Well, it's been a few weeks since I posted one of these. Whoops! I was super busy with the weekend art shows and still recovering from the weeks of insomnia / the new meds. Last time here.
I haven't been painting a ton because we've been really busy. I have events every weekend this month, and it's been super hot so they're wiping me out. I have done pretty well at the ones I've had so far though!
Food. Art. Drink. was very successful. I made almost as much in sales that weekend as I made all of last year! It was nice that it was in the evenings only, and it was less humid so it was an unusually comfortable time to be out and about here in MO.
After my success at that event, I had very high hopes for Arts in the Park here in NKC the following weekend. That one got off to a rough start however: we got our tent set up just in time to be evacuated from the park due to a severe thunderstorm! We weighed the tent down as best week could (with additional weight my father had just dropped off that morning) and I left all my art in plastic bins with lids, under plastic table cloths. Then we went to the parks building across the street and watched the storm roll in.
I was very anxious about it, as it was my first event with rain (the others I've done have all been cancelled if it rained) and my father did not help things by sending me pictures of the trees down at their place! I think they got hit worse up north though, and we came through with no damage to the art, and a little damage to the tent. Some of the weight pulled the rings off the tent, and two of the sides got bent. So, not great, but we learned some stuff not to do in the future, and hopefully the tent will make it through the rest of the season and I can find a new one on clearance or something.
Overall I sold less at that event though, which surprised me because it was a bigger event, and had longer hours. We had a ton of people come through the booth and say very complimentary things, but fewer purchases, and no high dollar purchases. Not sure why that one would have been so different. Possibly due to how many other vendors there were? Or our location (which was off to the side and not by the main walkways)? Or maybe FAD was the outlier and I just didn't realize it since it was the first one! I will wait to make a judgement until after all events are done this summer to see what the outliers are.
I'm still sleeping on the new meds, and feeling overall a bit better on the anxiety front. I met with a therapist for the first time who gave me some coping techniques, one of which seems to work pretty well for me. I'm still very tired by the end of the week though, and so I've been opting to sleep in on Fridays instead of getting up an hour before work to write these blogs and do biz work. I really don't want to get back to the horrible place I was a couple months ago, so I'm trying to treat myself gently and rest when I want / need to. I'm too good at powering through, but eventually that catches up and takes a toll.
I did have two big accomplishments this past week: I got accepted to the Westport Art Fair as an Emerging Artist, and I submitted my first ever Request for Proposals for a large public art project. So overall it's been a very good month, with higher sales than ever, and multiple firsts!
I've managed to paint sporadically and I'm at peace with that due to how much other stuff is going on. My birthday is Sunday, as is Father's Day, so this weekend is packed to the brim again. So I may not be back with an update next week either, but we'll get back on track eventually. July should be a bit calmer, although not by much! It's summer, so it's time to pack everything in and enjoy these long days. That's alright though--after going through a full year of running this art business, I think I have a better feel for my busy vs slow times, and the slow times are around the holidays & the winter months after the first of the year. So I will really buckle down on painting and skill practice then, and be content to grow the other aspects of my business right now.
