Actually,
I got back late last Monday, and as usual I'm a slacker about updating.
We haven't
done an art fair since July when we did Art Fair on the Square in Madison,
WI, which was very successful for us. In the interim I had been consumed
with working on my part time free-lance job, planning one of the two
Midwest book fairs I coordinate. That left me really missing the familiar
business of art fair preparation. It's all so much a part of me it's
like a second skin, and the book fair business this last time had left
me feeling really flayed, so I was especially anxious to get back to
the soothing and healing balm that creativity can bring to me.
We had
resolved the "Thirteen
Cat" problem, packed up and left Chicago around 7:30 AM.
The car started right up and the traffic was not at all bad. In spite
of the fact that my knee has been giving me big problems, we had pretty
high hopes for a good weekend. Columbus Winter Fair, put on by Ohio
Designer Craftsmen, has traditionally been one of the best (read--most
profitable) shows in the Midwest. Big Kitty drives (should I call him
"Toonces" when he is chauffeur?) and I do enjoy relaxing and staring
out the window and letting my mind wander and doing some heavy duty
daydreaming. Some of my best ideas have come from those moments.
Being
serious news and political junkies, we usually listen to public radio
wherever we can find it. Out in the farm nether-lands, there comes a
point where radio waves bring only country music, the farm report, odd
little stations reporting the demise of owner of the local hardware
store, and the births of new citizens, and stations pushing religion.
We usually give up and just listen to books on tape, or enjoy the silence.
I often sleep. This time, however, elections being a hot, hot topic,
we were seeking news, any news on the "million-vote-march"tm
to Tallahassee.
We forgot
that in the wilds of Indiana, Rush Limbaugh is a popular guy, and "Right
with Rush" shows up on more than one station. So we listened just for
the heck of it, and just to find out what sort of propaganda the extreme
right was dishing out these days. Big mistake! His whole "raison d'etre"
is to incite people to a rabid slaver---them because of his extreme
right wing spin, falsifying or leaving out important parts of the facts,
and-- us, well...because of exactly the same thing. As my blood pressure
began to rise, I called for an end to it. I needed to get back to my
comforting day dreaming, not have a frigging heart attack in the middle
of the Bible belt.
We always
stop at a Steak and Shake because there are none here, and I do like
their funny squashed burgers. After listening to Rush, I looked at the
waitresses in this small town with their hairdos, usually bleached blonde,
with that "Puffy Bang Thing"tm going on in front, and their
stringy pony tails, elevated to a fashion statement with crimp curls.
The other popular style is what I call the "Mushroom Cloud"tm,
where it's all teased up on top of the head, with short sides, also
usually platinum. The fifties reigns in more ways than one at Steak
and Shake. We speculated as to what the heck kind of future they
could possibly have there. I say to the women of rural Indiana, "Ladies,
start your engines-- and get out of town!" You have no hope of moving
out of narrow life-styles and realizing your own potential if you are
surrounded everywhere by people who hold the narrow views expressed
on your local radio stations.
Around
4:00 PM, we arrived at the show site, and that's where we got to act
like pack mules, and along with all of the other aging crafts people
with bad backs and knees, we schlepped stuff in to the hall and set
up for the next three hours.
The next
four days were grueling...the show runs from 11:00 AM until 8:30 PM
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and only on Sunday does it end at a
reasonable time at 5:00 PM; but then you have to take it all down and
go through the pack mule thing again.
Just try
to find a decent restaurant in Columbus, OH after 9:00. Even if you
wanted to eat a full meal at that hour, it isn't easy. And, as is usual
with convention fare, the food at the show is horrible and over priced.
So unless you happen to like won-ton soup made with salt water and containing
mushy won-ton filled with questionable animal by-products; or if you
want a snack of popcorn which I am certain is recycled from the floor
sweepings at the local movie houses, you are stuck with bringing your
own food to the show and foraging afterwards at local fast food places
or the supermarket for some sort of passable dinner. It remains right
up there with a mostly *awful* rating in the food category. The food
at all shows is always pretty bad anyhow. The best art fair food that
I can recall having was at the Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
As a whole,
the show was really disappointing, way down for us. I'm thinking I have
only myself to blame for my slow sales because I have not really made
new designs for several years, since I fell into my own art crisis.
Either that, or it was the "Thirteen
Cats Principle" operating.
Hard to
know where to place the blame for everyone else though, as many other
artists were down from years past. Many people were talking about the
apathy of the crowd. I do think the crowds were less than focused. I
don't know if it was wariness about the economy or just general boredom.
One thing I sensed was that people are less into decorating themselves
and more into home decor. They've bought their houses, and now are ready
to furnish them. Another thing I noticed was the preponderance of items
with pithy sayings on them. People want philosophies to surround them
and guide them, I tell ya. Just watch Oprah! Perhaps I should explore
one of those avenues. I think I may. I can collect pithy sayings and
not be ashamed to put them on products to sell. Yes, I can! Heck I can
make up pithy *non-sayings* and sell them! Betcha I could!
You get
to do a lot of crowd watching, especially at a slow show. Another thing
I noticed, apropos of that, was that people were wearing a lot of velveteen
and velour in muted colors. And there were those ubiquitous countrified
holiday sweatshirts with Santas and trees and snowmen, etc., and more
hairdos--puffy and fluffy and crimped and all...after all, this is still
really middle America.
Good part
about the show was seeing friends whom we don't see except at fairs
and we saw some whom we haven't seen for maybe four years, so it was
nice to catch up. And, sadly, I missed some old regulars, too.
The best
part was that it gave us a much needed chance to get out of town, and
it's good to interact with people we don't see often, and get a sense
of what's going on in other parts of the country whether it's crafts/art
or politics.
It's good
to make with Rush Limbaugh and the segment of society who is pro "G.
Dubya" Bush...that wakes me right up and only makes me realize that
we cannot let our guard down with regard to the right wing element,
of whom there are many, many more out there than I ordinarily see in
my somewhat insular life. I am now even more wary of just how much we
need to worry about "G. Dubya" being just a sock puppet for the religious
right.