painter by the name of Aaron Lifferth. According to the title of his blog, he had the ambitious goal of doing a painting a day. He didn't accomplish that goal, but he did finish an awful lot of paintings, mostly miniatures, in a short amount of time. They're wonderful. I'm inspired. I can't do a painting a day, but I have a stack of paper perfect for 4x6 pen & ink drawings (136 of them!), as well as a few 5x5 and 5x7 mini canvases for paintings, which individually wouldn't take long to do. I want to do this. The problem?

I have nine unfinished projects. Plus the four new ones. Most of them large, all of them time consuming, and all of them likely to occupy my thoughts and energy until I've forgotten about my current inspiration.

I know how this works. It happens every time I go to an art show and see artworks that spark my imagination. I'm full of inspiration until I come home to the same unfinished projects that were there before, and it just dies.

But my life and my environment has changed a lot lately. At the moment I have all the time in the world, and all the space I need to work. Maybe, just maybe, that's the fertile ground I need for my inspiration to grow. We'll see.

Random Encounter

I have a little routine for my weekends, which for me is usually Sunday and Monday nights.  After getting home Sunday morning, I try to stay up all day, doing basically nothing and having no plan except to go to bed at a time when I can sleep most of the night.  That way, I'm up early on Monday, and I can tackle the weekend's big projects, like the yard work, and hopefully get something done in the studio.  This weekend's task was to finally do the spring cleaning in the studio, which involves dragging everything out onto the patio and mopping the floor, and spraying for bugs.  And the weather was perfect, which helped a lot.
  Tuesdays are spent doing housework and running errands. I got my hair cut.  I went to the grocery store...

...and that's where it happened.

After picking up the last item (frozen peas,) I ran into Kelly Killough, another artist who does a lot of the same shows that I do.  We talked about the Edmond show, and about how sales were for us and our neighbors.  My next booth neighbor this year was Shirley Gibbons, who was doing the show for the 32nd time, and she had the best sales she's ever had.  Across the street, James Coplin won 1st prize and was also selling a lot, and my other next booth neighbor was selling his copper wall hangings hand over fist. Kelly said his neighbors had also done really well, and he himself had done pretty decently.  I, on the other hand, did not do well at all.  This was my 25th year at the Edmond show, and this year's sales were the worst ever.  I told Kelly that that is what made the cancellation of Kathy's Paseo show more painful.

Oh, but no!  The show hasn't been cancelled, Kelly tells me.  Seems that, though the family feud still goes on, the legal part has been settled, permits are acquired, and booths are filling.  And Kelly had the phone number for the man in charge.

I'm stunned by this news, and I don't know quite what to do with it.  I'm pleased that the show is back on, but it's in two weeks.  I'm already prepared to go, inventory-wise, but can I get the time off from work? And do I really want to put out the money and effort? I need a second and third opinion.
    After I had gotten home and put the groceries away, I texted the man spouse for his opinion.  He had recently made a very hurtful comment about my art (he called it a hobby -- which is not wrong, exactly, but it just galls me to think he could be right,) but he still has a stake in how I spend my time and money.  Plus he knows me better than anybody, so I don't have to over-explain how I fell about this.  When he was able to call back, he was supportive, and he understood what I meant when I said that what I was feeling in that moment was pissed off.  He said that even if I don't get in the show, I at least deserve an explanation about why no one contacted me.
    The next input I needed was from the boss man.  I texted Garris, saying that something had happened and I needed his opinion. He called back quickly, and when I told him what was up, he was so incredibly supportive and enthusiastic.  He said that if it was at all possible, I should "absolutely" do the show.  (He used the word 'absolutely' a lot in that phone call.  He's only been to see my work one time, but he talks like he's my biggest fan.) He also assured me that it wouldn't be a problem for me to take the time off, since we have the staff right now to cover my shifts, and the hotel won't be busy that weekend anyway.
   Well, that was what I needed.

I called Mr Clark.  He answered the phone immediately, and was pleased that I had managed to get in touch with him.  I complained about not being contacted.  He explained the painful journey he and his family had been on, and how he had gained charge of the show.  The reason he hadn't gotten in touch with me was that the other faction in the family feud had the mailing list, and all he had was a map with artists names penciled in, but only six phone numbers.  He managed to Google a lot of them. Also, it's only been eight days since he got the go ahead from the powers that be.
  He told me about some changes made to the show, like reserved parking for artists and a place for the artists to retreat to when they needed a break.  He asked about my needs, which got me a (hopefully) better spot.  I think I'm going to like this guy.

So, in a matter of less than two hours, I went from having no plans to having big plans.  All because of a random encounter at grocery store.  Now I just need some people who like my work enough to take it home with them.

*want*

Lesson learned: be very clear about what you want, and don't assume the other person already has the information they need to help you.

I found out that Tim, who prints my photos, got his new gicleé machine last fall, so I took an order to him, just meaning to replace some of the pictures that I had sold at last spring's shows.  Since his old machine had broken down last spring, he had amassed quite a bit of backlog, so he couldn't get to mine for a while (Robin, his #1, had said she hoped that I didn't need them before Christmas.  I assured her not.)  After Christmas, I checked with them periodically to see if he'd gotten to mine yet.
    A few weeks ago, Robin told me he had questions.  Among other things, one of the pics was not stored on his computer, and he wasn't sure what I wanted to do about that.  But by that time, I was running short on time, and I decided that I would just place the order for my five new pics, and one older one that had sold out last year.

To simplify things (I thought), the new pics all had file names with the title and the width of the picture:  i.e. "Land Line 10"wide."  That way, he could just look at the title and set the measurements in the computer and press print.  Those were the instructions I gave Robin, and those are the instructions she wrote down.  And that's where the trouble began.

Now, the old pics were not designated thusly.  When I placed the original order for "Skyline Signature," I was standing there with Tim at the computer as he followed my verbal instructions and typed in 15"x whatever", and I assumed that the old measurements were still in his computer.  They probably were.  But the old pic order got conflated with the new pic instructions and...

Tim says to Robin, "Is this really the size he wants?"

Robin says to Tim, "Yeah, that's what he said."

So Tim prints the picture according to the title on the file, which says "Ratio 1.25 32x40."

Twice.

That title actually had nothing to do with the gicleé prints.  When the photo was originally taken, my intent was to paint this picture, and 32x40 was to be the size of the painting.  Then my friend Loggan made the astute observation that I would never get around to it, and then I discovered Tim,and well, the rest is history.

I got the call today that the pictures were ready.  When I came in, there was "Skyline Signature," two of them, the size of a full sheet of matboard.  Omigosh, they were beautiful.  It wasn't what I meant to order, and he is reprinting in the size I need, but I want the big ones so bad.

But here's the problem.  Gicleé is a relatively expensive printing process, which makes the prints expensive for the art consumer to buy.  When I got home, I figured out that the retail price on these would be $470 unframed!  Do I actually have a market for that? And I'm down one show this year, since the Kathy's Market On The Paseo show had to be cancelled for this year.  The Pride show is not a moneyed show, and the only other show coming up that I've been involved with is the Pancakes and Booze show in September.  It's not practical to spend the money on them this year.

But I want them.

I want them so bad.

The other prints were mostly fine (although, when I got home I realized that I hadn't specified the 1" borders, which is going to cause some framing problems -- again, don't assume someone will remember something you told them two years ago,) so I packed them up to take home, still wistfully looking at the giant ones.  I told Tim, "Don't destroy these, because I know I'm going to talk myself into getting them."  I don't know when, but it's going to happen.

Probably. 

Ambivalence

I finally finished this commissioned piece, which should have been done a long time ago -- and not just because the couple had been trying to get me to do it for a couple of years.  The gentleman finally got my attention while I was doing the Paseo show, and expressed some urgency. 
   
I have an ambivalent relationship with commissions.  On the one hand, it's really nice to know that someone likes my work well enough to hire me to do it, and, of course,  the (almost) guaranteed sale is nice as well.  BUT, on the other hand, it's work that I have to do, and that one fact just gets into my head.
    I'm what I've heard called a "frustrated perfectionist," which the man-spouse thinks of as a procrastinator with an excuse.  Essentially it means that if I know I can't do something perfectly, I won't do it at all.  In the case of commissioned work, that translates to, if I can't get a significant amount of work done, or if I'm at all worried that my frame of mind or lack of sleep, etc., will screw it up somehow, I put off working on it till I can be sure of the results.  Which means delays.
    The other problem is that I get stressed out about details.  This is, after all, somebody's [insert subject matter here.]  They're going to notice if it's wrong.  So, I will spend hours trying to get the details right in that shadow around the front door, and I'm impressed with myself when I've completed a square inch.
    The third problem is just my weird schedule combined with my bad time management skills.  And you can pile not getting enough sleep on top of that. 

The problem with NOT working on commissions is that I don't work on anything else either.  Because I'm not getting that thing done that I have to do, I'm sort of punishing myself by not doing the things I want to do.  So nothing gets done.  Jeez I'm pathetic.

I finished the piece late this afternoon, and I sent a photo in the text to the client.  She was very happy, but I had to explain that I couldn't get it to her right away because a co-worker had called in sick, and I had to take a long nap before work.  She said that that was fine.  I'm glad she likes it.

Warning Signs

It's The Weekend! (Don't waste it.)

First of all, Happy 4th of July everyone!  Or, if you happen to work in the service industry, Happy Tuesday.

Spring show season is over, and I've had a pretty good season.  Now it's time to work on other things.  At this moment I have a multi-picture framing project on my work table, a commissioned pen & ink drawing to do, and the drawings and paintings that I hope to have done by next spring.  My next planned event is the Pancakes & Booze show in September.  The plan, at this point, is to show some of my decoupage furniture and bottles.  I don't have enough done for a show yet, but that can change in... Oh, crap, that's only two months away.    

This is the first week with a normal schedule that I've had in a while, and I need to make the most of it.  I need to get my bookkeeping done for two shows, and send the tax commission a couple of checks.  I need to do a little inventory work and then put my boxes away. I desperately need a haircut, and I'm out of ropa interior limpia.  The girl dog needs a bath.  Also, all my ebay auctions are ending today.

Yes, I am doing that again.  It's been a while since I've had stuff up on ebay, though it's been on my mind forever.  I put some pics up last Monday, and I've already sold one of the '53 Chevy pics (Sandra Dee '53.)  I also set up an etsy account, but I still need to figure out how to use it.

I should make a to do list.  Anyway, I'm up, showered, and coffeed.  The man-spouse is getting ready for work, and we both need some breakfast.  The boy dog needs his medicine, and then it's time to get stuff done.

They're Trynta Wear Me Out

Working at the hotel, according to the calculator on my computer, only takes up about a third of my life, but somehow it seems to be the only thing I do lately.  When I take time off for shows, the following week has a six to nine day schedule.  After the Paseo show, I came back to eight days which coincided with our annual visit from a group of people who were here for the softball tournament.  These people move as a herd, bringing their 40+ cars (this year, the total number was 69) back from the venue about the time I'm arriving for my shift, and leaving again about the time I get off.  It's more fun than just doing the nightly paperwork, but eight days of that is exhausting.  And to make it more tiring, I was given a split weekend, so little or nothing is getting done at home.  This week, tonight (Sunday) is my only night off, because a few of the rest of our crew managed to escape for a few days, and I am needed to compensate for their absence.  Hopefully, next week will be back to normal.

The Paseo show (actually, Kathy's On The Paseo) was a very good show.  Good sales, no rain (or

monsoons, like two years ago.)  My Dad came to help set up, which was nice, and then he and Mom were there for teardown.  My Mom has never been there for either, so this was her first time seeing how it all packs up. Neither of them had ever been to the Paseo show.

I got some disappointing news from Tim, the fellow who prints my photos and cuts my frames.  His giclée machine had a clogged ink jet, which caused anything printed in blue to come out striped, which prevented him from printing my Tower Theatre pics.  Just before the show, his #1 assistant, Robin, informed me that he was going to have to get a whole new machine, and it could be months before he could afford it.  This also prevents him from printing the crayon pics, which I have orders for, and from resupplying those pics that sold at the Edmond and Paseo shows.  (Currently I am out of Skyline Signature (the First National Building.)  She said that there is someone else I can take them to, but they are more expensive.  I'm not going to be in desperate need till next year, but at least that gives me a back-up plan.

The plan, right now, is that I will be doing the Pride show on June 24th and 25th.  I sent in my entry a couple of weeks ago and haven't heard back, so I don't know what's going on.  They're not a particularly organized show.  They refer to it as an art show, but when I was there two years ago, I was the only artist in a sea of venders.  My neighbors were selling windows, legal services, veterinary services, and dietary supplements.  It put me in a unique position.  But this year, they dropped the price of the entry back down to normal levels, so I thought I'd give them a try again.  Teardown is rushed because of the parade, so I don't think I'll be taking my whole show.  Maybe just four screens with small pictures.

Today's plan is to get my laundry done, take some photos for a commission, do my bookkeeping, mow the lawn, and hopefully get in a four hour nap before I go back to work tonight.  Which would require getting off the computer.  So... type at y'all later.

Ready, Except For The Color Blue

The Edmond show is coming up this weekend.  First show of the year, and I am extraordinarily ready (as opposed to my usual MO of scrambling till the last minute to get matting and framing done, and all my furniture ready.)  I did all my inventorying weeks ago, and got all my new stuff framed and matted and shrinkwrapped, and the old stuff is fully stocked, too.

There are a couple of things that are not ready, but those are currently out of my control.  One of my new photos, the one of the Tower Theatre, has been delayed because of a technical problem.  One of the inkjets on Tim's wonderful giclée machine is clogged, and when he prints anything with blue in it, it gets stripes.  I have two prints of that picture with that flaw, and I'm still deciding whether to go ahead and bring them to the show.  If I do, they'll be unmatted and signed as artist proofs.

I also ordered a couple of prints of the pen & ink crayon pic, but that has that one blue crayon, and Tim hasn't printed them yet because they'd have the same problem.  He's farming out the work to someone else, tho, so hopefully they'll be ready by the time the Paseo show rolls around.

Speaking of blue, I used the extra time to change my color scheme.  For the last... well, however long I've had them, my print file and boxes have been some shade of forest green.  This year, I've painted them a nice, rich royal blue.  I also made another print file, as the old one was getting crowded.  Now, with two of them, my tent is going to look crowded, so I'm going to have to figure out the best arrangement.

I do need to make some business cards.  Can't forget those.  That would be bad.

The Challenge

  My biggest problem with getting something done lately -- uh, well, always --has just been commitment and time management.  A few weeks ago, I dug out that pen & ink drawing I'd put aside a couple of years ago, as well as a couple of others, and decided I was going to at least give it a try to get it done by the shows coming up in May.  I got out all my tools, cleaned my pens, and got it all ready to go... and then did other stuff. 
    I mentioned this to a co-worker, Chris, one morning as I was getting ready to leave, and he issued me a challenge:  to work on the drawing for at least an hour, maybe two, between the time I get home from work and the time I go to bed.

It's actually working.  I took these pics to show him my progress:

Now, I don't know if I'll get it done in time for the shows.  It's a complicated and labor intensive piece, and fairly large, but at least I'm making progress.

Missed Opportunity

This weekend was the Pride celebration in Oklahoma City, and once again they had an "art" show.  This was only the second time, and they're still trying to get their act together.  I expected that, since I had done the show last year, I might have gotten some notification, but apparently that's not a thing.  I didn't actuall find out they were doing it for sure until I saw it on the schedule in the Gazzette two days before the show.  So if I am to do this show next year, I'm going to have to be a lot more proactive about my participation.

Last year, I was in the unique position of being the ONLY artist in the art show.  Everyone else was selling t-shirts, trinkets, and advertising services.  This year, with my absence, there were no artists at all.

My entry last year was the result of some effort on the part of the committee to attract artists to the show.  A fellow came out to the Paseo show and was passing out coupons for half off the entry fee.  The going rate for art show entries is about $100 per day, slightly over that if it's a large established show.  They were charging $200 for a day and a half, and it was necessary to tear down just as the crowds were arriving because the tents are set up on the parade route.  There are spaces available at the side, for an additional cost, tho.

I did moderately well at last year's show, but I think I might have done better this year.  I think that the new pics I have would appeal to that particular audience.  But money is a problem right now for everyone, and the new pics are more expensive than my old p&i prints.  But I still would have liked to have tried.

Self Satisfaction

I'm feeling very pleased with myself.  I finished a painting.

This is the painting that I was working on when my friend Loggan convinced me that I needed to start printing some of my photos instead of just hiding them on my computer with the idea that someday I'd get around to painting or drawing them.  And now it's done.  And apparently sold.

If you've been to my shows and asked me about the photos that I showed this year, then you already know much of this story.  I take lots of pictures. Lots.  Tons.  And now that everything is digital, whether on my camera or my phone, all of them get loaded up on my computer.  I then play around with the ones I like best...  Well, actually, I play around with most of them regardless, finding the best composition, changing it to black and white if it should be a pen & ink,  tweaking the colors if it should be a painting, sometimes changing the color scheme entirely, and running them through some other filters to add some cool visual effects.  Sometimes I forget to go to bed when I'm doing this.  And then, after all that work, it goes on a memory stick in a file called "potential" where it mostly sits unseen except by me and, perhaps, the man-spouse if he happens to notice. 

I like morning light a lot, so frequently my picture taking expeditions happen on a Sunday morning when I'm getting off work, and the parking downtown is free and abundant.  The photo for the painting above was taken one October morning when the sun had moved to the south and was lighting up the north side of the Bricktown Canal.  There is a bar on that side (I thought it was a restaurant, but it's a bar) where all the seating is brightly painted wooden chairs.  The morning light on the chairs was incredibly beautiful, and I took several pictures with my little Kodak.  Six of those pictures turned out pretty good, five I liked well enough to paint, four I intend to paint (though I haven't decided which one to skip,) and two I love.

Frankly, painting a series is pretty ambitious for me.  I already have five canvases sitting in the studio that I haven't been working on, some of them years old.  And there is a large pen & ink that I started a year and a half ago that hasn't seen the light of day in... uh...

 I know.  I'm ashamed. 

So one night, Loggan and his partner, Steve, come over for dinner, and we all wander out to the studio because Loggan wants to see what I'm working on.  I showed him this partially completed painting, and explain that it's going to be one of four, and then I fire up the computer to show him the other three.  As I'm scrolling through the source file, he says, "What's all this?"  I explained that this is my source file for all my future works.  He said, "Doc, you're never going to get around to that.  These are wonderful the way they are.  Why don't you just find someone who can print them for you, and put them in your show, and see if anyone likes them."  The man-spouse concurred, because, well, he knows me.

Within a couple of weeks afterwards, I found out that Tim, the guy who cuts my frames for me, had a giclée machine.  I asked some questions about how it worked, and how I should provide him with my images, and then brought him my memory stick with all my pictures.  I had him print my favorite.  O Em Gee, it was gorgeous.  Ultimately, I had him print eleven different pictures, which I had in my shows this year.

But...
I discovered that some of the picture I had were small.  The large ones worked very well printed in a large format, but others, either through cropping or reducing, could not be printed large without becoming pixelated.  The chair pics happened to be thus, which is okay, because they would still be painted anyway, but there were others that I would have liked to have had ready for upcoming shows.  Yeah, I could print them small, but there's just something about the image that says it needs to be bigger, y'know?

So, in spite of having a new medium to show, it seems I still have a lot of work to do.  I guess I better get crackin'.

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.

Edmond 2016, Day Two

    Day two started out rather cool.  I had forgotten to take home the sweater that I was wearing the day before, and I was tempted to put it on, but my pride kept telling me that I didn't want to be seen wearing the same top as yesterday, so I just endured until it warmed up just after noon.  Also I had forgotten to bring a hat, so my bald spot got sunburned.
    Before the show opened, I moved the two screens that were holding up the new pics from the north side to the west side to increase visibility for the southbound foot traffic.  As you can see from the photo below, that was a smart move.

 

    You can also see that the weather was beautiful, and so was the crowd.  Unfortunately, that didn't translate into a lot of sales.  People loved my work; they just didn't love it enough to take it home with them.

    Early in the day, I overheard a group of young men walking by talking about the prices one of the artists had on his work.  One of them said, "Wow, I am in the wrong profession."  My eyes rolled involuntarily.  Yes, an artist may have, say, $5000 on a painting, but if at the end of the show that painting hasn't sold, the artist has made zero dollars. 

    Still, the day was rather nice.  My parents came by at separate times bearing food.  It was nice to see an old college friend, Sandra, who came by about lunchtime.  I had a nice conversation about current architectural trends in downtown OKC with a couple of fellows who had asked about the subjects of some of my new pictures.  And Gary Lennon dropped by late in the afternoon with some enthusiastic reactions to the new stuff.

    The man-spouse never got to come to the show.  Our schnauzer sustained some sort of injury - we're not sure what - and had to go to the vet this afternoon.  That took a big chunk out of the bank account and orchid watering time.  But hopefully tomorrow will prove that I'm in the right profession, so the money won't be a problem.  Tomorrow's supposed to be beautiful, so it could happen.

Edmond 2016, Day One

    The man-spouse has been helping me set up my shows since we met in 2002, but a couple of years ago he got his green card (yay!) and a job (yay!), which means he's no longer available to help if the show begins on a Friday (boo!)  So for the second year in a row, I have to figure out how to get this tent up by myself.  It's not easy, but it can be done.  As it turned out, my biggest problem in getting set up this morning was the lack of a water hose.
    There are certain steps that must be taken in order when setting up the tent.  First, uh... well, set up the tent.  By that I mean, unfold it and get the legs snapped into place.  That's actually the hardest part because gravity wants to interfere.  It's easier with two people because one person lifts the roof support, while the other person snaps the corner framework into place.  Not impossible for one, but very difficult.
    Secondly, I bungee cord the corners of the roof.  It's just a thing I do because during one show on a very hot day, the wind blew the roof off .  Although this is a new tent, I'm not taking any chances.
    Thirdly, we attach the walls, and fourthly, we attach the weights.  Instead of using heavy items, like concrete filled PVC pipes, I use five gallon buckets filled with water, which are convenient because I can just dump the weight when the show is over.  But they have to be filled at the beginning of the show, and that's where I ran into my problem this morning.  There is a spigot available for use at the corner of 1st and Broadway, but this morning it took forever to locate the hose.  I waited at the hospitality tent and had a donut and coffee, and chatted with the show committee ladies.  Finally, one of them came back with the hose, and I was able to fill the two buckets that I had brought.  When I got back to my space, I discovered that my tent had walked itself out into the street.
    I finally finished at 11:20, an hour and 20 minutes after the show opened.
    This is the first year that I am showing my new computerated photos.  I put most of them all together on the north side, and put my older stuff, the pen and inks I'm known for, on the south side. I didn't bring everything, and I didn't display everything I brought, because I have eleven new pictures and limited space.
    The weather was pretty iffy, but not nearly as bad as was predicted.  It rained lightly for a few minutes at a time all day, and fortunately, it wasn't wet enough to keep the crowds away.
    My daughter showed up for lunch, and while she was there a couple decided to purchase a picture.  While I was filling out the ticket, I started telling them about this blog, and about how in the first post I had speculated what my kids would do with my work after I was gone.  I said, "If my daughter winds up with my work, she'll probably find a way to market it and sell it all.  Or she'll just toss it."  That made them laugh.
    "Dad," my daughter said in that tone that teenagers take when they're explaining something really obvious.  "It's more valuable after you die."  That really made them laugh.
    A gentleman came in some time later, and got really excited about the intricacies of my pen work in one of my pictures.  He went to find his wife, who happened to be standing behind where I was sitting.  He told her that I had an amazing amount of patience, and that he could never have the patience to do what I do.  "Don't be silly.  You've got a lot of patience," she said.  "You married me."
    About 3:30, one of the committee ladies drove by in her golf cart and informed the artists that a storm would be coming through in about an hour, so batten the hatches.  As time approached, I wrapped up all my big pictures and moved them into the beauty salon behind me, and then sat in the booth waiting for a storm that never came.  The temperature dropped a couple of degrees, the wind picked up slightly, and there was some thunder, but the only bad thing that happened was that all the customers left.  By six o'clock, most of the booths had shut down, so I did too.
    Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day.