Something Visual At The First Second Saturday

     "I heard you're doing something visual this time," said Christian Peck, communications director of the Gahanna Area Arts Council,

​...and one of the organizers of the Second Saturday Arts in the Alley, a summer monthly local artists festival  taking place in downtown Gahanna on the second Saturdays of June, July, and August.

     I ran into Christian as I was having a look around at the wares of the other vendors at this year's first Second Saturday Arts in the Alley and I affirmed that yes, it was true, I was in fact trying something visual this time.
      The thing is, I'd participated in last summer's Arts in the Alley events, which were held on the first Fridays of July , August, and September (see post from 7/14/2018, "The Lesson Of The Rubber Duck"),

...selling my book.
    Hence I sold my book in July,

...in August,

​...in September,

...and in September again at the Gahanna Flea Market.

     This year I figured that anybody in Gahanna, Ohio who wanted my book would surely already have it by now.
     And so I decided to take a fling at selling some of my photographs; specifically some of the photos that I took during two hikes with my hubby Tom, the first in 2013 and the second in 2015,  along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

(see my Camino blogs at https://www.tightenyourboots.net/

​...and https://www.andlightenyourpack.com/).

     I felt that most of the photos, vast landscapes, required a big print medium not fenced in by a frame.
     I chose ten photos and had them made into 12"x16" unframed canvases and I had four of the ten also blown up into 16"x20" canvases.
      In truth I would like to have made the canvases even bigger, but I feared that no one would buy a bigger canvas. In fact I feared that no one would buy the smaller canvases I'd had made, either. It turned out that my fears were not unfounded.
    But this I did not yet know as, with the the help of my loyal mate, I began preparing for my first public showing of my visual art, such as it was.

    The first thing we did was practice setting up my tent in our basement to make sure we still remembered how to set it up.

      Next came figuring out a display plan.
      Books need only a table for display.

    But canvases need a stand of some sort.    
​   Now, I'd learned that there are all kinds of attractive stands that one can buy to display one's art.

    But those display stands are expensive.  And there was no guarantee that I'd sell enough photos - or any at all - to justify spending hundreds on a beautiful art display stand.
    And so I gerrymandered together several art display stands from the following objects:
 - a slatted room divider that I bought twenty-five years ago from a friend who needed to sell some of her things to make some money;
 - another room divider I bought from a thrift store then covered with brown contact paper;
  - a plastic thrift-store clothes rack upon which I hung a piece of peg board;
 -  a re-purposed baby gate I once bought to keep our house bunny from getting out of the family room.
​     (See post from 2/15/2016, "The House Bunny").

    The result was mayhaps not beautiful, but I figured it would work okay, at least for a start.

     I also made a few smaller  8"x10" prints that I framed.

     On the afternoon of the first Second Saturday Arts in the Alley, June 8, Tom and I  schlepped over to the alley and joined the other artists and artisans setting up at their designated spots.

    While we were setting up we noticed that the wind was picking up. Tom worried that the wind might blow down my displays so he ran back home and procured some bags of fertilizer that he wrapped in plastic bags to hold down my displays.

     The effect was in truth not the most esthetic.
     But I figured it was what it was, and at least I had a secure little art gallery that people might step into and look around without having the art fall on them.

    I had decided to present my photos as a series that I called "The Pilgrim's Progress," and I wrote up a program explaining the provenance of the photos:

    The Pilgrim’s Progress
      For a thousand years pilgrims from all over the world have been walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela,  some as a spiritual journey, some as a penance, some as an adventure.
     People begin their pilgrimage from many points and there are many Camino routes through France, Spain, and Portugal, but all routes lead to Santiago, Spain and the great Cathedral of St. James, where the Camino ends and other journeys may begin.
     Thus the scallop shell, with its many rays ending in one point, is the symbol of the Camino.
    “The Pilgrim’s Progress” is a photographic  chronicle of two pilgrimages walked in 2013 and 2015 along the 497-mile Camino Frances, the ancient, most historical, and most-walked of the Camino routes.
       On display are a few of the hundreds of photographs in the series.

     I tagged each photo in the series with a number and a description. I priced the  12"x16" canvases at  $50, the 16"x20" at $100,

...and the the 8"x10" prints at $25. ( And I decided to set up a few books, too,after all).

     To my initial delight, most of the people who passed my booth stopped for a look and many folks came into my tent and made the round of my little art gallery, asking questions about the pictures and the Camino.  I received many compliments on my photographs.  Some people stayed at my booth looking and talking for quite a while.
      Looking and talking, but, alas, not buying. I sold not one photo or book, except to a friend who came by and bought the smaller of the canvas prints of the colorful autumn field.

   As for the rest,

...when the event was over we packed everything  back up,

...loaded it into the car,

​...and put it all back into the basement