Hello Again
Clearly, I am not a motivated blogger. It’s been almost a year since my last posting. I did set up a Facebook page, and now have well over half a dozen fans (I think there are 7). I suspect that if I got around to actually making Facebook posts, that number would improve, but I haven’t done that, either. I had an email from a geographically far-flung cousin at the beginning of the summer, requesting that I keep up the blog, and between the boost to my ego (knowing that there is someone out there who is interested in what I have to say) and the desire to record for my own sake the ongoing Sawdust Art Festival experience, here I am on an overcast Labor Day, reaching out to my dedicated reader(s).
Sawdust Art Festival 2010
I’ve just completed my 4th summer at the Sawdust. I once again managed to get a corner spot, in spite of having lottery number 166 (meaning 165 people got to pick spots before me). In terms of size and layout, I think it was my best booth yet. The spot was over near the Greek Island Grill, very convenient since I think they offer the best food on the grounds. Pete was a little worried about the extra distance between the booth and the Saloon (which is in the opposite corner of the festival), but this year they setup an auxiliary beer station by the Greek, and it served excellent Belgian ales, so he was happy.
Here's me and my builder on Booth Pick day, standing in my future home:
In Brief
It was a hard summer - the lousy economy being the hardest part. It also seemed more exhausting than past years, and that’s saying something (or maybe I just forget from one year to the next how deeply tiring it is). My booth-sitter for the past 2 years wasn’t available to help. Although another friend stepped up, and did an excellent job, she had very limited availability. Pete, of course, was there to help 6 nights a week, and sometimes during the day. But he had his own work to attend to (and we’re certainly glad he has some). And, of course, life outside the Sawdust doesn’t stop during the summer. I still have a couple of graphic design clients I work for, left-over from my previous career. So after 12 hours at the booth, I would come home and deal with a variety of emails, bills, office work and website updates for clients, get to bed around midnight or 1 am, then get up the next day and do it all over again.
However, as I constantly have to remind myself, one must keep things in perspective. It is a privilege to be a part of such as a wonderful show, to have this opportunity to sell my work. One of my favorite memories from this summer was of a young boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, dancing down the aisle to the rhythm of the band on the deck. He was clutching a small plastic toy in each had (a sure sign he’d visited Doug Miller’s booth), and had a huge grin on his face. The lesson I took from that scene: be happy with simple things.
Booth Build
Booth build is, I think, best told with photos. This year, the tree was OUTSIDE my booth, making things much easier for my builder.
Here it is, nearly ready for me to mud the walls, paint & stain:
Others had more challenging spaces:
This year, on Preview Party day, I was actually ready before the festivities got rolling:
The Dust The Documentary
A young pair of filmmakers, Kailee McGee (her mother, September McGee is a painter in the show) and Rich Costales, spent the summer creating a documentary about the Sawdust Art Festival. To quote from their website: “THE DUST is a feature length documentary film that looks inside Laguna Beach’s Sawdust Art Festival. It celebrates this amazing art community and explores the magic of how an empty eucalyptus forest transforms into a bustling art community seemingly overnight.” Check out their website to find out more: www.thedustfilm.info.
Yours truly will not be in the film, though. One day they were filming Doug Miller (a prolific painter, as well as an excellent musician and integral part of the Sawdust) and he brought them by my booth. Kailee and Rich looked at each other, shut off the camera and mike, and said “Thanks for the tour, Doug,” before walking off. I had to laugh - clearly my 15 minutes of fame will have to wait for another time!
Collector’s Panels & Cars
We had 2 new fundraising efforts this year, both for education programs - the Sawdust is a non-profit, and educational programs are an important part of the show. One involved an opportunity drawing to win a Honda CR-Z, and the other involved auctioning off Collector’s Panels created by artists in the show. I decided to try something new and did a mixed-media piece for my panel - I was honored to have it purchased by another artist, Robert Jones, a ceramicist in the show. My panel is the second one from the left in the photo below:
Children’s Art Spot
My booth this year was right next to the Children’s Art Spot. Mostly, the classes were for kids to make assorted art projects - reasonable, quiet ones involving paint, crayons and maybe glue. But one day someone had the insanely misguided idea to have a music class for kids. It was part of the Beatles theme day, and it was 30 minutes of torture. Imagine 20 kids and their parents banging tunelessly on every percussion instrument known to man, then throw in a xylophone and a baby piano. Even our otherwise unflappable head of security was cross-eyed by the noise. I had to shout to be heard by the few customer’s who hadn’t been driven away by the cacophony.
Perspective
Remember what I said earlier about perspective? During the summer, a friend suffered a massive heart attack and needed triple by-pass surgery. Towards the end of the show, one of the artists lost her home to fire. And on the last day of the show, a home about 20 yard from ours caught fire - twice. Although the fire department had spent a long time checking for hot spots after the first call, they missed one. It flared up again just minutes before we returned home that night, and the neighbor's house was in flames when we arrived. One fire truck was there already, and three more arrived a minute after we did, and let me tell you, the presence of those trucks was a beautiful sight:
Recovery
As has been a tradition for the last few years, my brother arrived for the last weekend of the show. Note a family resemblance?
He had an annual leadership meeting for Trader Joe’s to attend the following week. The day after the show ended we headed to breakfast at the Beachcomber at Crystal Cove, and once again managed to grab a last-minute cancellation to stay at one of the cottages. We rushed to clear out as much of the booth as we could in one truckload, then dumped it back in our garage, threw together some beach essentials, and headed back to Crystal Cove where I could finally begin to unwind with a glass of wine and the sunset. Not so Pete. His work project was in crisis mode, so he was still at home working. He joined us for dinner and spent the night at the cottage (using my brother's iPhone for a late-night Skype conference with his team), but was gone again before breakfast, home to his computer and conference calls - here's the poor fellow packed up to get back to work:
And That's All, Folks
Well, I feel I've made up for more than a few blog postings here, hope you're still with me!
