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Miss Moo Cow from the sketch a few posts back.
Polychromos on board, what else?
I gave her a milking stool to sit on.
She's not for sale or anything yet.

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Today I went to a local art fair. Its a big one, with lots and lots and lots of exhibitors. I went thinking I'd check out the competition; thinking "I should do this too, seems like everyone else is, let's see what this is all about."

Its been a while since I've been to an art fair. This one was jam packed. Booths right up next to each other, lots and lots of lots of all the usual stuff: art prints, jewelry, wooden carved stuff, stained glass, more prints, paintings, on and on and on and on.

And you know what? I was completely turned off. Not only did I think "Oh there is no way I'm ever doing this", I was also not into looking at other people's art. I was shocked at my distaste for the whole "scene". My own art is no better or worse than anything I saw there. It wasn't a "these people are such amateurs" kind of thing, or at the opposite extreme "gosh, these people are so good, I'd never be able to compete."

It just felt ... icky. I can't imagine myself sitting there passively while someone rifles through my art prints, or stands and looks and ponders, or worse, just walks on by. I also cannot fathom having to chit chat and talk-up potential customers all day long ~ having the same friendly conversation with person after person after person. And then just being glued to that spot for 6 or 8 hours. For 2 or 3 days in a row. I think my head would explode. It almost did today after about 30 seconds of elbowing my way down the sidewalk through booths and people standing and lolling about.

So I decided right then and there to delete that "maybe I should do an art fair" program off my hard drive, so to speak. I've had websites for Harvest Festivals and Holiday Crafts Fairs and the like bookmarked, and have been thinking about signing up for a couple, but today effectively quelled that idea once and for all.

My hat is off to all of you who do this. Really. HOW do you do it? How do you sit there in the roasting sun for hours hoping someone will buy something? It takes a special something that I clearly don't have. The "Art Fair Gene". (I'm also lacking the "sports gene" and the "polka dot gene", many others as well I'm sure.)

I have another whole little speech forming in my head about "how I want to present myself ~ or as importantly, NOT", which will have to wait for another post. I'm pondering all the myriad of 'selling art' options and realizing I find some of them distasteful. Its just that in this economy you sometimes have to explore options that you may not have given the time of day too in fatter times. I remember in art school we all thought we'd be raking it in doing movie posters and big advertising jobs, all from the comfort and luxury of our posh studios, while our staff was tending to the other mundane chores and aspects of our lives. HA!

I'm starting to ramble. I'll pick up this thread later, I'm sure.

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Last night I watched "Rosemary's Baby". I hadn't seen it for a long time. I vividly remember seeing it when it first came out (I was in the womb ~ well, no, but I was young.) My Mom spent half the movie with her hand covering my eyes! And she was so mad at my Dad, because he'd read the book so "should have known how awful it was!". Back then there was no movie rating system, so little kids could see movies like that, no one cared.

All day today I've had that creepy "la la la laaaaa" song in my head (which I figured out was Mia Farrow singing, its her voice, listen).

Check out the new discussion forums Rachel Singer Gordon has started over on LISjobs.

“LISjobs.com, the largest free library career portal on the Internet, is pleased to announce the launch of its new online community for librarians. Devoted entirely to career development and job hunting, these forums provide a space for librarians, LIS students, library workers, and information professionals to discuss professional development issues.”

The current forum topics cover LIS schools, jumpstarting your career, professional development and participation, talking tenure, professional writing, and work/life balance.

In other news, American Libraries has started its own discussion forum based on content from the magazine and other ALA topics, so the LISjobs forums make a nice complement. Together, these are two great places to connect with your colleagues. Thanks for providing this service, Rachel.