I’m home after a busy, awesome weekend at the Boulder Art Festival Saturday and Sunday. I woke up late this morning and stumbled around in the kitchen, finding dog treats and coffee, feeding the girls, and finally sitting out in the studio yard with my coffee and breathing the September morning air. I feel so much gratitude for being here in this place and for the weekend I had, and all the support from friends and family. I sat by the fountain listening to the water flow and looking at the soon to be senescent garden, especially the dried corn stalks and drying sunflowers. It was peaceful out there and so nice to have a moment of silence without rushing to get ready for a show.
I sold a total of eight paintings this weekend, and a very small number of prints and cards. This was a great location and time for an art show, Pearl Street Mall is always busy, but on a holiday weekend it’s packed at times, and it attracts a lot of visitors and people with a lot of disposable income. I did get one serious commission inquiry that I followed up on this morning, so I hope they decide to go ahead with it.
I sold Sprung to a couple from New York, so I will be shipping that out tomorrow. There were people from Pennsylvania who bought two paintings, and someone from New Jersey bought Cityscape. The rest of the sales were local people.
Boulder has a wide variety of people, from very wealthy to very impoverished. You see students, professionals, people scraping by in the tourist industry, and a lot of people living on the streets. The disparity is loud and clear, it’s an accurate sampling of the best and worst of this country. Mental health care and affordable housing is lacking, and it’s apparent in large numbers of people who roam the Mall and downtown Boulder.
There were political marches on the mall during the weekend, with a good sized parade of people on Sunday with Israeli flags protesting the inadequate action of the US and Israeli governments on freeing and bringing to safety still-held hostages and the recent announcement of the killing of 6 hostages, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. There are so many deep, long-standing issues to solve, none of which will be fast or easy. But Netanyahu is one very big issue that needs to be addressed and removed, the sooner the better, in my opinion.
There were a lot of happy moments. There was one young woman walking around giving flowers to the vendors on the mall. She gave me a zinnia and said it was her birthday and she felt like doing this. I thought that was pretty cool. I talked to people from a lot of distant places, a guy from Toronto, people from the east coast of the US, a guy from Israel, people from Mexico and Germany and Japan and then many others speaking languages I couldn’t recognize.
There was the bunch of bananas who walked by several times. I never got to ask them why they were dressed as bananas, but they let me take a picture. I was busy nearly the entire day with people wandering in and out of the booth, especially on Sunday when I didn’t have anyone with me until Dennis got there around 3 pm.
Saturday my friend and neighbor Brett drove down to help me set up and help me during the day, I loaded all the paintings in my car and he loaded all the display panels, tent, weights, and big stuff in his truck. He helped me set up, and then he wandered around Boulder in between giving me breaks at the booth, until about 4 pm. He took the big painting I sold back to Dennis at the house when he went home so I didn’t have to worry about it sitting around for another day, and I can ship it out on Tuesday.
Setting up was a little chaotic. I contacted the organizer on Friday to ask if he could move me from the location he put my booth originally, which was right next to the music. He found me a spot near 14th and Pearl, the last booth on that block. Brett and I started to set up in that location, we already had the tent up and were halfway through setting up the display panels, when someone from the city came by and told us we were in the fire lane and needed to move. I sent her to talk to the organizer. He came back with her and said we could set up closer to the sidewalk on the other side of a kiosk, which was right on the corner of 14th and Pearl. That turned out to be a better spot, though there was no real shade and it was close to the sidewalk. The only drawback was that a few people decided to take a shortcut through the booth since it was open on both ends. One doofus rode his bike right through my booth. I didn’t even have to yell at him, someone was behind the booths who saw it and yelled at him, and the guy came back and apologized. I told him not to do it again. Weird people.
Saturday night I stayed with my (stepmom’s) cousin Libby, who lives in Bolder just a few minutes away from Pearl Street. I slept well there in her cool, comfortable basement guest room after being out in the heat all day. She stopped by the booth on Sunday, too.
Sunday, Dennis came down with his truck and gave me a break the second half of the day, he also got us pizza which was really good so we didn’t have to deal with dinner since we wouldn’t be home until about 8 pm. We broke down the booth at the end and drove home, and the girls attacked me, they were so happy to see their mom.
I would do this show again, it was perfect for me, and I bought a corner booth this time. It was well-worth the extra expense. It’s a lot of work and exhausting, but I think my style of art fits well with the people in Boulder. I got a lot of good feedback on my work, and plenty of traffic, steady sales, and a possible commission.
I have a month off now, actually, 3 1/2 weeks, before the Palisade show. As soon as I recover from this weekend I’ll be working on the commission from the people in Loveland, and some other pieces. Tomorrow I’m headed to Cheyenne to get a trailer hitch installed. I hope that goes smoothly. I will visit with my old friend running friend Katy up there, she lives near Cheyenne. I am still so tired today. But I’m really happy to be getting my art out in the world. It feels great when people tell you they love your art and see things in it, and it speaks to them.
That’s where I am, and it’s September, best month of the year. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back to write again soon.
Hi Alene,
Gosh, what an amazing and successful weekend in Boulder! Congratulations on getting more of your art out into the world, getting lots of exposure through traffic, and even getting a commission. It must feel so good indeed. I'm happy for you. I'm sure it is exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. Enjoy the three week break between shows. And fall. Such a spectacular time of year. My favorite season, hands down.
Good for you, Alene! You are so talented. Of course, people want your work! I am so glad this was a successful weekend for you, and that you got a commission! AWESOME!! I'm glad you have a few weeks' break to recuperate and work on art. The four bananas made me laugh a bit; I'm sure there's a reason they dress that way. I am glad you had a day to relax and unwind. Sending good vibes for lots of future sales!