The final stretch

This week is all about the Art Crawl. It's crunch time...the Crawl starts on Friday. I am focusing on final details...at the studio, I'm varnishing paintings. At home, I'm cleaning and reorganizing our place to turn it into a mini-gallery for the weekend.

The Art Crawl is always a big deal...well, to me and all the other artists that will be opening their studios, it's a big deal. Getting ready for it you sort of hyper-focus on preparing for those three days. It's a little overwhelming.

To be honest, this Crawl feels even bigger than some of the past Crawls. Partly because for the past four months my primary focus (occupation, if you will) has been painting. The Art Crawl is my first big opportunity to get feedback from a larger group of people. It's also an opportunity to hopefully sell some of my work...and that sort of financial validation means a little more than other times too. 

People often ask if it's hard to part with my paintings...and the answer is usually "No!" First off, I don't offer my paintings for sale until I'm ready to part with them. Whenever I have sold a painting it has been such a wonderful exchange and I've always felt that my painting has gone to a good home. There's something exciting about knowing that your artwork is a treasured possession in someone's home! And lastly, I have to sell some paintings to make room for all the new ones I'm going to paint!

Regardless, I'm ready for the Art Crawl to begin! I am anxious to start hanging my work and to put everything in place! It's always so much fun when the event gets started--there's so much energy. And I always enjoy meeting and talking with new people (and returning visitors as well!) about art, what pieces of mine they like...even if I don't sell anything, that feedback and energy keeps me going for a long time following the Crawl!

So a few more days of final preparations and the show is on! The weather forecast for the weekend is fantastic--low 70's for temps and the only chance of rain on Sunday--great Crawl weather. 


I'll let you know how it all turns out!