Blog

I had applied to this premiere event several times in the past, but this was the first time I was accepted. Marcia and I loaded up the trailer and hit the road on Thursday. After driving for six hours we were ab out ten miles short of our hotel. The sky was darkening and it looked like it might rain. It didn't (luckily), but looking in the rear view mirror I saw that a driver behind me was flashing his lights. I slowed down, he came up to my side and started gesticulating wildly and pointing at my trailer. I thought about that scene in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" when Steve Martin and John Candy were driving the wrong way on the highway in their rental car.

I pulled over to the side to see what they were wav ing ab out and found that the plastic top of my top of the line Wells Cargo trailer was gone. It apparently ripped off in the wind and all my artwork was flopping around, exposed to the elements. Being the resourceful art fair artist that I am, I dug out a tarp and some rope and hastily covered it up. We made it to the hotel without a further mishap.

Next morning I tried finding a replacement top or something to cover the gaping hole but without success. Finally, a little late, we made it to the art fair grounds and untied the tarp. In 90 degree heat and heavy humidity, we set up all afternoon and spent a good hour working on a more permanent solution to the trailer top problem. We would have to drive seven hours back to Saugatuck on Monday. With lots of rope and duct tape, I thought it would probably work. Of course, as I write this, I am still at the Hotel and haven't tested the tarp arrangement on the road home yet.

At 5pm, as I was opening up the booth for the opening of the show, one of the show volunteers informed me that the police had cancelled the show for the evening and I was instructed to batten down the hatches and leave the fair grounds within the next 30 minutes because there was a big storm on the way. Nervously, I tied everything down and we hurried back to the hotel before the rain started. I wasn't concerned about the tent. I have a heavy duty EZ up that is heavily customized with roof beams, and corner weights that all the exhibit panels rest on and are tied to. Everything in the booth is designed to act as a weight to hold everything down. This design has served me well in several past storms including the microburst in Columbus that took out several dome-type tents a couple of years ago. I was cocky about my customized EZ-up.

We made it back to the hotel before the storm it, and it was a good one. Lots of rain and wind. We were totally exhausted by that time after working all day in the heat and humidity. We slept like babies.

At 7am I got a call on my cell from the art fair. They told me my tent was damaged and that I should try to get there right away to try to fix it. No details were offered. Being the optimist that I am, I thought it was just a little mis alignment and maybe a stray side wall or something. On the way to the art fair grounds we got another call from the art fair informing us that they had ordered us a new tent and that there were some volunteers at our booth waiting to help out. Now I was really nervous. Ordered me a new tent?

When we finally got there we were astonished by the devastation. It was just a heap of panels and canvas and artwork all arranged in a random pile of stuff. Marcia cried. It looked like a total loss. Our booth was directly opposite a wind tunnel alleyway next to the county police department on Central. Several booths around us were also down, including craft huts and trimlines. The wind must have been a formidable force to do that kind of damage. It looked like a tornado had set down on top of our booth.

After the initial shock wore off, we looked around and saw a virtual army of volunteers waiting for instructions on how they could help. And help they did. We carefully disassembled all the panels and pulled artwork out of the mess. I'm a digital artist and most of my work is printed on paper, either framed behind plexiglass or wrapped in plastic bags. We slowly disentangled the mess and started recovering artwork. A group of volunteers sat on the sidewalk with towels carefully wiping down wrapped art, one pice at a time and separating the pieces that had obvious rain damage. I learned later that a couple of other artists who were on site at the height of the storm saw my devastated booth and lowered the canopy down so that most of the artwork was covered by the top.

The art fair committee was GREAT! They worked with me all morning until a good collection of artwork was saved and ready for exhibit. They brought me a new tent and the helped straighten bent display panels. They got permission from the police to allow me to bring my car and trailer in to the fair grounds and leave it there for the day. I parked it in the wind tunnel alley and Marcia spent a good part of the day organizing the destruction and loading damaged stuff into the car and trailer.

At 11am the art fair opened and I actually had a decent display set up. Amazingly, most of the artwork was undamaged and "sellable." Thanks to a very responsive art fair committee, I was able to salvage a disaster and participate in one of the best art fairs in the country.

And participate I did! Saturday was my best single day ever with sales over $5000. I couldn't believe the crowd. It seemed like everyone who came into the booth bought something. Two TV stations interviewed me and I got lots of media exposure, so some of the purchases were probably sympathy buyers.

Sunday, at the artist breakfast and awards ceremony, Marcia and I sat down to a great breakfast of bacon and eggs and fruit and watched a slide show projected on the stage of the storm's devastation. There we were on the big screen, pulling artwork out of a heap of tangled panels. I hadn't noticed a photograper while we were working the previous day, but there was our booth and an army of great volunteers pulling things together.

Sunday continued with very good sales totaling over $3000, so we wound up grossing $8400 for the weekend. These great sales helped to offset the losses of my damaged artwork and display. And my EZ up? Still works. Just a little bend in one of the legs that I think I can repair.

I can't say enough good things about this art fair. The people of St. Louis support this fair big time. And the committee sprang into action to help us artists salvage a disaster. I'm hoping to get into this art fair again next year, but I think I'll request a different location away from that wind tunnel that took me down.