Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Wall Street • Main Street • Street Fairs

These are strange times to be selling art at shows. We pay our jury fees, booth fees, our hotel bills and set up our work.
We show up.
We're there to do our best all the while knowing that the public must open their hearts and wallets to grace us with sales. Sometimes this happens. When it does I genuinely thank people for their recognition of the passion it takes to make a commitment to buying art. I never take a sale for granted.
Each one is important to my survival.
They let me have my life!

With these slow times there comes a sense of loss of control. Artists, especially us self-employed ones, are by nature, control freaks. We wear multiple hats and have to wear them well to succeed. Most of the time we can do this.
When I find myself feeling a loss of that control I feel the need to regain it ..........somehow.

Today I made soup!

Yes, soup!
The elixer of all things that need fixing.
A pot of creamy garlic soup with wild rice.
I'm not sure why, but the task of cutting and preparing soup settles me like nothng else.
It's my own creation. I don't use recipes.
Each pot is a one of a kind.

I also wrote these thoughts which resonate with current events.

The people have spoken with wide, bold strokes.
The markets have responded.
We all have our 'battles',
be it Wall Street,
Main Street
or our Street Fairs.
They are all passages.
Passages to power,
to homes,
to our incomes.
We traverse them in good times and in bad.
They take us where we need to go.
For artists and craftspeople,
the highways take us to the
parks and neighborhoods that will embrace our creations
with acceptance and grace us with purchases.

Our work becomes their collection.

A wonderful mingling
of financial commerce that is good,
fair and
far from greed.
Far from Wall Street.
It is this commerce that lets us small business
artists have the lives we live and
take us to our homes
where we find solace
down the roads we are most familiar.
A passage to our own passions.


Travel safe and continue doing your best work!
Abundant blessings to all of you!
༺♥༻
Patricia Hecker

3 comments:

marty said...

maybe we should call them "Fine Art Sales" to promote the idea of selling versus showing. or is that too tacky. i like the idea of ART SAILS in that it flies out of the booth. it makes you happy in the creation and it makes others happy in the end. its a win-win. this year is a challenge; it is definitely the best of times and the worst of times.

PaintedHorse said...

Yummmm, your soup sounds delicious!

However, I prefer the wonderful soup of beautiful words you serve here, Pat! I end my day with your blog each night and it always gives me pause, makes me giggle or leaves me content. Thank you, my friend!

Holly Olinger said...

Much passion in the words - I hope the soup was as good.