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Wednesday 30 November 2016

Sometimes it's out of your hands

You can prepare for an (art) event all you want but some things are just out of your hands.
The ArtWest Open Studio weekend was promoted quite well by the organisation. I properly framed all art I wanted to show. I send out invitations via e-mail, via Facebook, I put the event on my website, wrote a blog about it, shared it a couple of times on Facebook… We cleaned the studio, hung the art (it looked quite good I think), bought drinks and snacks, we had a massive flag waving for attention, the door stood wide open…
But then on Saturday there was rain, lots of rain and Sunday there was a storm and only a few people dared to venture out of their warm, cosy homes.
Saturday we had 36 visitors and Sunday 46, considering the weather not that bad but still, if the weather had been nice the turnout had been much higher. From our group of 5 I was the only one who did not sell.
That evening wasn’t very pleasant. I doubted myself and my work. Was my attitude too much ‘wait-and-see’? Should I jump people when they enter the studio (something I hate when people do that to me in shops etc.). Was my art just bad/ weird/ unmarketable? Did I present it wrong? What did I do wrong??
Sunday, at the end of the event our group of Grafisch Collectief Thoets decided to prolong our open studio to next Sunday. We would again invite everybody and hope for better weather.
The weather was nice, a lot of people who couldn’t make it the weekend before came by and I sold some small things. Happy.
I need to remember that there’s nothing wrong with my artwork, I just need to reach the right people.


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