30 Day Countdown!

It’s officially 30 days until I attend my first art festival as a vendor! On Saturday, May 18th I’ll be at the Art Fest at Taylor Brook Winery in Woodstock, CT (https://www.taylorbrookewinery.com/)

I’m both nervous and really excited for this opportunity. I think this show in particular is a really good match for me for a few different reasons:

• This will be the first Art Fest for Taylor Brook Winery so it’s a first show for both of us
• The show will be about a 20 minute drive so if I forget anything it will be easy to go back and forth
• It’s a one day show so I won’t be quite as worn out by Monday

It’s the first of three shows I’m officially signed up for. I’d like to attend a number of additional shows, but I’m still working through figuring out how to get in to some of the shows.

Just finding them in time to make the deadline can be difficult enough for us newbies. Then there is the submission of the both photo along with sample photos of some of your artwork that they judge to determine if you get in or not. I really need a good wall system for it all to look professional enough for some of the shows, but I’m not willing to invest that much at this point so I’m doing what I can.

My main goal for this year is to attend as many as I can even if it’s just as an attendee. I hope to learn as much as I can and to make a lot of new friends as I meet fellow artists and art lovers. It would be nice to make a little money as well, but that’s just a bonus at this point. If I enjoy the environment and process I intend to be in it for the long run.

So my nerves have really been getting to me and so I’ve been struggling to get the web site up and running. I managed to launch it on Monday of this week although there is still a lot I want to do to improve it. For now it should work as it’s more of a presence on the web than anything else. I don’t expect to do any sales through it, but it’s great to direct people to be able to keep up with me when I meet them at the art shows.

To that end I’ve also struggled getting any artwork out. I’ve hit a kind of block between the nerves from the upcoming shows, general activities around the new house, and a little bit of winter blues after a fake early spring earlier on. To get back on track I picked up some pens and paper at lunch when I was in Boston today and managed to get a drawing of the house: