Getting it together so it looks like you’ve always had it.
It is Thursday morning while I write this and I am busy getting ready for the weekend. My summer has been long, busy but fairly relaxed this year as I haven’t done as many shows this season. Tomorrow, I find myself in Sandpoint celebrating a one year anniversary of someone I am in friendly competition with. She is putting on a small art event and painting competition and I believe in supporting each other. I will be home Sunday night, only to turn around and leave again a few days later for Boise ID.
When you have been taking some time off, it takes a bit to fall back into the swing of things. Organization is such a huge part of this, making it easier to put things aside and pick it back up again. People constantly comment about how I have such careful organization at shows, let me tell you it is like a fragile creation of pick up sticks. One wrong tug and the whole thing might just come apart, or so I think. It ends up that I thought wrong, as I found out when my husband and I packed the car up yesterday.
I always pack the big stuff with his help, the heavy items that I can do and will have to do alone for set up. It is a bit of a luxury to have his assistance when I am filling up the rig. The art, that goes in the vehicle in the morning before I leave. I like to have time and possibly cooler temps for it and I always am looking for something that I know I saw somewhere. Looking for a particular piece is hard when you are hot and tired at the end of the day. Some day I will know where everything is or be able to access the database to locate it, this is one of the areas that I don’t have it all figured out. When it comes to the equipment and the supplies, that I know where to look.
I know how to load it all too. What goes where in the rig; loaded on the bottom, to the left and to the right. With any luck, everything will get to my destination all in one piece. The problem doesn’t come from lack of organization, it is how the mind tends to spin out of control trying to remember the loose ends that you decided to add at the last minute. It will all come together, it always does and this is the one area where I don’t fear, “Fake it, till you make it.” Putting up a display is a bit like a theater production, a lot of duct tape, distraction and magic. Don’t look behind the curtain, it will spoil the illusion!
Does it get easier? Yes and no, as you get it figured out, your body ages and it becomes harder to do. Everything is a race against time but take it easy, it is still a marathon not a sprint. I have 3 days to sit and look accomplished. I hope you come and see me in Sandpoint. I will be there on Superior as you come in from the longbridge. Look to your left, we are there in the tents!