Fair is On!

Just taking a quick minute to update. I've been at the fair for a few days. It has been a great experience! I have met so many friendly, talented people! One of my favorites so far is MJ- Emily Joy who is a 6 year old artist. She has already had her own show! She's on her way! I also loved meeting Sally and Connie, and Sally's daughter Erin (sorry if the spelling is wrong). They are artists who are at the same stage I am, looking to get beyond the hobby stage and really do something with their work. I met many others who I don't even know their names, but enjoyed our conversations so much.
The artists that I'm sharing a booth with are incredibly talented and so sharp. I admire their work, and the people that they are. They are such hard workers to have accomplished so much at such young ages, I am totally impressed with each one of them. Nels has popped in to check on us, I'm so thankful that she made this happen and really cares about this program. This experience will be important to my students.
Many professional artists who have been doing the fair circuit for years have been willing to share advice and encouragement. I enjoyed talking to a lady who makes beautiful masks, she gave me some great inspiration for my students. The man in the booth next to ours has been super helpful. He is the voice of experience. He has the whole fair thing down to a science!
Another great person has been the man with the restaurant behind our booth. He has been so kind to us! He was born in Greece, and he has had this restaurant for over 30 years.
There's an awful lot to tell.... I haven't even mentioned the tornado yet! I'll have to make another post later, I have to go for now, lots going on today. Check back!

sold a sunflower

sold a sunflower postcard today! first one, so that was fun! Hooray! hopefully, they will all sell! I've been thinking about using procedes from sales on the cat postcards to donate to some kind of animal rescue, and today I talked a little to someone associated with the Jackson County Animal Rescue Friends. I'm not quite sure how this works? Do I have to sign up with someone, somehow? I need to find out.

details, details, and more details

There sure are a lot of little things to take care of. Today I took 5 more pictures in to have professionally photographed. I left postcards advertising the fair at a few places. I bought some more mats and frames for the prints I had made. Spent time matting and framing. The prints look great in the black mats with black frames. I'm really pleased with the way they came out. I hope I have time to frame the snow crab pictures, they would look really good framed the same way. The beach pictures look great in the black mats too. I priced some more things today too. My costs are really adding up! I hope I make some money back!

Getting Organized

I keep dabbing around on this one, still reworking the lace hankie... These things belonged to our Grandmas. Grandma Z's hankie, Grandma M's flower pin, Grandma J's pink earring... everything has a memory...

Getting organized. Last night I labeled, numbered, and wrote the size on the back of each piece. I made an inventory list. I'm working on labels to put next to each piece- gallery style. I bought foamcore yesterday for the backs of the labels. I'd like to get that done tonight.


I'm working on pricing. I'm thinking the smallest pieces at $150, mid size $300, and large will vary $500-$800. The gyclee prints will be $75, small photo copies $8, and postcards $1.50. I think these are very reasonable prices considering the time I put into some of them.


I actually do think that time-wise I would make more money this summer if I would have gotten a part time job at Walmart. Last fall I made $150 one day working at Walmart- all I had to do was stand in the school supply aisle with a Crayola apron on and hand out free markers to kids. I used that money to buy a new mattress- our old one was killing our backs. That was more money than I will make on one of my paintings- bummer... I don't want to be a "starving artist"! but, I do love to paint! I love playing around with color, I love how surprises happen in the process, I love how one color can look so different depending on the colors you put under it and around it, I love how mediums can change the whole effect, I love my brushes and my pallet, I love the feel of the canvas- especially bumpy canvas, I love the beginning of the painting when anything is possible, I love the struggle of knowing how to procede at each step, I love it that I never really know when I'm done, I really do love the whole thing!

finishing touches

spent the day today looking everything over. I reworked a couple things, changed a few things, added signatures, measured for frames... I feel like I really improved a couple of paintings that I wasn't too sure of. The 2 crabapple snow scenes are starting to pop better, I might just leave them alone. I keep dabbing at the littler sunflower painting- since it doesn't feel like a very important painting I feel a little freer to play around with it.

I still have to decide whether or not to spend the money having them professionally photographed. Today I will also order more frames- can't decide how many...