Just a quick note to everyone who responded to my State Fair post. Thank you sooo much for all your encouraging words – they are much appreciated!! My new work schedule is a little exhausting – but I am also liking being back full-time – I think the last time I worked full-time was in 2003 (that would be B.K. – Before Kids).

And here’s a quote:

“Friends are God’s way of apologizing to us for our families.”

Here’s a pics of Will at the play farm at the New Mexico State Fair. The kids had to do “chores” around then farm such as pick vegetables, ride a tractor, milk a (pretend) cow, and rope a (pretend) sheep. At the end they get paid with a popsicle. It was so fun he did it twice – or maybe he just wanted another popsicle!

A group of friends and I got a booth to sell our art – we all know each other through the ATC group and decided there is strength in numbers – especially with a $250 booth fee. The woman that organizes it actually came up to me and Leau when we were selling at the Neighborhood Market – apparently she had a few empty spots and the fair was coming up soon so she gave us a discount.

The day of load-in we discovered we were right next to a “pet couture” (read clothes for dogs!!) booth. And this is NOT hand-crafted stuff – it is “Made in China” stuff. They also sold lighters, dogtags, jewelry and other “engravables”. Down the line it was roughly 30% handmade arts and crafts and 70% everything else – like Pampered Chef, balloon bouquets, tupperware, even a booth promoting a Chuck E Cheese clone! It has been a very disheartening week – we sold hardly anything – definitely did not even get back our booth fee. Apparently no one wants to buy a necklace for $30 (OMG – $30 for beautifully handcrafted, unique jewelry is such a steal!) when they can walk ten feet farther and buy one for $5 that they can have engraved FOR FREE!! And some of the comments we heard “I could make that!” and “Don’t break anything, I don’t want to have to buy that shit.” frankly make you lose faith in yourself, your art, and humanity in general. My lovely friend Leau was the one who manned the booth the entire time (I just helped out three days) and she will be blogging about hee experience and when she does I’ll post a link to it.

But I’ve bounced back somewhat today. We’ve learned our lessons from this experience (know the venue better, know the organizer better, and know what other artists (or non-artists as the case may be) they are bringing in. And I do know that what I do is unique and cool – and while I would love to share it with the WORLD – I am content to share it with the people to get it – now I just need to seek out venues that are a better fit with what I do. No more square peg/round hole stuff. OK – off to make more art.

Today I…

made enough food for the entire week (I am going full-time at my job tomorrow and need to get all my ducks in a row)
did ten million loads of laundry – ok like 5 or 6 – but it FELT like ten million
spent a few hours at the state fair selling at our booth (haven’t told that story yet – but I will soon)
worked on two encaustic pieces and one collaborative piece
downloaded some photos from the past week
played “Dora” to Will’s “Diego” all day
started Katie on whole milk and watched her consume a whole bowl of chicken tortellini with pesto
cleaned up the kitchen
picked up the house
thought a lot about my future in regards to selling my art
watched NO football (this is very sad – I heart football!!!)

Here’s one of the encaustic’s I worked on – the bottom bit of blue is painter’s tape – I think my next step is ripping it off and figuring out what to do there – I have an idea but it involves using my own handwriting and that scares the bejeesus out of me!

One of the places we visited on our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest. If you live in the area and haven’t been there – GO NOW! Lots of amazing stuff to see – and the “Bridge of Glass” is something that must be experienced.

I am not the most regular of bloggers – vacillating between trickles and torrents. But today I have reached my 100th post – and I feel very accomplished about that! Here is an update on the encaustic I’m working on – just some subtle changes.

In progress

“Momentum” is the theme for Illustration Friday this week. I thought this image was appropriate – both from the feeling of motion – and the momentum this couple(my littler brother and sis-in-law) is experiencing – moving their lives together forward.

More ATCs for the trade tomorrow. Used pics from the wedding and created stencil-like effects. Making stencil-type images was one of the first things I did when I was learning Photoshop. Christmas 2002 I made several people Warhol-type images using their faces. And now the stencil look is so hot. I’ve purposely stayed away from them for awhile because they’re so “in” right now. But, dammit, I did it long before it was cool so I decided to play with the concept some more.