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           Ann put about two miles on her new knee during the show

We had heard horror stories of the force of winds blowing through this show in the past and were quite concerned.  As it turned out, it was probably the best weather this show has enjoyed in years.  Thank God.  We only brought sixty pounds of weights per corner and the tent rental people were all out of the 250 pound weights they furnish for artists who request them well ahead of time.  Which we didn't.    

  Anyone familiar with Parkinson's Law will understand that if you have six hours to set up that somehow it manages to take six hours, especially if you pause for lengthy conversations with artists you haven't visited with for months or even a year or two.  We enjoyed the visits and welcomed the relaxed pace of the setup.  It looked like everyone was able to get close enough to their spaces to have an easy time unloading and setting up.  The whole scene was relaxed and the artists made room for each other with grace and good humor.  

    As our friends know, Ann is recovering from knee surgery so we decided to cough up an extra fifty a night so we could stay in the Hyatt, which was close enough to our booth for a minute and a half walk.  Cane and all.  Wow.  We've never experienced anything quite like it.  The Hyatt people were wonderful.  As soon as they saw Ann's cane they set us up with a complimentary free parking spot right next to their entrance.  When one of the staff tried to bring out our van the first morning, he managed to wedge it solidly into the vehicle parked next to it.  While the manager was trying to figure out how to untangle the vehicles, I unloaded the rest of the stuff for the booth onto a hotel baggage cart which one of the bellhops carted to my booth.  It was quite a parade.  

     There was minor damage to our Sprinter, but the hotel contacted their insurance company and we're on the way to having it repaired when we get home.   The nice thing is that they cannot do that repair without also correcting the one next to it that I put there myself at the St. James show when I backed into someone's bumper, which left a nice black streak.   Damn.  

     The show started off a bit slow and on Saturday we were only at a few hundred bucks by about two PM.  Then it took off.  We have not sold that many big pieces (@ several hundred $ each) in YEARS along with a large volume of our smaller images.   On Sunday it was a near repeat, but not quite as strong as Saturday.  We were happy with the results.  Other artists around us did better than we did.  Some by quite a large margin. 

     We were quite happy with our sheltered corner spot.  Since we were one of the first to send in our fees,  I was able to ask the nice lady to put us where she would want to be in order to be protected from the winds. She done us good.  

     On Saturday around noon one of the artists came up to the booth to see if I had gotten the same lunch he had.  He seemed to be under the impression he had offended someone in charge of feeding the artists.  When he saw my lunch he was relieved to see that this had not been the case.  

     In all fairness, we did get a note that the show had lost lots of financial support for that kind of thing.,  

     The award structure was unique in our experience.  Although I did not get an award (nothing unique about that) I was impressed with the way they did it.   Ten artists got awards of $500.00 each.  Period.  Although they did not have a list of the award winners, I was given a link for this info.

  http://NorthernVirginiaFineArtsFestival.org/awards.php

      If they take us back next year, we'll do this show in a heartbeat.  

    As a footnote, I was able to meet with a dear old friend of mine, renowned entomologist David Nickle.  We were in bug school at University of Florida way back when.  He went on to get his doctorate in entomology and a job with the Smithsonian Institute while I went forward to open a a pest control business to support an art career beginning in the late seventies.  I sold the business in 2004 and went full time with the art shows.  It's been fun.  David is retiring soon.  I will do art shows until I run out of money,  

       We were all able to enjoy a great dinner at the Tower Inn in N.E. Washington.  The Decor was a bit over the top, however, but the men's room was a great experience.  It was like peeing with the Gods.  

                    The Fobot folk.  The twins had a great show (or so they said)

  Jim Copeland had lots of new stuff..  until he sold most of it.  

    I highly recommend the valet parking at the Hyatt.  

         ..They're heavily insured and promised to fix everything.  

  
We hope that next year the Democrats will be put

back in charge of the lunch budget.   

   .. With Dr. David A. Nickle, mild mannered entomologist.  An old friend of mine from college days who took time from advising National Geographic just to have dinner with us.  

Oh My..

  I was so overcome by this level of elegance that I almost forgot why I was there.