Silver Lining

My friend Kim calls it "artist lockdown." It's the few days before a big show. And in order to keep her brain focused and organized, and have the time she needs to prepare for the event, she turns off the phone and shuns the outside world, just working away frenziedly in her little studio.

I don't do that. Maybe I should. But I have a different type of business, and I need to answer the phones promptly, work on mail orders, putter around on the blog and web site. I spent last week doing all those things, and finishing up my summer newsletter (it's ready to ship out tomorrow, fingers crossed), running errands for all kinds of things. But I felt organized and ready for the show by the time I headed out the door Thursday to set it up. I didn't even need to stay up late the night before on last minute things. Instead, I relaxed with a glass of wine and went to bed early - ready to be daisy-fresh and perky for Friday's opening day.

Which turned out to be a bit disappointing as far as sales go. But I met a bunch of fun new people, caught up with old friends, adored the beautiful talents and gorgeous displays there. And forgot my camera. I seriously intended to post a few pix and encourage anyone who hadn't been there, to go, go, go. It was such a nice show.

Friday night was a wonderful little wine and cheese reception that PONCHO hosted for us artist peeps, so we all hung out afterwards and partied a bit. Such a pleasant alternative to the way shows usually go - where everyone races home to eat the same potato chips and carrot stick dinner that we got as freebie appetizers at the shindig. Anyhoo, it was really flattering to be honored by a party from such a prestigious group, and it felt special, even if it was pretty simple.

Saturday I remembered the camera. The above picture is the display garden, which featured all kinds of garden art stuffs from a lot of the artists there. But again, disappointing day, and it was supposed to be the rather largest attended day, so the grumble was getting louder - so many frustrated artists who needed to cover at least the booth fee (rather large) and were doing such a small business. A few artists were doing great, but most were wandering around idly with glum faces. And I began to get sick. By the time I raced out the door to head over to break down the Maltby show that evening, I had a sore throat and was feeling puny.

I meant to come home, post the photos, write a charming little post about how lovely the show was, etc. And instead, unloaded the car and almost fell face first into bed the first moment possible. Hoping to sleep off the little virus that was threatening to take me down. It didn't work. Up at 4:00am the next day, I was fuzzy, achey, and depressed. It was all I could do to get myself to work on time.

And then Sunday was worse yet, for sales, attendance, struggling with sniffles, and making my way through the day. Again, by the time I got the whole show loaded up and groaned the car home, I was only able to make my way straight to bed.

So today, finally, I have uploaded the photos. And they are pretty crap. But the booths, trust me, were gorgeous. And if you didn't make it to the show, you should definitely try to go next time. The stuff is really, really good. And maybe Mother's Day wasn't the best day to have an art show. Or something.

And the silver lining, is that I'm feeling a tad better, but still a bit sniffly and tired. Which is to be expected given the pace of the last week (and thinking about my schedule for the next two weeks scares the pants off me). But since I didn't sell a whole lot this week, I'm pretty much ready for U Dist this coming weekend. And can spend just a bit more time stuffing the mailing tonight, mailing it out tomorrow, working on the web site updates, and getting a jump start on what I'll need for Folklife the following weekend.

I have high hopes for the next two weekends. And high bills too. Hope springs eternal.