If you would have told me in February of 2020 that I would only do 7 art fairs in the next two years it would have blown my mind. I would have been super sad and scared because I was so used to the routine of almost weekly art fairs year around. In fact at the beginning of the pandemic, as I realized over the course of three or four months that I wouldn’t be doing an art fair for a long time I was pretty worried. You might think I was worried about my income but honestly I was worried most about my artistic motivation.
“The Unexplainable Whale” was one of my first large scale pieces made at the beginning of the pandemic”.
Most artists don’t have an unending drive to create as the myth goes. We need to have a reason to create. During art fair season I have the motivation of filling those Pro Panel walls with art after work has been sold the week before. Without this push I was worried I would languish- but luckily this did NOT happen. See my previous blog about giving myself assignments, titled “Art Assignments”.
Some of my recent ornaments.
I was able to do some “stocking up” but mostly I made elaborate extreme pieces that will be shown at gallery shows and also be “showstoppers” in my booth. I was happy to find that I was totally motivated to make more small pieces (mostly ornaments- check them out at www.claysquared.com) when the art fairs were approaching. There is a certain kind of excitement that comes when a deadline is loaming and you are trying to make as many cats and unicorns as possible (and many other animals but you can never have too many of those two!).
View from my corner of my booth at the Three Rivers Arts Festival
And then at last the art fairs came! I can’t tell you how much it feeds my soul to put my work out for the many art fair attendees to see. I like to create my booth like an installation piece that takes you to another dimension. At my last art fair in Covington, LA I saw people connecting to my work in a much more in depth way than I remember from the past. I felt like people were drawn to the uniqueness and creativity of my work and really taking time to examine my more elaborate pieces. I also soaked up the joy I felt from everyone. I will never forget the little girl in a T-rex hat (left over from Halloween?) running up to my booth calling out gleefully “It’s an Arts Festival!!”. I felt the exact same way and I think a lot of other people did too!
This ornament was inspired by the young arts enthusiast I met at the art fair.