Art Show Checklist

        This weekend I’ll be at Roslindale Open Studios, so today is all about finishing preparations and packing up.  For most of my weekend shows I prefer to set up on Friday when possible, but Roslindale is not somewhere I want to drive at rush hour on a Friday, so for this one I don’t set up until early Saturday morning.  Moreover, it’s a far enough drive that having to rush back home for some forgotten item is at best a terrible, frantic, stressful inconvenience, and at worst simply impossible.  This makes it all the more important that I actually remember to pack everything I’ll need.  To that end, I have put together a checklist.  This one is personal to me, my work, and my display, and obviously each artist’s list will be a little different.  Nevertheless, I offer it in the hope that it may be of some help to anyone thinking about showing or showing for the first time or so.

Display Stuff                                                Other Stuff

- hanging racks                                            - block(s) to carve

- hardware                                                   - carving tools

- hooks                                                          - sample rubber

- binder clips                                               - stamp pad

- multitool                                                    - test paper

- long table                                                   - business cards

- medium table                                           - networking cards

- small table                                                 - cash box

- tablecloths                                                 - square reader

- print racks                                                 - change

- card rack                                                    - record-keeping notebook

- card display baskets                                - price list folder

- book rack                                                   - pens, pencil

- labels                                                          - tape

- signage                                                      - camera

- easels, stands                                            - cart

                                                                      - bags for purchases

Goods                                                            Last Minute Stuff

- framed work                                             - phone

- matted work                                             - lunch/snacks

- card/necklace/etc. box                            - water bottle

- holiday cards                                            - glasses

- books                                                         - sweater

- framed posters                                        - phone charge cord/battery  

- box of posters                                           - purse (which includes essentials such as

                                                                               chapstick, tylenol, pads, scissors,

                                                                               tape measure, etc.)

        The binder clips, by the way, are for hanging unframed signs, unframed prints, and similar stuff from my wire racks.  The stamp pad and test paper are for checking the progress of the block I’m carving, at the end of the day when I think I may be about done with it.  I never bother bringing lights, but many artists do, in which case they’d also need to remember extension cords and gaffer tape.  Some artists bring an entire toolbox.  I think I’ve only once been in a location that didn’t provide a chair, but some artists bring their own special stool or higher chair.  I’ve always found the other artists extremely generous with tools, tape, making change for a customer, and other necessities that apply to all of us, but of course it’s more convenient to remember your own - and nice to be the person who can be generous to someone else when needed.

        You’ll be substituting your own artwork for mine on this list, your own display system for mine, and so on.  But perhaps there might be something on my list you wouldn’t have thought of.  Certainly my list has been developed and refined over my 14 years of doing art shows, and I’ve learned the hard way how handy it is to have some of the less obvious items, and how easy it is to forget some of the smaller ones - or even large ones, if they happen to get shoved out of sight out of mind.  So I hope this checklist is helpful to some of you, and I hope it’s helpful to me this evening as I load the car!

        If you’re in this Bostonian neck of the woods this weekend, be sure to come by and introduce yourself at Roslindale House.  It’s always a wonderful show.

[Picture: ROS 2017, photo by a helpful neighboring artist, 2017.]

Show Preparations

        The big storm left us unscathed, the costumes were finished in time for trick-or-treating, and now it's frantic last-minute preparation for the next big Open Studios show, this weekend.  Since that's the only thing I have on my mind right now, rather than fight it, I thought I'd share what it looks like around here on the day before an art show.

        Of course the preparation has been going on for the past two weeks, with matting and packaging prints, and drawing designs for something to carve tomorrow.  Last night I folded and packaged dozens (if not hundreds) of note cards while watching "Castle" with D.  But today things come down to the wire.  One big job is to make the final decision for which framed pieces I'll bring for display.  This show provides me with an 8x8 foot
expanse of pegboard on which I can hang my stuff.  However, my tables have to go in front of that, so I estimate more like 8x4 feet.  I mark my area out on the floor and start placing art to see what I can fit and how best to arrange it.  I always try to display whatever is new since this time last year, and then I use several factors to fill the rest of the space:

- I want a wide variety of subjects and styles

- I want to feature items I've never displayed at this venue before

- I want to draw attention to items that are the last of their edition

- I want to use stuff that's already framed so I don't have to do any excess work

        Once I know for sure what I'm bringing, I pack it all up in old flannel sheets and towels for transport, and put together labels for everything.  Next job is transferring my designs to rubber for carving (and making sure I pack the carving tools.)  This weekend's theme is Dogs.  I have four little pieces ready to carve - I only hope it will be enough to keep me busy.  Perhaps I should prepare something else just in case?  Yikes!

        Meanwhile I've been hauling things up from the basement and staging them to pack in the car early tomorrow morning.  (If I didn't have to drive kids somewhere this evening, I'd pack the car this afternoon.  But instead it will just have to clutter up the hallway all day.)  There are three tables (two for display and one to work at), print racks, card rack, matted prints, framed prints, books, cards, hanging hooks, extra cash for giving people change…  On and on.  So many things to remember.  I make myself lists, build stacks of things to be packed, go over things in my mind, hope I'm not forgetting anything vital.  Because I
won't set up until the day of the show, and because it's a fairly long drive to this show, if I forget something I simply have to do without.  Wait, did I remember the roll of tape?  What about the camera?  And so on…

        But it will all be worthwhile once the artists are all there together, and the people start coming by to see the art.  There's a buzz in the room, voices full of enthusiasm, people to greet, those dogs to carve… 

        If you happen to be in the area, please come by and join the fun at Roslindale Open Studios!

[Pictures: stacks of things to bring;
arranging frames on the floor;

dog designs on rubber blocks, photos by AEGN, 2012;

my display from last year, photo by AEGN, 2011.]

Portrait of an Open Studio Weekend

     I spent this past weekend sitting at a table carving, surrounded by my wares, while I waited for my adoring public to purchase armloads of art and books for everyone they knew.  If the mini-trend of those two days is any indication, the economy is improving rapidly, because Saturday was a desolate consumer wasteland, while Sunday brought pretty good sales.  (I'm enough of a puritan not to blame people for deciding that my art is a luxury they can do without when they have to conserve their money.  But I certainly like it better when everyone's feeling flush!)

(All my racks of cards and matted prints are
out of the picture to my right.)

        So here's how a typical Open Studio experience goes for me:  First of all, I'm never actually in my studio.  I always choose to show in group space, because it's more interesting to be with other artists, more visitors come by, my studio is out of the way and nothing to look at anyway (consisting, as it does, of an ordinary room in my house), and my carving is portable enough that I can demonstrate it anywhere.  So, there are weeks of preparation, and days of packing, but things really begin when I set up on Friday.  That can take an hour or three, depending on what sort of hanging system I get to use, how far I have to haul each load from the car to my location, and so on.  (This weekend there was no hanging system at all, because I had no wall space to use - something I didn't discover until two days before.  Yikes!  A hastily devised combination of easels and peg board from the basement saved the day.)  On Saturday I pick up balloons on the way and arrive about half an hour early for last-minute set up.  Then I sit down and begin to carve the block I've prepared.  (This weekend I worked on "The Listeners," which I'll post on Friday.)

        Visitors begin to trickle in.  I smile and answer questions.  I show people how I carve and explain the block printing process.  I let people try a little carving themselves, on a scrap piece of rubber.  Kids especially love that, but so do all those adults who had to do linoleum printing once back in high school.  Sometimes, of course, people buy things, after which I resume my carving.  Whenever things are busy and I'm talking with a lot of people I get warm, and then whenever there's no one around and I sit back down quietly I get cold, and so it goes…

        At the end of the day I come home and spend the evening replacing whatever sold.  I mat up additional prints, package note cards, print, cut, and assemble more packets of book plates, and so on.  The beauty of this system is that if I have to work too hard that night, it's only because my sales were good.  And if sales were slow at least I have the consolation of getting a bit more time to relax in the evening.  If there's really a lot of work to do I finish it up on Sunday morning before Friends Meeting.  (I'm also not proud to admit that this weekend I spent a truly stupid amount of time Sunday morning trying to come up with something to wear that would balance looking nice with being able to take down and pack up a show, and being a bit autumnally chilly outside with being a bit overheated whenever I get talking to people.)

        Usually I either pack a lunch or D supportively brings me something around lunch time.  (This Sunday D thought the whole family could eat lunch together at a small restaurant near my show location.  Alas, it took so long before we were seated that I had to dash off to my post as soon as I'd placed my order.  But my loyal family came to visit me and bring me my lunch when they were finished.)  When P and T visit me, they inspect my display, inquire after sales, carve a few lines on my scrap rubber block, admire their favorite items, and are ready to move on.  Once they're gone I get back to work on the carving…  And so the second day goes much as the first (albeit with better sales on this particular weekend.)

        Around 3:30 I finished carving my block.  I used an ink pad to ink it up and print a rough impression on scrap paper, then I carved a bit more, adding more texture and detail in places, fixing up a few rough areas.  But soon I was about as finished as I could get before washing and inking it properly, and that's the point when I get bored.  Normally I try to have a second block in reserve so that I never run out of carving, but this time… well, I spent so much time getting dressed in the morning that I didn't have a chance to finish getting my second block ready.  I said I wasn't proud of it.
        At 5:00 the show closes.  All the artists start packing up.  (One of the others commented on how I must be an old hand because my set-up and take-down were so efficient.  Another of the artists really is a professional and will be on to her next show next weekend.)  I enjoy the camaraderie of the range of artists, new and old, all different media, even when we don't talk very much.  Usually we're all pretty tired.  I haul my loads out to the car (I think it took seven trips this time), drive home, and unload everything into the house.  Then D makes dinner magically appear (pizza.  I am a very lucky non-starving artist!)  I make my report to the family on sales and news, and leave the bookkeeping and all the other tasks for the next day.  And that's another show done for the year… except that this year I have my next show coming up in just three weeks, so I won't be resting on my shopworn laurels just yet.

[Pictures: me at the show, photo by DN;

carved block (The Listeners, stained with green stamp pad ink), photo by AEGN.]