Just wrapped up the Sensational Spring Show at the Fred Heute Center in Norfolk, VA and it was a real blast, rain and all! Prior to that Erin Bonilla, a local photographer captured me in action at the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk and took some amazing shots of me at the office. Pretty nice office!
After the rainy Saturday we had to do what we always do after a rainy show, air out and dry the tent and all the gear that got wet. We are always prepared with plastic bins for the work, lots of tarps and straps to transport the delicate and expensive originals to the vehicle safely. We also put all the shrink wrapped prints into sized cardboard boxes and cover them with tarps to get them put away properly. That was a good thing because we had some pretty wild wind and rain that night taking down everything. I highly recommend that all artists wipe down their tent walls (the vinyl outside parts) with a sham wow or soft rag to remove that water. I found that just overnight, it can grow that nasty black mold pretty fast. We moved the vehicles out of the garage and spread the tarps out and dried them all off on both sides and then folded them up for the next show. We also aired out and dried off the carpet we use as flooring for the next show. The last thing you want to do is procrastinate about cleaning up your equipment after a rainy show and then set it up for the next show only to find you have black mold growing all over it! Not pretty. You can get it off but it's a whole lot more work after it gets nasty.
This week is going to be very exciting doing Plein Air for the CHKD charity event at East Beach in Norfolk. I also have two art openings, one at Norfolk Academy and one in Suffolk in the evenings the days I am doing the Plain air event.
I will have a week to catch up after this weekend and then will be doing the Art Of Saving The River sponsored by the Lynnhaven River Now organization in our very own VIBE Arts District. They are a great group doing great things to save the Lynnhaven River so I'm all in on that. I will be marking off the spaces for that event the Thursday before it starts. After that I set up my tent without the art and then go to Norfolk Academy to pick up my art and then on to an opening in Suffolk for the CBAA. Friday morning I will be hanging my art and filling my print bins at dawn and then will be greeting the artists as they arrive with their packets and information for the show and showing them their spaces. Lots of questions of course but this business is all about doing a lot in a very short period of time and staying positive. There will be a reception in the large tent from 5-8pm Friday. Saturday and sunday the show goes on.
The following two weekends I will be at the Stockley Gardens show in Norfolk and then the Surf Art Expo and Steel Pier Classic in Va. Bch. This year the Surf Art Expo is using one of my paintings of the jetty as their official poster for the event. Soooo....with that in mind, C Ya at Da Shows!