Whew! Now I can breath a little!

Setting up my booth at Dunwoody, Georgia

A colored pencil friend, Cathy, stopped by!

I've been preparing for the Dunwoody Art Festival for 6 months and now it has come and gone! I had a great time, sold some things, and learned alot!  This was my first art festival and I felt like a true amateur...at least in the merchandising aspect of the show!  We didn't spend tons on our display, because I really didn't know what to expect or whether we would be doing this again or not.  So I have realized that if I do want to do more shows, I need to create a much better display for my booth.  My assistant (my husband) and I really enjoyed it, even though it was a lot of work! We are exhausted this week!

There were 148 other artist booths in the show.  I believe all of them were excellent at what they do! There were a few rookies there, like me, but many of the other artists were very helpful! They gave me lots of tips and suggestions on what I can to improve my booth.  Which is definitely what I need to do.

Although we are looking for art festivals closer to home, we hope to return to Dunwoody next year.  The festival was very well organized, with a lot of people coming through!  So, thanks to Francis for inviting me to participate in the festival!  I really appreciate your interest and support!

My booth needs work, but he kids loved it because the houses were at their eye level!

Check back soon to see what I've been working on!

~Beth

One More Month...

...until time to go to my first Art Festival as an artist! May 8th & 9th, we will be in Dunwoody, Georgia for my first Art Festival, and also the first Art Festival for the town of Dunwoody.  This festival is organized by the same group who organizes a similar Art Festival that is held in Norcross, Georgia in the fall.  Check out the website to see the list of artists who will be at the Festival!  So it is definitely crunch time for me to finish creating the clay houses that I will be taking to sell at the Art Festival.  I hope to do well at this festival. If it is successful, I may continue to participate in this and other festivals in the future.  I believe this is one of those opportunities that found me for a reason.  In preparation for retirement from teaching in the near future, I am definitely looking for more opportunities to make a living with my art. So look for future blogs about my experiences in preparing for and going to Dunwoody!

Another opportunity that I have come across recently is the Art Cooperative in Searcy, Second Saturday Studio.  I recently posted about the Studio that opened up a couple of weeks ago.  Two Arkansas artists, Kelly VanHook and Micah Holden, who live in central Arkansas, have organized this space to give Arkansas artists a place to show and sell their art.  As artists, it is difficult to find places that are available for artists.  So I was very excited to hear about this space.  Normally they are open only once a month, but they are going to be open this Saturday, because of a local festival at the college in town. But the big Grand Opening event will be next weekend, April 10th, from 9 am to 5 pm.   I will be attending this event and look forward to meeting all of the artists that display at the Studio.  If you are in central Arkansas this Saturday, April 3rd, or next Saturday, April 10th, come by the Studio to check out the super Arkansas artwork! They are even starting a gift registry!

Wish me luck in these events, so that I will be able to move toward my goal to become a full time artist by next year!

Good luck in your artistic endeavors! I hope you will stick around to hear more about mine.
~Beth