Thursday, August 20, 2015

Overdue Update: Junction City Arts in the Park Festival from June

I have been meaning to write a blog post about my first festival experience for over two months now; things have been busy for me, so my apologies for the delay.

It was the first time I've been on the booth side of an art festival or art fair, and I got to find out just how much work is involved to be a participant. I had suspected the level of effort would be as high as it was, but of course there are always little unforeseen things that can crop up. These little things add up, and my immediate conclusion was that there was no way I could have pulled the whole thing off myself! Luckily, my dad (seen in this photo) had offered to help me out, and I'm very grateful for that his presence, assistance, and ideas.

The immediate takeaways from the event were:
1. The vibe was good and the people were friendly and interested in looking at my art.
2. My art was well received and it looked good on display, even from a distance.
3. I got to display my art to a new audience.
4. The heat stayed away, so being outside was tolerable!
5. I tentatively booked another show for Junction City (more on that in a minute).

There were also a few negatives to the day:
1. We got rained out and had to close up shop before the day was done! That's Kansas for you; at least none of my work got damaged.
2. I didn't sell anything!
3. The Juneteenth celebration moved to an indoor space, so some traffic and energy was probably lost as a result.
4. Working a festival booth is... hard. At least now I know.

It may be a while before I participate in another art festival, mostly because I don't have my own kit and won't be able to invest in the necessary components in the near future. Also, I can't realistically do these things by myself, so until I know who I can count on to help out, I won't have all the resources and tools necessary to do a good job.

I'm okay with all of this, however, because right now my principle task is to be in the studio painting. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted if this changes, however.

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