Fur In The Paint

Actually, I seriously pondered not writing about this at all. But then I thought my plan for this blog was to be as honest as possible. Only in honesty, can it really help anyone else. That being said, it is just such a drag to keep talking about how brutal these past several shows have been. I have talked with many artists who do events all over the country and their story is much the same. Many missed opportunities because of the weather.

So here is my story in all it’s harsh reality.

Is it ever going to stop raining?
These photos were taken with our cell phone. Not the best but it gives you an idea. Basically that big barren spot in the foreground where the people are standing, is where my both was located just one short hour before this pic was taken.

It was Friday night and it was rather unexpected. Even though it was still sunny, I began getting antsy somewhere around 3:30 and went over to the artist information booth and asked what the weather was going to do. They promised it was going to miss us but perhaps we may graze the edge and get some rain out of it. They were wrong.

Sometime around 5pm the tornado sirens went off. We had already begun packing things away because I didn’t really trust the info we had been given so far. But it was too little too late. We got all the originals and large framed prints indoors (with help from some of the volunteers.) Most everything else was put into totes and we zippered down the tent. I was told several times to get inside by the time I was actually heading indoors.

It had been eerily still and then you could actually hear roar of the wind before you felt it or seen the trees move. We got inside the Landmark Building and were sent to the basement. The lights went out breifly and a generator kicked in. Lights were restored in minutes. We remained in the basement for around an hour.

When we finally came up it was shocking to see the mess. Booths were completely gone. Our neighbor did silk clothing and their clothes were scattered all over. Their daughter was crying. They packed up that night and left. Of the 135 artists, less than 20 left on Friday. All others, even those who lost their tents, went to Sams Club got replacements and carried on. Fortunately we almost always carry two tents anyway, so we just set up again on Saturday.

My totes had literaly been blown all down the street. Most had their lids popped off and were filled with water. Nearly everything that had been left outside was destroyed. An artist friend of mine who was farther down the street and in a more sheltered location was in good shape. She stayed with me until the wee hours sorting through the wreckage to salvage what we could. (Big Hug! Thank you Belinda!) Mike was dismantling the tent parts and doing general cleanup.

I haven’t even yet completed my inventory to figure out how much was lost, even though I have been working on nothing else since our return. I am guessing it is about $5000 worth of small prints and notecards. All in all it could have been so much worse. There was a wildlife artist whom Belinda and I had visited with earlier, (totally stunning artwork) who lost everything. An estimated $30,000 worth. No insurance. I cannot truely convey the loss some people sustained.

The artfair folks lept into action. They immediatly got extra police down to the site to prevent stealing from the public. They had a workforce of volunteers who assisted in the cleanup. Their goal was to continue the event and have it look as if nothing had happened at all by the following morning. And they succeeded. Just check out the photos in the previous post. (looks pretty normal) Artists were moved into empty spaces and most artfair goers were surprised that we had anything happen weather wise.

As for the artists. Well anyone who had a booth in the hard hit area, for the most part was in a kind of shock. We were all really nervous the remainder of the weekend because it was windy and we never really had time to relax. But we (artfair artists) are in general a hardy breed. We carry on. We all know that this kind of weather is always a possibility. We are always living on the edge. But for most of us, the rewards are worth the risks. Not sure if the wildlife artist I mentioned earlier will think that in the future though.

The Storm
We didn’t actually have a tornado on site, (though there were some in the area) but had anywhere from 80-120 mile winds. That was enough power to move a food tent that had over 2000 pounds of weights over to wipe out 3 other booths. A window of the landmark building was damaged by flying debris. In parts of Omaha they had quarter sized hail and semi trucks and cranes were toppled by the wind. And of course it rained with considerable flooding.

Note: We had over 500 pounds on our tent. This is a ridiculously high amount for any other event. We normally have 300 pounds at all other events, which is far more than most artists use. The artfair actually has an architect and a engineer inspect every artist’s tent to make sure it has sufficient weight on it. The artfair also supplies free sandbags for any artist wishing to add more. This is the only event that does this. It’s the little things like this that show that they really do care about the success of their artists.