Fur In The Paint

Okay so I really DID take pictures this time. But unfortunately I appear to have deleted them as soon as I downloaded them. NOTE TO SELF: I really need to learn to not do things (you know like blog, operate heavy machinery that sort of thing) when I am excessively tired. So dang it, no pictures unless by some miracle the hubby is able to retrieve them because he has magic skills. (don’t hold your breath though, hubby is working double time right now between the gallery and making hay. Umm . . . to be clear, that’s not a euphemism. I really do mean he is making hay.)

So the show went well. And by well I mean I made pretty much exactly what I expected to make. I probably/possibly could have made more at Omaha. But as I said Saturday morning it stormed overnight. And while now I feel bad about the “neener-neener” comment because it was an actual storm where tents got trashed not just a rain shower, I also feel so much better about being indoors despite the potentially lower sales.

A Short Story Titled “I Don’t Care.”
When I woke up in the middle of Friday night with the lightening and rain, I rolled over thinking “I don’t care.” sighed ands went to sleep.

When I walked into the building Saturday morning with my booth completely ready to go knowing that the humidity would skyrocket from the rain and the temps were to reach into the mid-90s with heat index around 100. I smiled thinking “I don’t care.”

When I woke up in the middle of Saturday night with the lightening and rain pounding hard against the window, I rolled over thinking “I don’t care.” sighed ands went back to sleep.

Umm . . you get the idea. This was probably the most stress free weekend ever. With the gallery going gang busters I wasn’t even sweating about whether I would have enough sales to make it worth my time. All in all art fair heaven.

The Event Breakdown
The event was held in the varied Industries building at the Fair grounds in Des Moines. They had around 250 artists which is down (by deliberate choice of the promoter) by quite a few from the last time I did this show. It runs in conjunction with the Outdoor Summer Festival that runs downtown which has about the same amount of artists.

Sunday morning a fellow critter artist friend Belinda Riley (click the link to see her wonderful critters. I’ve got a couple in my gallery but nothing of this size.) and I left our husbands to “man” the booth while we went on reconnaissance mission to the downtown event. While the setting is really lovely I can’t say that I think the artwork was anything superior to the indoor event. It was beastly hot when walking about and while they had a good crowd not too many of them were carrying packages.

Artfest MidwestThe Benefits
* Obviously the whole INDOORS air conditioned thing.
* Love being able to just walk out Saturday night and leave booth completely intact.
* Have load in helpers (for a reasonable fee)
* Donuts for Sunday Breakfast
* Works hard to include Iowa artists. The other event touts how many states their artists are from.
* Sue Stookey the promoter works really hard to address artist concerns. A rare thing to be cherished.

Downside
* Still the stigma of this being a lesser talent show

As I’ve said normally I would be in Omaha on this weekend but I heard a rumor that they are moving their event to a different weekend. If that is the case I will definitely be doing this event again.

Tags: artfairs

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