late nights, paint-stained hands

My festival tour kickoff starts this weekend, and I've been on lockdown in the studio for weeks. The solitary time spent creating is part of the appeal of being an artist, but it can also become frightening. After so long, I sometimes have difficulty carrying on simple conversations. My vocabulary is shot. I don't know what happens, but I feel the need to read a book-out loud, just to use my voice.

Oh wait, that's not very social, is it?

I should probably get out of the house.

I'll be out of the house soon enough, starting this Sunday! There's Shell Beach, San Diego (2x), Danville, Slo open studios (2 weeks), Sacramento, Shell beach (again), and Pasadena. Whew! I'm so excited.

If you don't know much about fine art festivals, let me give you a little low down. You are required to be in your tent at all times. That's 2-3 days sitting outside in any kind of weather. Some of these shows have 10,000+ people in attendance. That's a lot of meeting and talking, and hopefully selling :)

You are required to have a high percentage of original art. Some shows require up to 80%. If I sell all my original art in September, there's no way I'll have enough paintings for October and November, thus the long hours in the studio.

Plus, there's a zillion things to do. I'm not even going to get into that because it stresses me out, and I'm trying to calm down, despite all the coffee I've been drinking.

So I'm going to take a few deep breaths and just do the best I can. I'll be back with a report.

Thanks for reading!