When do we start, when do we start over.

I did a show last weekend and a storm ripped through the first day causing havoc. I looked at the weather as it was brewing on the horizon, people kept saying it looked like it was going to be bad. There was an artist who kept coming over to me asking what we should do. I knew that my booth was pretty secure but there were others who were probably going to be in trouble. I asked the artist why she was asking me and she said the organizer told her that I was the one to ask. At about 3:40, I told the lady in charge she should probably call it.

Ended up, I was right. At 4, I moved my car over and put my art into it. At 4:20, the storm rolled over us and tried to pull everything down on our heads. I was trying to pull my side walls down and ended up hanging from my tent to keep it in place. My neighbor’s tent was trying to come through the side of mine and she was holding a leg of it and one of her paintings. The artist who came up to me? She lost her whole booth. Her tent was shredded and she spent the night drying out all of her work.

So here is the thing, the artist who came to me: she is 74 and just starting out her career. The next morning she showed up with a new pop-up, her work and a can do attitude that I rarely see in younger artists. I’m 56 and looking at how many years I have left and this young lady is just putting her feet on the rocky path of professional art sales. She made me feel feeble and jaded. People looked at me telling me that they were in their 70’s like I was being judgmental but they don’t understand how difficult this lifestyle is. Friday was hard, the weekend wasn’t much easier and she was in my booth asking me how to get the equipment that I had. Well, they pretty much all were. A couple of them were asking if they could have my stuff when I was done with it. lol.

The thing I have learned is that you will have several resets in this business. You will pivot several times, try new things but the most important thing to remember is this; you do this because you don’t want to do anything else. Every time you do change, keep your core pure. Do what you want to do with your art at all times. Don’t chase the market, when you create for the market you loose your love of art. That is when you end up working a 9-5 chasing a pension, working for a time when you can retire. There is nothing wrong with that, if that is alright for you; go ahead. For me, I’m going to keep working the pivot and trying new things. I’m trying oils now. See you down the road!