Up next: CHICAGO! Yay!........allright, no tornadoes, okay??
57th street June 6+7
Old Town June 13+14
side trip to Cleveland for the Shaker Heights show June 19+20
Evanston June 27+28
Tucson AZ and Houston TX March 2009:
Tucson, a pretty cool, interesting town with REALLY friendly people and amazing plants! But that show: what a circus sideshow-fleamarket-garage sale! An "art" show where anything goes---plastic toys from Mexico, balloons, tibetan prayer flags, beads---just set up your card table and throw a hippie bedspread over it and voila! Actually the paying artists weren't so rag tag, but there were hundreds of tag-alongs right next to us. Hardly sold a thing, but we had fun anyway: most amazing people watching ever--even beat Salt Lake City's tattooed, pierced rebel crowd, and that's saying something. Plus we had a very wonderful macaw named Scarlett in the trees across from us, which was good entertainment. Nice town, not so nice show.
HOUSTON: I love you guys!! No economy woes here, folks. We watched big pieces go by all three days, and some of them were ours. We lucked out on perfect weather and had great crowds as a result. And the usual friendly Houston people too. Thank y'all! Great town, great show.
Oct 18+19, Houston TX:
Such gorgeous weather, nice folks and a good show...I love this town!! Everyone seemed to get through the 2 week+ power outs from the hurricane alright. Thanks everyone who came by. Here's pic of David taking a dip in the clearest, most beautiful coke-bottle green waters of the Sabinal River in Texas hill country on the way home. We stopped off at Lost Maples State Park for a hike and an overnight then followed some little roads through goat country. But I couldn't find any mohair yarn. They said it all goes to New Jersey to be milled, that's no fun! I wanted to make a goat hair doiley.
meanwhile, the aspen and cottonwoods are turning school bus yellow in NM. Soooooo pretty!
September 2008: St Louis/Chicago/Kansas City
Back to the midwest starting with a glorious Labor day weekend in St. Louis: perfect weather and great crowd, great sales. Who says the economy is in the toilet! Not in St. Louis. And I wasn't the only one either, lots of artists had a great show---yay, been a while! Thank you guys!! And thanks to the show too, you put on a nice event and treat us well.
But then things sort of went blooey...David and I both got a flu and then the rains around hurricane Ike began as we were heading up to Chicago for the next show at Lakeview East. We heard it rained 7" in 2 days up there, and most of it I think was on our show! Rained during set up Friday night, rained on Saturday, and then when winds threatened to add to the rain on Sunday the show decided to close. I just kept saying "at least we're not in Galveston, at least we're not in Galveston". But, dang it, Chicago rained us out AGAIN! Still, I was amazed at how many people were out being intrepid art shoppers with their umbrellas on Saturday, in spite of reports of flooded basements and roads. Thank you people, you helped us make back some expenses!
Recovery from life with two soggy humans and two soggy dogs in a broom closet-sized camper took place in the quad cities on the Mississippi River at the border of Iowa and Illinois: nice camping on the river watching barges and an afternoon in the "suds pub" combo laudromat and bar cleaning up and drying out while proprietors had a debate on whether potato(e) had a "e" on the end or not. (Only when you're in England, right?)
Now we're gearing up for Kansas City next weekend. Weather report is that it will be clear and 80 degrees all weekend--yahoo!! So come on guys, come on out to the plaza and check things out--should be a good show!
Up next: 2 weeks at home and then we visit poor Ike-blasted Houston. We hope our friends in oil town are recovering and looking forward to the show to take their minds off their troubles!
June 2008: Chicago & Denver
The great plains: an enormous multi-state cornfield broken by grain elevators that appear on the vast horizon and slowly grow into little towns of 200 as you approach. You slow down to 45 mph to see a few seconds of houses and maybe a gas station and the inevitable tanks of "anhydrous ammonia" (what IS that stuff??) before returning to the open fields and empty space again.
But then, you get to this: Chicago! Always nice to be back, tho the visit was plagued by crazed weather. We even had to dodge a tornado or two, at one point running inside a WalMart after the tornado siren went off. David said "they're not going to let you bring in the dogs" I said "I'm bringing them anyway" Which I did, and the dudes with walkie-talkies were kind enough to let us hide in the mens room, canines included, until the danger had passed. Nothing quite like the feeling of leaving your home-on-wheels AND your entire livlihood in the parking lot and to the mercy of the weirdest whirling purple-black skies I've ever seen while you run for cover...
But the sales, krymanie you guys. Turn off your TVs! Shun the news! The economy isn't THAT bad!....Is it? After all the hail, rain and tornados we got a rather greatly reduced paycheck as an extra boot in the butt. Oh well, I'm not done with you yet Chicago. We'll be back in September, brandishing our little wooden swords and with lots of cool affordable art in tow. Resistance is futile!
We did have some fun between shows, including a day at 6 Flags for D's 10 yr. old niece's birthday, followed by s'mores and early 4th of July sparklers around the campfire. (I lasted exactly ONE roller coaster before retiring to the sidelines all barfy and dizzy--what a weenor. But David went on them all, laughing/staggering as he got off each.)
Packed up and headed back west to Denver where, in spite of long hot hours and thousands of John Q. Publics wandering into and out of the booth saying things like "whynt ya have inny Route 66 art... be yer best selling item", we managed to wrestle a good enough living from the experience to counteract Chicago----whee!! Ah the gamblers life. Thank you Denver! Snotty moment: Can I say how edifying it is, as an artist, to set up your work 30 yards from an Elvis impersonator? Can I tell you about the self-esteem pitfall of competing with corporate giveaways and beer for culture consumption? Okay. There, its out of my system. ....For now!
Up next, summer at home in NM, ahhhhh!
May 2008: L.A.
City of Angels. 92 degrees but the smog was pretty light. Came into town on I10 and didn't stop til it ended at the ocean, found a place to park, walked over and jumped in! The Gulf of Mexico in Feb and the Pacific in May; we work hard to sample the waters with our bi-coastal art service. These particular waters were cool and refreshing after driving through the Mojave desert with air conditioning problems. Soothed the wind-whipped, raisen-like eyes. Had a nice shady booth spot at the show, sold some stuff and had enjoyable social visits as well. Rumor had it that Sylvester Stallone was at the show, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Hey, I've got some great new pieces at the George Smith interior showrooom on La Cienega and Melrose through the summer so go check them out! Up next, the month of June in Chicago...
Feb 2008: Miami and Naples, FL
Well if it isn't Wally Gator, swimming around the everglades for all the tourists to take pictures of... They're everywhere down there. Science Dept: Did you know the everglades is really a 100 mile wide slowly moving seasonal river? Me neither! And the bird life--get out your Audabon checklist: there's herons, cranes, cormorants, spoonbills, anhingas....all sorts of cool birds that make your average backyard sparrows look pretty dull.
Miami is a pop dot kind of town--thanks guys for all the dot sales! I am now a one woman dot factory, chained to my studio furiously producing DOTS! Naples however was, well, totally lame. Was it A.) the sweltering heat and humidity that killed sales, B.) just not my demographic, or C.) a bit of both (you win with C). The up side to it was that the show was located 10 blocks from a swell beach and closed early enough that we could just zip up the booth and go jump in the ocean---ahhhhhh! What is it about warm seawater? Feels like medicine! Diving for little shells while the pelicans glide overhead, watching the sunset sitting on the white sand...sigh. Also managed, twixt shows, to get in some canoeing for some up close Manatee experience and these great mangrove islands. Even took the dogs on a river paddle and they didn't tip us over trying to jump out at the squirrels running around on the banks. Though there was plenty of whining and barking.
And now we're back at the ranch gearing up for Scottsdale in a few days.
Check out the mangroves--worlds' most amazing roots:
March to April 2008: SCOTTSDALE & Texas
SCOTTSDALE: Weather perfect and a nice show. Well juried and good crowd too. Thanks Arizona, especially one golf course-designing family with a fun custom order for their gorgeous home!
Off to Texas again for another great trip. Bayou City, HOUSTON a little rain off and on in the park slowed things way down and we were ALL depressed until the last three or four HOURS of Sunday when the buying crowds came out with bells on! Yay, now this is the Houston I remember! We fixed our hitch after the show, which the potholes of Houston finally did in. Then we did some urban camping for a week and kicked around town checking our museums and galleries. Even got so touristy as to see the aquarium and the white tigers--totally fun! Houston galleries are scattered all over like everything else in this no-zoning town so we got to know some new interesting neighborhoods. Some really great art and people are Texas friendly, even in the most upscale places--no gallery snobbery here, just friendly and professional. Houston side report: delicious Mexican breakfast--chilaquiles con huevos and laundramats are called washaterias
Off to AUSTIN for a few days at McKinney falls park to do some work a la picnic table. Is this considered "En Plein Air" I wonder? Probably not. Though it IS work done outdoors, I even picked bugs out of wet paint to prove it. Totally gorgeous weather at the show--warm during the day, without that usual Austin bake thing and cool at night. New location along Cesar Chavez is nice, way to go guys! Just got to work on that crazed set up so we don't have to wait in our cars for 4 hours to get on site!! Another good show and a lot of nice people. Whole Foods corporate HQ store is an amazing 8700 sq. ft/600 employee "culinary theme park" groove factory. But the hairdos and tattoos at the Kirby store in Houston STILL barely win "weirdest" award.
So tired on the way home we stopped for a day of sleep and hanging out in the Pedernales River watching turtles and catfish poke around as rejuvenation therapy. Here's another picture of us on the way home in the car. You can compare it to last year's picture, same stretch of road in west Texas. Don't worry, we could look away from the road for the picture without endangering ourselves, it's a big long straight stretch with nothing but creosote bush and sand:
2008 
A little different hair configuration for David...did a switcheroo on the bandana and it's another year on the road in Texas!
2007
June 2007: Thank you Chicago!! All four shows were good and no weird weather! The big theme of the month was CICADAS One and a half inch long, cool looking bugs that were EVERYWHERE. These were the ones that emerge from the ground every 17 years to make a deafening amount of noise, fly into things, mate, lay eggs and die. It was fun to watch people jump when one landed on them. Here's a picture of two that were on my table in the booth. What a weird life cycle--"I think I'll spend 98% of my life as a larva underground not doing much" (actually I think I've met a few people like that...) Anyway who knows, maybe they have great dreams. They sure have great red eyes.
Oh yeah, besides the bugs there were a few awards this trip too: Best of Show at Plaza del Lago and Best Mixed Media at Wells Street. Very nice!! Thank you! (you always feel a little like "best lop-eared rabbit" at the state fair in these pictures...or best chipmunk cheeks in the case of this particular picture...sigh)
August: Bellevue Art Museum show. So cool seeing old friends and family in my hometown Seattle! But the show, well what can I say. Monster 12-13 hour days. How can you be perky and sell art when you feel, and look, like a complete hag? How? Alas, the life of glamour. Show recovery consisted of visiting the clan, general loafing, BBQs and an expensive clutch job in Portland, and then:
San Francisco ACC show at Fort Mason. It truly is a picture postcard place! I looked over my shoulder sitting at my booth and saw this view of the GG bridge; walk another few steps to the end of the pier and there's Alcatraz. Not bad real estate for a weekend. Thank you San Franciscans for a good show! Can't remember the name of that amazingly good Jewish deli we ate at on Polk, but the pastrami MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH!
Sept: Mid west shows were good- People really came out at St. Louis in spite of 90 degrees and rain--they just opened their umbrellas and came to the show anyway--thank you! So, the fresh and perky thing, you just get over it and say if they can do it so can I! Also got the honor of a second place award from judges--double thank you!! Naperville, the next weekend was gorgeous weather and a lovely location--good crowds here too. Stayed at little towns on the Mississippi in between shows--got to love the barges and river life. Had a bout of something like heat stroke at Kansas City and had to sit out Sunday in the camper with naseau and headache--definitely not fresh and perky. Lucky David was there to man the booth.
Oct: Houston--a death in the family right before the show; shock and grieving amid whimsical kitty paintings and hot dog stands. Surreal. But in spite of our strange emotional state it was a great show--what can we say, we love you guys! Thank you to all, (especially JP&A!) Drove like mad for a funeral in Kansas City after the show, then driving and greiving our way to Los Angeles the next day. An off feeling in the air in the city of angels and then the winds and fires started Saturday night. By Sunday you could see the smoke from Malibu and everything felt spooky. Hard to get out of the area after the show--trapped for a while at a truckstop, watching the roof thing over the gas pump area rock back and forth, wondering if it would rip apart and missile into us. When the smoke from another fire started coming in we white-knuckled the interstate again, creeping along at 25 mph past overturned semis. Yikes! So don't be quibbling over art prices, okay? We drive through roaring winds & hellfire and risk our lives to bring fabulous quality original art to galleries and festivals near you!!
Had to cancel our last show in Charlotte, NC. Just too much going on, family needs and general exhaustion. Relieved, but I was looking forward to seeing a whole new part of the country. Perhaps next year.
Nov 11: So we made it through another travelling art year, I can't believe it! And now here in New Mexico it's gorgeous fall weather, warm days and cold nights and plenty of sunshine. Even a few school bus yellow leaves on the cottonwoods, though they're falling fast. We are definitely glad to be home and have a few months to rest up and try out some new stuff in the studio. May have a few all new items for you next year---the gears are turning. I'll keep you posted!
Thank you all our great buyers and art supporters and friends out there for a good year!
Farewell Mary Canfield. We will miss you very much.