This year, April came in like a lamb and went out like a PERFECT STORM OF CHAOS. So, needless to say, a lot has happened during the past few weeks.
On April 30th, I attended this year's Gloucester City Art and Music Festival with the help of my ever-present booth assistant, Thomas Mitchell. When we first arrived it was freezing cold, but as the day went on it slowly transformed into a beautiful (albeit windy) outdoor venue!
A wonderful crowd turned out and many of them were delightfully interested in my work, even when they had no interest in taking any of it home with them. I met some great people, had several extremely interesting conversations, won some money in an art contest, and sold a bunch of work! All in all, it was a pretty successful show!
The following week was marked by the arrival of the long-awaited RAW: Natural Born Artists show!
Frederick Calalang (the Location Director for RAW's Philadelphia branch) had told me that I could hang as much work as I wanted, so I took that as not only a golden opportunity, but also a challenge. It isn't everyday you get the chance to hang a retrospective of your work before your career has even begun!
The weeks leading up to the RAW show were spent planning out every single detail I could think of. As soon as I got the measurements for the space I'd be inhabiting, I planned out where everything was to be hung, right down to the last inch. My Mother also assisted me behind the scenes by locating wall hooks and lighting, figuring out how to pack up and transport almost two dozen pieces of framed artwork, and coming up with plans for get it all up on the wall in the least amount of time. Then, when the time finally came to get my stuff in place, my boyfriend Tom was the muscle behind getting a six-foot table and a half a dozen boxes (full of wood and glass) out of the car and down a flight of stairs.
We all did a TON of prep-work before I set foot in the G Lounge that night and it really paid off! I ended up with one of the most professional-looking (and densely packed) set-ups in the whole show! Score one for Team Guzzo!
Trying to describe the RAW show is a daunting and ultimately futile task, so let me just say this: It was without a doubt the best art show I've ever taken part in.
I've done quite a few events, but the RAW show tops them all. It was the best in terms of making sales, in terms of making connections, meeting interesting people, having fun- Every way you slice it, it was an incredible success!
There will be professional photographs and a video interview coming out sometime in the next few weeks. Obviously, I'll be posting links to them here. I'm really excited to see how they come out!
The very next day, after staying up 'til 3:00, I packed up my art for ANOTHER SHOW. This time it was the First Friday event in Haddonfield, New Jersey. I honestly don't know why I didn't take a day off, since I certainly could've used a bit of down time after all the stress and chaos of RAW. And I understand that I was a little spoiled by the wondrousness of the night before, but Haddonfield First Friday was still extremely disappointing.
Haddonfield has always been pretty slow in terms of sales, since most of the people who pass by on the street are completely uninterested in my wares. The majority of them are out walking their babies or walking their dogs or just coming out of a local restaurant, trying to make their way home, very few of them have any desire to stop and peruse my wares.
This month however, I sold nothing.
NOTHING.
Not one t-shirt, print, or sticker went home with someone else that night. It was the very first time I've ever been to an art fair where I had to pack up the car with exactly the same merchandise I'd unpacked only hours before. Needless to say, it sucked.
I'll probably keep doing Collingswood Second Saturdays,
but it'll be a while before I go back to Haddonfield.