This is my favorite painting from Forest of Arts
last weekend. It was my third art fair and I decided to bring my paints along
so I wouldn’t be staring at customers all day while they look around my booth.
I started out reworking an old treescape that didn’t feel finished but in the
heat of the day my attention span dissolved and I started painting abstracts
and experiments (below.)
Deciding to participate in art fairs happened suddenly. I
had been interested for years but always came up with reasons why it wouldn’t
work. Then I was interviewing Jennifer Lommers about the opening of her new
shop Studio 262. Afterwards I asked her a technical question about putting her
work on-line as prints. In the course of her answer she said, “I was willing to
make mistakes.” I’ve heard the sentiment a million times that we need to be
willing to make mistakes to learn and reach our goals but in contemplating
starting a business I was hampered by an irrational fear that any less-than-professional
impression I made would be instantly and permanently imprinted world-wide. Something
about Jennifer being a real and inspiring person instead of a personal-growth
book triggered a complete rewrite of that program and I found myself
immediately impatient to go out and make mistakes.
I had to remind myself of that eagerness many times while I
tried to make a nice booth set-up on a limited budget. Because I know a few
basic carpentry skills I assumed I could build display walls…someone
should have filmed that slapstick. Two art fairs later, my set-up had no
remnant of my original construction. I was tempted to feel bad about wasted
materials and time but remembered the importance of
mistakes. It’s no different than a painting. They tend to be better when there
is some struggle and revision involved leaving mysterious under-layers,
textures and edges. There was nothing to do but be happy I finally took a risk and
then turn the table-saw on to rip all that wasted
lumber into framing material.
At the first fair I looked around at
other people’s booths and realized that most of my efforts were somewhat unnecessary.
I was so afraid of doing things wrong I did a ton of research on-line and
developed some high-standards for myself. Other artists who were starting out
came up with nice displays with just folding tables and crates and such. If I
had that sort of willingness to jump in I could have started doing art fairs
years ago and while that might not get me in to the high end art fairs right away, who
cares? Starting out small then growing seems like a sane and natural way to get
into a financially risky endeavor like selling art.
I have one more fair next weekend in Newport. Then I will take a break, work on
paintings and make a schedule for the application deadlines for the fairs I want
to get into next year.
Here's my booth from Forest of Arts:
