I was blown away by how many wonderful people we met last night at Bryan (TX)'s First Fridays! Here I am telling how I fold & cut a plastic bag, then loop the circles together, to make balls of "Plarn" (plastic yarn!). After I get my 'skein' ready, I crocheted some 5" squares (pretty much the extent of my crochet repertoire). Now comes the best part: I "melted" them with an iron on the sidewalk (yeah, I brought an iron to outdoor, night time venue!)
This is one of the squares. The idea I have is to use several squares - each a colored little work of art in itself, but that create a much bigger scene when they are assembled together. I am excited to see how this evolves and will post the pics when I go back to working it after the holidays. I hope to have it on display at the next art thing I do locally -- I think it's Jan/Feb - but I have to check.
That is, until Fri., Dec 7, 2012! I brought some of my zipper bracelets, broaches, hair barrettes, a sculpture, a smattering of what I call 3-d collages or collage paintings and Fun Fat Freddy Frog (a collage sculpture I'll post on some time), along with the info to display for the Arts Council of Brazos Valley. I also brought along The Future of Fanzines painting that I did for my husband's summer issue of his fanzine, ASKANCE (see previous blog posting - more on this later).
I had already been told that we were not allowed to sell our wares - just 'promote' them and of course hand out our cards, etc... It's been a tough, long week for me at my day job, and health-wise (the cervical neck MRI results came back), and being sick and exhausted I was burning the candle at both ends in trying to get ready for last night. I even said to John just before we left the house, something to the effect of, "I don't know, maybe I should just forget this art thing."
But, I was committed (or often SHOULD be!) and so I packed, loaded, lifted too much, unloaded, and set up. --well, was getting set up, when people started coming by. Really NICE people. Who kept asking me questions about my stuff, and how much they liked it and how much was I selling them for????!!!! This incredible outpouring of people's attention continued non-stop all night. It took us until 11pm to get packed up and started for home, because we were engaging with such amazing art patrons!
All in all, today was the first Sat. in a long time that I wanted to get up and get busy doing more art stuff! Last night was FILLED with the MOST validation I have ever had as an artist! I have now sold 2-3 of my InAction Figures because of it! And we were both stunned by how many people asked how much the Fanzine painting was! I didn't even think anyone outside of Sci-Fi fandom would have any interest in it! The first inquiry we dumbfounded stumbled gaped mouth & "uhhmm-ummming." By the time it got up to four, John was saying, I don't know, and after that he was saying, "after four inquiries it went from IDK, to you can't afford it." (Yeah, he's funny like that!) Needless to say, I may not stow it away in the studio until the Science Fiction World Convention in San Antonio next August. It (and it's story) may make the next art display/show?
I think maybe, just maybe, this place might start to be feeling more like "home." Finding out that there are so many people willing to accept my "idiosyncratic" and "colorful style" & sense of humor has inserted a new thing in me. Something of a joie de la vie I don't normally have. So THANK YOU Brazos Valley Art peoples, for giving me the only bit of hope in my soul I have had in such a long time!