Eventful Summer

I am not going to lie, August was a wild ride that kicked my butt a little bit! When I booked my art events for the summer, everything looked spread out enough on paper, but it sure felt like a lot more activity in reality than on paper! Where to begin. I can't believe my last post was in early July. July was relatively mellow, I had one market. It was so very hot and humid and I felt like my sweat was sweating, but I had a lot of happy customers who braved the heat to come see me and purchase my art. I love making connections through art. In particular, there were people asking if the street art was mine and if I was the one teaching the class. The dot mandala class I taught was August 2nd. It was at the shop/gallery where my sailboat sails are on display. I was having a bad day, my dog was really sick with some stomach issues and we were getting conflicting info from our insurance companies about the coverage of my son's wisdom teeth removal, and my husband's engine died in his car and we weren't certain what that would all mean. It was bloody hot and humid that day and my old car doesn't have working air conditioner so I felt like a sweaty mess driving to class, worried about my dog. Then when I got to town, a massive event was going on and parking was tricky. But, I made it in time, and the class was at max capacity of 10 students. I was super impressed with how well everyone did!

We had amazing luck with my husband's car, one of the guys who drove the tow truck for him let him know that Kia knew their engines were failing and we should check if they'd cover it under warranty. This guy owns a repair shop and had zero obligation to tell us that, but that's the epitome of 'Midwest Nice'. Despite his car being 10 years old, and we are not the original owners, they covered a brand new engine, AND reimbursed us nearly $800 we spent on having it towed back and forth from Green Bay. Whew! We could have been pretty financially wrecked if we would have had to pay for a new engine, or buy a new car. What a blessing. We had our biggest vendor event August 9 and 10, a huge 2-day festival in the city where we live. It typically brings in my best sales of the year. The weather was looking iffy. When I was setting up my vendor booth, my very seasoned neighbor vendor was chatting to someone about the weather, and said he'd lost a few tents and learned his lesson, that its the water, not the wind that broke his past tents. I started to stress out. I only paid $45 for my canopy on clearance and I knew it wasn't the strongest. Still, the weather held out most of the day. I made a lot of sales and we got to see a great parade. Then at 3:30 PM, we got walluped with a storm. We did our best to get the walls put up and block out as much as we could. Inside we started to see dripping. I had gorgeous handpainted tables and all my art in there, but we were trying to get everything tucked away and get out of there. We got absolutely soaked to the bone walking to the car, drove to pick up some pizza and get home. After dinner, the rain slowed and we went back to see how it looked. Our canopy was a twisted wreck, metal twisted and bent, and leaning on said seasoned neighbor's booth. Luckily, our booth didn't damage the other vendor's tent. Our stuff was wet, but fortunately, most of my art escaped without damage. We quickly packed up everything and decided we were done for the weekend. Fortunately, I did get advice on a good quality canopy company from another vendor, and we made enough sales for the time we were there to cover the cost of a new canopy, but we definitely lost out on sales by not being there for the second day. Not much we could do about it. The following weekend there was a big kite festival on our beach that we like to go watch. The festival was on Saturday during the day, but once again there was rain in the forecast. Fortunately, some of the kiters came out the night before and lit up Lake Michigan with their awesome kites just to practice or show off their skills. We live about a 10 minute walk from the beach, so we laced up our shoes and went to see the magical kites.

I was feeling really positive about the next event, the artist gala and auction of the egg art, until Monday evening before the week of the event, I got a message that while they were moving the eggs they noticed mine had some paint peeling.

EEK! There were about 4 spots where my egg was bald. I had to beg to get a few hours off work to drive over there and fix it so it would have time to dry before the gala. I cannot tell you how stressed I was. It took me about 3 hours to fix and re-varnish the egg, but I left there feeling much better. The two extra layers of varnish I applied honestly gave it a bit of a sheen, which made the colors pop even more. I had answered a call for art from my regional technical colleges, and the same night I found out my egg was damaged, I also received news that the college wanted to purchase my giant canvas. That was so exciting to know my art is going to be on one of the regional campuses. This is the art I sold them for $850. It's called "Solstice"

Friday, Aug 22 was the gala. The village that put on the event is in an area of Wisconsin that attracts wealthy tourists a part-time residents from all over the country. It's known as the 'Cape Cod of the Midwest'. The catering company had upscale horderves and wine and a great food spread. There was a musician playing piano as people who paid for an auction paddle got to go to each egg and meet the artists and ask questions. The businesses that sponsor the event also had representatives theee to meet the artists as well. I was so nervous, and glad my husband was there. The bidders were all very friendly and a few of them let on that they planned to bid on my egg. I also got to meet the lady who would be conducting the audit, she was so fun and supportive, and told me my egg was going to command a high price. I brushed it off, assuming she said that to all the artist. Here's a photo of me with my egg at the gala.

The following day was the auction. I was really pretty relaxed. I had a glass of wine and chatted with a bunch of other artists. The auctioneer came through to ask how we felt, and she asked how much I was hoping to make. I said I don't have a lot to go on, but another piece of my art auctioned for $2,000 so hopefully that or more. I was the 10th egg auctioned. They started the bids at $1,000 and if no one took it, she backed down and worked back up. There were 32 eggs, and none made less than $1,000. There were a bunch between $1,100-2,000, a few in the $3,000 range, and a few between $4,000 and the highest sale of $8,200. I got to step into the over-packed bidding room when my egg was up. Before she even could finish asking if anyone would start with a bid of $1,000, a paddle flew up! The auctioneer chuckled and then, instead of going up by $500 increments like all the other eggs, she doubted the bid, $2,000 then $4,000 then $6,000 and in less than 30 seconds she had a bid of $7,000. It happened so fast my head was spinning. I thought to myself, did she really just say $7,000? I left the room with tears in my eyes and got all kinds of hugs and congratulations from artists and volunteers. Mine was the second highest sale of the 32 eggs! I walked out of there with a check for $3,500. When I was standing in line for my check, the auctioneer came to congratulate me and said, "You must feel so seen!" And the guy who organized the whole event came and gave me a hug and said "You really knocked it out of the park!" To be a relatively new artist participating in an event where there are such seasoned, well known artists and have such a phenomenal result is really a huge confidence boost for me! And I sure felt accepted into what I thought was a pretty exclusive "club". One of the other artists also owns her own gallery and invited me to put some of my art in her gallery. It was just such an amazing event and honestly I am still reeling from it all! I still have a smaller event for an animal sanctuary where I will have my booth, and a large event later in Sept for the auction of the sailboat sails I painted. I will have a booth there that day, then I will be interviewed about my art, and the auction ends that day so I will find out how much my sailboat gets auctioned for and they will mail me a check for half. As far as my eating, weekends have been pretty lax lately, but weekdays are still keto. I could have done better with my eating, but I accept my softer focus as a temporary stream of the path of least resistance in what felt like an overwhelmingly busy month! As much as I have gained from this season, I am looking forward to the end of my vendor season so I can take a breath, get reorganized and figure out what next summer will be like.