The art show – days 0 and 1

By Annie Holland | March 23, 2010

I had such an amazing week that I don’t even know where to begin with telling the story behind the scenes of the art show!

You all know how excited I was ( and a little scared too) with showing my work and having all these talented people around me… All kinds of questions ran through my head!

I still think about the e-mail Don Rittner( who organized the event) sent to all of us participants with “expect the unexpected” punch line and I remember panicking around the house minutes before I went to set up at City Hall.

So, here it is, the way I saw it happen:

– Friday 19th, Set up day– after I pulled myself together and finally loaded everything in the car, my better half and I went to City Hall to set up my work for my first art show. I was really worried what we are going to find there, because none of the participants knew where they would be exactly, how much space there would be, how would we put up the paintings and drawings on the walls etc. I think I was so stressed out mostly because I didn’t know what to expect and if I would be able to handle whatever came up my way.

So, my space was at the far end of one of the halls on the second floor. Initially I wasn’t very happy with that, because this was REALLY far end of the hall and on the side on top of that but the next day I saw that this was actually a good thing. But for this a little bit later!

I started unpacking, first I set up the pyrographed pieces ( which was on the 1st floor, and my other stuff was on the 2nd floor) and the cards and at the same time my husband ran to the store to get hooks ( we didn’t know what kind we would need beforehand) for the drawings and paintings.

My pyrographed pieces and cards

Setting up was a slow work, because I did it for a first time. On top of that people who reserved space didn’t show up and if I knew that beforehand, I would have set up a little bit differently, but things were what they were.

Next I set up the drawings and paintings and since I brought my table I used it for the watercolors, because my pyrography was on the 1st floor.

My white on black drawings

My watercolors

I brought up my easel to show my largest( and first) oil painting:

These were the most difficult to hang up, because there were 3 of them and I had to climb high on the ladder and I hate that!

Here are the last 3 paintings, 2 oil and one acrylic paint.

I was exhausted after we finished, mostly because of the stress, not so much from hard work! 😉 Once it was over, I was able to relax and think about the adventure the next day.
I say adventure, because for me it really was one! This is such a valuable experience to have and this is why I wanted to go in the first place!

– Saturday, 20th, First day of the Art show– I got up early and I was so nervous that I couldn’t even drink water, let alone have breakfast. Big mistake! Sure there was food, sure my husband brought me both breakfast and lunch on the site but I was not able to eat any of it!

There were SO MANY PEOPLE! Much more than I expected! It was so busy that I could barely sit down( the high heel boots, not such a good idea too), let alone eat!
But it was so exciting! So incomparable to anything I’ve done before that I wouldn’t give it up for the world! I met so many interesting people, I talked to my fellow artists around the venue, I looked at amazing works of art! But take a look and see by yourself!

Absolutely wonderful Native American work! The picture doesn’t do them justice!

Painted glasses

Silent auction of vases painted by local celebrities

This was a very large piece! The artist had some more, you can take a look at them in the album I made for the art show, when you click on the picture.

You have to take a closer look at this one! Really!

My kids and I going up on the 2nd floor the morning of the first day

Can you believe this is carved with a chainsaw?! They even did demonstrations on the lawn in front City Hall.

And this is me again, with my watercolors.

You remember how I mentioned that I was not feeling great about being in the corner, because nobody would come to see me, right? Wrong! As my husband said, this corner is like a spider trap ( LoL!), people are just passing by the art on the sides of the hall, but when they reached the end of the hall, they stop by, they walk around and chat!

On top of that I made lemonade from the lemon( a.k.a the corner spot) because it was a great ice breaker when talking to people, joking that I got this spot because I was a newbie and this is my first art show. I also had a sign on the wall saying ” Keep quiet, please! Cort is in session”, so I was joking that I am not only in the corner, but I have to keep quiet as well. 🙂

It worked out better than expected, but as I always say, keep the positive attitude up and good things will happen! And I did! I am like that, I stress out before the actual thing, but when I am at the moment, I pull myself together and make the best out of it. And I was adamant that nothing would spoil this experience for me!

Of course there were people who weren’t as happy as me, but I guess it depends on what was the reason for you to be there in the first. I really hope I can keep myself away from looking at such events as a “routine” and would appear completely bored and negligent to the people who look at my work. Really, if I ever get to that point, I hope there would be someone to tell me to stop making (or showing) art, because it defeats the purpose of it. But enough of that! There were many, and mean MANY interesting and pleasant people that I had the pleasure to get acquainted with and I hope one day I might even call friends!

I had a great time and felt happy and that’s the most important thing at the end!
I talked to many people, some of them were simply admiring what I made, others were asking questions, commenting or giving advice! I dare say that this was one of the things I really needed! To talk about art with people who understand art, who have been there and done that! It was unbelievable and I am so happy that I did it!
I was scared silly and there was really no reason at the end!

I think I’ll stop here today and I’ll continue tomorrow with the second day of the art show, so stop by to get the rest of the story!

Annie

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