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I participated in my first ever art sale at Mcginty’s last weekend. Called the Art Bender Weekend, forty artists prepared work, paid a modest space fee and sold work during the four days of the bender. About 800 people (who were for the most part adoring and interested in the event) showed up. Most of the attendees were regular visitors but some (like the ones I brought) had not been there before. Thursday night was the more traditional opening (family and friends), Friday night was the BIG party, ($5 cover) Saturday was an all day potluck BBQ and Sunday was brunch. Many folks made repeated visits throughout the weekend just to hang out in this community setting with constant food, drink, art, people and conversation. Very much like a salon of old, even the torrential rains didn’t much matter, people came, they saw art and ate. Ben and his colleagues have created something special (four times a year) and I will be participating again.

If the only metric I choose to measure this event by is sales, then I failed because I didn’t make a single sale. But, if you look at these other metrics: I chose a new frame for this event and it supports my work in the way I had imagined the proper frame would, I put together a tasteful display, I met a lot of good people, talked a lot about the work, got a solid lead on another venue, invited an individual who will be giving me a show later this year, got great feedback on the work and made important decisions about how to work with new pieces and the new frames…..the show was an incredible success.

I look forward to doing this again, I like being successful.