Wow! What a mess these past few days have been! First, the stress/excitement of having a booth at the Fayetteville 1st ever Block Street Block Party. Then, the horrible weather that we have had in the Midwest has put me on edge! I have been glued to the news, checking weather reports, and praying for a break in the weather. Looks like this weekend should be nice for celebrating Memorial Day with family... but I digress....
Sunday my friend Amber Perrodin and I shared a booth in downtown Fayetteville for the Block Party. We spent Saturday making our hand-cut banner and figuring out the layout of our booth. Amber is so incredibly resourceful, as she had been collecting old doors that we hinged together and made into the backdrop of our booth! Sunday found us uncertain if the bad weather would hold off, but it did hold off, and we sold a good amount of product!
On a separate note, I have this social problem where when surrounded by large groups of unknown people, I kinda clam up. My heart races. I get really quite, and appear physically uncomfortable. I get super self deprecating, and pretty much loose my ability to function as a normal, confident artist. I knew this would happen, as it has happened at all of my shows in the past. There is some security when you sell online. The bit of anonymity, and ability to edit yourself is priceless. Being out among real, breathing people, however, requires a bit more tact and candor.... something I struggle with. I tried to warn my Amber on Saturday of my potential bad habit... hopefully she didn't mind how strange I was? I could just feel myself shutting down throughout the day. Add pregnancy hormones and an unusually muggy day into the mix... you get the picture?
But, even in spite of my own self sabotage, I met some new people, and was so thrilled to be sharing a booth with Amber! She is incredibly talented, not only as a painter and print-maker, but also as a maker of plush owls! Seriously, almost every single plush owl she made sold! If she had made more, they would have sold too. Amber had requests for custom orders, and even ran out of cards because the public adored her so much. And, I will ad, Amber is the type of creative person who can and should make art her full time job. She is a bit of a visionary, dreaming of teaching her own printmaking and watercolor classes, and is super great at making connections with other local artists. I am so proud of her and her bright future!
Here's some more product pictures:
Stacie
