Barefoot Artist Takes to The Streets

So, tomorrow marks my 7th Art Festival this summer, as I will be setting up on the streets of downtown Ogunquit, Maine tomorrow morning, and again on Congress Street in Portland on Saturday August 28th.  The first four festivals took place on above 90 degree days, with humidity in the hundreds.  There’s nothing better than trying to act calm cool and collected as you talk to complete strangers with sweat rolling down your face.  Days when you can drink a 36 oz water bottle and never even have to pee.  Days when a cotton sundress and bare feet is the only way to go.  The 5th festival took place in Norway, Maine in July where it poured 3 inches in 4 hours, and there was a river running through my tent.  I just moved the art to higher ground and resorted to bare feet again.  It was warm rain.    In South Portland I was barefoot because the grass was cool and green and wonderful, and it seemed appropriate, and I actually had one visitor in my tent who asked me if I was too poor to afford shoes.  I played along, with a joke about starving artists.  Honestly,  I just hate shoes.

In truth, this summer has been wonderfully sunny, and has brought amazing and interesting people into the streets to wander through artist tents, and gain new perspective on life and art.  I have met so many great people with so many great stories about trees, and I’m thankful for every one of them.  It’s a hard way to peddle your work….I’m out there 3 hours before a show, laboring to pull racks and tent and bins from my car, and assemble them into something presentable by 9 am…and when you’re all home eating dinner and taking a swim in the lake, I’m still there folding everything back up and packing it back into my little Honda clown car.  Overall, though, it’s an amazing experience and I’m selling a lot of art.  Barefoot and all.

See you in Ogunquit, or Portland!