Dust Bowl
Goose eggs and long days
The Highlands Art Festival started out promising, but deteriorated in the second day. It was extremely hot on Friday, when we set up. Dennis was off work and he came down to help me, we got through the setup and hanging the big artwork. The first thing we noticed was that where we set up was a dusty area with dead grass. We were also backed up to a wide sidewalk to Federal Boulevard, a major street throughout Denver. There was constant traffic and a lot of loud cars. You know, the big testosterone-fueled gas guzzlers that would require someone like me to use a ladder to climb into, that announce their presence and rev their engines, and often have some sort of lettering or stickers with either skull flags or some other symbol of white machismo. There were lots of cars blaring loud music, too.
We wanted to head home before rush hour. I didn’t get a hotel for this one, I drove home each night. That wasn’t too bad, Denver traffic was actually reasonable at the times I was traveling during the weekend. That turned out to be a good call for several reasons.
Saturday morning I drove down to finish setting up and get my bearings. The show was on the grounds of a Masonic Temple near downtown. It’s an affluent area just minutes from where everything is in downtown Denver. Old brick homes, narrow streets, big trees.
I wore my water sandals Saturday so I would be able to rinse the dust off easily. I put some floor mats down in the area where I was sitting and storing my stuff under the table, to keep things from getting too dusty.
Saturday started off fairly well. It was a lot cooler than Friday, with a nice breeze. I had a ton of people in and out of my booth, so many comments on my new abstract pieces, and I really thought so would make some sales. People seem to really like my work and they think it’s very unique. But by the end of the day I had sold only three small paintings. One was a tiny 8 x 8 from the set of five I made recently. Saturday the people seemed to have money and weren’t afraid of the prices. But no big bites. I hoped Sunday would go better. Interestingly, one of the paintings that sold was one that I just brought back from Ana’s Art Gallery last week.
I drove home Saturday with no traffic issues, and Dennis had dinner waiting for me when I got home. I slept well that night and Sunday morning the roads were clear and it was raining in Fort Collins. The forecast looked like only a few thunderstorms later in the day Sunday. By the time I got past Loveland there was no more rain, and none in Denver. I guess dust is better than mud at an art show.
When I got to the canopy and opened up Sunday, everything looked dusty. I took some paper towels and started dusting the paintings, and I could not believe how much dirt I was picking up. Everything was full of dust and dried grass. I knew I would have a major cleanup job ahead of me after this show was over. I’ll have to take a hose to the canopy and display panels and side panels, and maybe use some soap too! And I’ll have to dust every one of the paintings I brought.
I got to know the artists in the booth next to me and the three booths across from me. Everyone was so nice, one was from Texas (Austin), another from Albuquerque, another from Colorado Springs, and Denver. The artist from Colorado Springs is my age and we spent lots of time talking and watching each others booths. We have both been doing our art for about the same amount of time, post-retirement. We talked galleries, art shows, customers, and I found that she’s had similar experiences to mine with all of it.
Everyone I talked to who had done this one before said the show was slower than usual. For me, Sunday was a big fat ZERO. I did not sell a thing, not even a five dollar card. Zilch, zip, nada, cero, goose egg. Overall, I made enough on Saturday to mostly cover my expenses except for gas.
I don’t know what I could have done differently, I was wondering if I should have been more assertive in trying to close sales with people who were thinking about it. I did give them my card and talked about the paintings. I had a lot of people interested in Pink Pasture, too! But no one came back on Sunday, except for one guy who really liked a set of paintings but the red color didn’t quite match the room he wanted to put them in. He said he wants to paint the room a different color. But he could have bought them anyway!
Sunday the crowd was completely different. They were not people with money. They were there for the raffle that this event company puts on. People looked at my art more hesitantly and more of the prints. But they still weren’t buying!
The whole day just felt endless, and the artists around me were feeling that too. No one had good sales in our little area. I didn’t have a corner booth this time, that might have helped, but who knows. I haven’t had too many bad sales days, so maybe I just had it coming. The best part of the day was watching the couple in the booth across from me- the ones from Albuquerque- with their little chihuahua, Toby. I am not a little dog person, I prefer big dogs, but this guy was the cutest little dog that I’ve ever seen in my whole life. He had the best expressions on his face, and his pointy ears, and he was so sweet. I wanted to take pictures of him but never got around to it. They had him in a sling to carry him around, and everyone fell in love with him. They dressed him in a few different outfits over the weekend. Beyond cute.
It never rained except for a few sparse drops that fell while we were breaking things down at the end, and it took me two hours to break down by myself since I had to take everything to my car and trailer parked way down the hill, as parking was limited. I was glad I had my new big wagon, it only took about eight trips. The old wagon would have taken at least twice as many!
Traffic was light on the way home even though it was Sunday night in the summer. I got home, did an crappy job of backing the trailer into the driveway since I was so tired, and ate what Dennis cooked. He had to get up to go back to work in the morning, and then I went to bed.
Today I had to unload the dusty mess from the trailer and my car, return the UHaul, do taxes and the books, and then laundry. I dread having to dust everything and clean the equipment- I left it all in the garage for a day when I have more energy.
I did sit down and watch a masterclass from Art2Life Academy today that was about the relationship between gallery owners, artists, and collectors. It was great information and it really opened my eyes about how to better prepare myself for approaching bigger galleries once I’m ready. It also told me that my gut feelings about the galleries I’ve been in so far have been right on. More about that later…
This week I’d like to do a little painting and tackle some of the cleaning. But I decided to get a few more of the unfinished pieces done before I set up the canopy again, so I can take a good booth shot with a clean tent and panels, to use that for next year’s show applications. I can feel I’m headed in the right direction with my new work. Next year I really want to get out of Colorado for at least one art festival, if I can get into them.
As far as next year goes, I don’t think I’ll go back. I feel like it has the potential to be a good show, but the dust… it’s so much extra work when you’re already tired and you have other things coming up. I still like the event company though. They make an effort for the artists, all the way down to providing direct links for filing your taxes in the right jurisdiction. That is actually a big deal because it can be very confusing filing taxes for these special events. The owner of the company personally comes around and talks to the artists and thanks us, too. I will have to apply for some of their other shows next year and see how those go.
That’s all for now. Have a great week, and thanks for reading!