OK. I am going to be honest. As an artist, this years festival was NOT good.
Here’s the truth of the matter:
The weather was just too darn nice.
The first amazing weekend of the summer and guess where everyone was?
The Narragansett Art Festival? – Ummm… no.
They were at the beach. The Narragansett Art Festival 2016 was a ghost town…
It was sooooo hot. HOT. HOT. HOT. It was sweltering. I am telling you I had eyeball sweat! It was definitely not the kind of weather for strolling through an art festival.
So #1 complaint. Good weather = Bad show. No people = No one to show your art to.
Ok. Now let me turn this around and tell you some good things.
I was floored. Someone who reads my blog traveled quite a distance to introduce herself and invest in a piece of my artwork. I don’t care if I had actually sold thousands of dollars at the best attended art festival in my area – that them there was the most touching thing I’ve ever experienced as an artist! First of all, someone I don’t know actually reads my blog??? And my words and images have connected with another human being??? That allows me to see; I can have a positive impact on the world. I can connect with other human beings through my art. PERIOD. Simply-amazingly-awesome! I met and talked to a lot of wonderful people in the last two days.
The next good thing is a friend.
16 hours of a poorly attended festival is enough to sugar myself and stick my head in an ant hill!
Artist Karen Stackow of Signs of Fire shares a booth with me. We do not make similar artwork which allows us to perfectly compliment one another. But really, the best part is cursing under our breath, laughing out loud, spitting cherry pits and having one another to keep each other company.
What’s more?
Having someone to grab a margarita with to celebrate it being over!!!!
hallelujah!
Be Creative Mary 
So sorry to hear that the show didn’t go well. I have a friend whose father is a well known artists and has several pieces in the National Gallery in Ottawa. He’s in his nineties now but the last few shows that he’s done were fairly well attended but not much was sold. He was lucky in that he was able to make a very good living selling his art back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. I always feel bad for artists when I attend any kind of art or craft show. There are always a lot of lookers but few buyers. If I lived closer I would definitely have attended your show and bought some of your amazing clay pieces.
You are too kind Mama!