Last weekend (June 2-3) I did Farmington's Art on the Grand for the first time. It was a lovely town and seemed like it would be a lovely art fair. They had live music…nice live music, artsy live music. Classical in the morning, folksy in the afternoon, and jazzy in the evening. That was perfect…it was backdrop music and was the perfect volume to enjoy and still be able to talk to your customer. The crowd was nice, lots of people despite the threat of rain. Not a lot of bags going by though. The booths around me did not seem to be doing a ton of business but no one complained of not making booth rent. Except me. I did not do very well, but I have a bit of a niche market when it comes to my art. Some places I do really well….others..not so much. I'm still learning where I fit. I might do this one again though…It was a pleasant art fair and I want to see what it would be like without the threat of rain hanging over head.
The rain threatened us all weekend. The forecaster's called for it in every newscast on every channel. The weather channel app on my iPhone said rain for every hour all weekend long. But the radar app on my iPhone showed it all above us,which was good, but I'm not so sure the other reports didn't keep away potential art fair goers though.
Saturday and Sunday both were bright, mild temps, and sunny (with the exception of a brief shower Sat. at 5pm) but it was windy……REALLY windy. I'm not good at guesstimating but the artist next to me said probably the gust were between 15-30 mph or more. My little EZ-up was shaking. But I've got a Flourish stabar for my mesh walls and that seemed to help a lot. Others around me were not so lucky. We saw an entire jeweler's booth moved piece by piece down the road. We thought they we're packing up but it turns out they were trying to find a spot more sheltered from the wind.
Two tents over they had an EZ-up with the kind of weights that you slide the tent feet into…...they weren't fairing so well. By mid morning Saturday they had someone fetch them those large round 15-20lb weights from someone's weight lifting gear. By the afternoon they had also added 3gallon jugs of water. On Sunday they were just sitting, one on each of the front legs of the tent, and hanging on to it….live weights if you will.
The worst was the ceramics artist kitty-corner from me. She had a trim line tent. It weathered the wind's buffeting well except for the back tent wall was blowing in and out buffeting her shelving units. Early Saturday it knocked a piece off the shelf. The Artist next to me ran over to catch the other couple of pieces he saw rolling around that looked like they were next. She moved her shelves inward and away from the walls in an attempt to keep them safe from the flapping walls.
It seemed to do the trick….for awhile.
An hour before close on Saturday the sky really began to darken. And the wind….blowing strong all day…increased it's force. As the rain started we got a HUGE gust of wind come through, like 50 mph. I heard a horrible sickening crashing sound. I looked across to see the ceramic artist's entire back shelf pitched forward on to the ground. People were running in to help steady her tent. Which was good because seconds later a second HUGE gust ripped through and her two other shelves would have gone the same way if people hadn't been there to catch them.
My EZ up with it's mesh walls swayed about a bit but it held up. The framed pieces I had hanging on them buoyed out away from the panels with the winds a bit but stayed in place. They were double hooked and I think that helped. I didn't have to let my sidewalls down until the rain came through so the mesh walls let the wind pass right through. And the stabar unit really helped the rest of the tent remain stable and weather the winds.
Her Trimline had held up but her sides were just buffeted and billowed in that wind. In the end that's what did all the damage, those billowy side walls. She lost about 75% of her stock. She had a show to do in two weeks time and her full compliment of stock was on those shelves. And she was not insured. So she lost her stock, she lost her ability to do the next show and thus any booth/jury fee's she'd paid out for this show as well as the next one. Not to mention hotel, gas, food, etc…if she wasn't close to home.
It really made me think. I don't have insurance either. Can't really afford it. If my stuff came crashing down in those winds I would have only to replace frames. Insurance might cover that but insurance can't replace my work. And if my work got wet I'd be screwed….I don't have replacement art sitting at home. Oh, I've got one or two "hole-fillers" for when I make sales but that wouldn't be enough if I lost stock like she did. And I've prepaid for a lot of shows for this year already. About one every two weeks….that's not a lot of time if I had to replace work. I have a full-to-part time job and other obligations besides my art. I'm already burning both ends against the middle.
My goal for this year was to swing my art out of the niche market it's in and be a little more salable to the average art buyer. But now I think I've got to readjust that goal and make sure that having a backup of artwork is one of my priorities as well. I'll look into insurance. I might buy a better tent. But I definitely need to have "backup" art at home. I can always get a tent in time to do my next art fair….but I won't be able to do that art fair if I don't have back up art work. Mother Nature can only make a fool out of me if I let her.
