Two three-day shows two weekends in a row is kind of challenging. Add in the computer problems of the "between shows" few days, my lower back issues, and the dog's meds not working right, and I feel a bit like I was caught in the revolving door for a few too many rotations. However, I have now been flung out into the world of house chaos and Christmas prep, which actually seems like an improvement.
The brief version is: show number one was good for sales. I was set to start printing replacement photos for show number two last Monday when I remembered I needed to write my blog. Got the memory card into the reader to download some shots, and the whole system hung up. I have a Mac and usually if things go wrong you turn it off and when you turn it back on everything is fine. Tried this, then couldn't get the computer to turn all the way on or all the way off. It was just sort-of somewhere in the middle and no amount of forced quits or restarts could change it. After it spent a day and a night at the local Mac store, the verdict was "computer is fine". They wondered if it might be a card reader issue since that was where things started going sideways. Took the card reader and memory card to the store for them to try out, and sure enough it was the darn card reader that was somehow messing up the entire system. So now I have a new card reader and have downloaded both sizes of memory card with no problems. All is well.
Shot one was taken a week ago as I headed out to the stables for a quick visit to my horse, not having seen him for a few days due to show number one. This rather large house had appeared out of nowhere since my previous trip to the barn. That's a lot of house and garage to get onto a flatbed! As of today it is on its foundations and all settled in. Now there is an endless stream of huge dump-trucks dumping earth between the house and the highway. I assume there is a game plan, but I'm not sure what it is, unless they are planning to build hills. They have already constructed a massive pond on this site, so I suppose hills aren't totally unlikely. Time will tell.
I can't remember the name of this decorative grass, but I love the visuals in the winter and often shoot it in the late afternoon as I am coming home from the barn. I always have my camera with me then and the grass is just at eye-level to me as I am pulling into the driveway.
One of the positive outcomes of the computer panic for me was that it galvanized me into getting more one-of-a-kind artworks done. Since I could neither access nor print any of my photo art images, I thought I'd better cover the gaps in the system by getting some mixed media work done for the show.
Shot three is a raven mixed media collage that I really liked. I debated whether or not to take it to the show as it would have fit nicely into my raven shrine in the living room, but in the end I took it and it has sold and moved on to a new home. I'm sorry I didn't get better quality shots of it, but at least I have something. It's not really that light on the bottom--there's a bit of a glare issue in the photo.
Shot four is a mixed media encaustic of wasps, with the grey stripy bits being real wasp paper that we gathered in the fall when the wasp nests were abandoned.
Shot five is another encaustic with image transfers. The raven is one of the young ones I photographed and posted about a couple of weeks ago.
So I managed to get enough work done for show number two. I even got some new photos printed once the computer was back. It wasn't a stellar show for sales, but was excellent for making contacts so overall would have to be considered a success.
