There are so many wonderful, amazing aspects to being an artist! You make cool stuff for a living. You set your own hours. You stretch yourself with new concepts and techniques, developing a style that is distinctly yours. There’s nothing like it!
And then to balance the scales, you have days like today. I’m at the Broad Ripple Art Fair in Indianapolis and my guess is that in the last hour, we’ve gotten 2″ of rain. Now what you should know is that yesterday it also rained. Truth be told, we’ve had more rainy days than sunny this spring! (I haven’t done any real fact-checking there, but that is what it feels like!)
So, the field I’m in was good & muddy before the sky opened up & Armageddon began. Good times! Here’s where a good sense of humor is critical. Because the tough aspects to schlepping my wares around to sell become REALLY tough as I sit here. In the rain. Not selling anything. Staring at the artists across the aisle from me. (Who are delightful people I’m sure! But I’m not venturing over there in the torrential downpour just to say, “hi”.)
In an effort to stay remotely optimistic, I’m going to make a snazzy little list of things you can do while waiting for the rain to clear. Trapped in your tent. At an art fair.
1. Take a video for Facebook/Instagram to gather sympathy from family and friends. Videos are supposed to be good for social media, right?
2. Call/text someone who loves you. It’s always important to connect with your people. And gather sympathy, of course. If they can’t give you a, “Man, that sucks!”, who can?
3. Stretch. It is vital to stay limber. Standing stretches only, obviously.
4. Write a blog post. Share your experiences with your online followers. It’s good to post on a regular basis to verbalize your unique point of view. And of course, gather sympathy.
So my friends, that is the current state of affairs. Upbeat and soggy in Indy! Feel free to rejoice in the fact you are indoors! And if you are feeling generous, I’ll be collecting bits of sympathy through today at 6:00. Or until the sun comes out.
Please tell me about your awesome day creating cool stuff, setting your own hours or developing your unique style? I need to live vicariously for a bit…
