It was windy & rainy on Friday about two-thirty on when I got to the Castle Farms location. A propitious beginning it was not!

The person at check-in somewhat randomly reassigned me to another booth spot. I was so unsure that this was going to fly with the vendor who was assigned to this location that I shortly walked back out to check-in. After a call to someone I was back to my original booth number. I really did not want to tick off a vendor coming in later by being in their spot!

It was completely unclear where the booths were supposed to be located. Usually the show organizers will paint on the grass the outer border corners for each booth. Here we just had a barely legible paper skewered on a wire stuck into the ground. Even if there is just a stake with a number written on it, there is usually a direction as to setting up to the left or right of said stake. Not here. So I guessed as there were no show organizers out on the grounds to ask.

It was windy. It took a while and several tries to get the canopy up and stable. I did finally. All of this should have been a warning. A number of other vendors were also setting up. I mean the flags were all up in the air! I should have packed it all up then and waited the weather out until —as it turns out and accurately predicted - Sunday to set up. As I came home I cannot attest to the weather in Charlevoix but even though it is sunny here the wind would still have made today a challenge. So I guess one makes a decision and what happens, happens.

I had lovely evening with the VanRoekels and their house guests from D.C. I expected the worst in the morning, and it was bad but not the worst.

The canopy was upright and not the twisted mass of aluminum, fabric, and product that most of the rest of the booths had been transformed into. This was good, but the sides were open & flapping in the wind & rain. The display panels were in various states of collapse hanging from the booth structure to fallen on the ground. My photographs and other materials were safe in their bins that I had covered with a tarp which held. This was good. I haven’t been to the bottom of each bin but there were no signs of water on the surface.

So methodically I untangled everything and put it all back in the van. Mind you it is still doing the wind thing (gusting) and it was doing the northern Michigan rainy drizzle. Everything was wet. Usually vendors at shows are the most courteous and helpful people one could find. This show was no different.  A vendor came over and asked if I would like some help. I never saw a show organizer. However, one fine fellow decided that double parking and blocking everyone from getting out of the narrow egress from the ‘Castle’ was an OK thing. I waited the better park of an hour after I had packed up.

Finally I was able to go back to the VanRoekels to collect my clothes and offer some thanks. I was just in time for blueberry pancakes, sausage & hot coffee!  Very good!

Some things are just done. I could have stayed and set up Sunday morning, but I was just done. All the panels were wet. The canopy was wet. The display bins were wet. My lights were wet. I was wet. I decided to head home.

Today I have had the canopy up and drying as well as the sides laid out on the ground. The display panels all took a turn in the sun as well. As it turned out four of the struts on the canopy roof structure are bent in half, cracked and will have to be replaced. So not too bad but when I have a wet show I generally don’t have to dry the display panels just the canopy & sides.

The shows almost always have an evaluation sheet. I always fill it out the day after the show. This time I’ll be early by one day! They generally ask if you think you will return to the show next year. In this case I will not, but not because of the wind & rain. Much more damaging was the disorganization, the not being present to at least offer verbal assistance with set-up, and not being present to deal with a very inconsiderate vendor. Some things are just done.

This was the most organized, focused, and caring for vendors show I have ever been to since I started doing shows. The Kiwanis men & women came by often to inquire whether I needed a break, did I need water, and did I know about the hospitality booth for vendors? It was truly wonderful as compared to most shows where once you have checked in you never see them again! The Kiwanis also had lots of homemade cookies, brownies, & rolls to go with the hot coffee. Oh, by the way I sold a goodly amount of my work too. That was not a forgone conclusion as the last two shows were tough. Until about two o’clock there were lots of visitors to the show. At two it slowed way down. Sometimes shows will flash back to life toward the end of the day. Not much of a flash this time. Never-the-less I had a great day sales wise. 

I primarily sold prints and not cards which is a good thing as the prints sell at a higher unit value than the cards. I’ll post the first print I sold for the day. It is called “Surf is Up”. It was taken on the island of Corfu in Greece.

The photograph is called Surf is Up. It was the first to sell at Swartz Creek to a woman who thought it would look great over her bed. She liked the colors.

47_Florida 2010 Gallery

What a gorgeous spot for the show in Grand Haven! The show is in a park that is right on a marina for LARGE pleasure boats. The water is the Grand River. Very shortly after the marina and park it passes into Lake Michigan. To say that it is wide and deep is an understatement. This becomes evident when the ocean going freighter passes by and blocks the entire heights of the high sand dune that forms the western shore.

I have a photograph that I named Big Red which is of the lighthouse at Holland State Park in the winter. About 80% of the people coming into the booth think it is the Grand Haven lighthouse. I drove out that way when the show was over. The beach at Grand Haven State Park was jammed. The lighthouse was in the distance. I’ll have to give it a closer inspection some time, but off hand it did not seem similar.

This is nice little show, but this year the sales were hard to come by. It was a HOT day and I never stopped sweating after set up. I’ll have to think hard about going back, but on the other hand it is gorgeous and I have to get closer to that lighthouse. Maybe I can catch it at sunset.

Make-Up

Mother never wore make-up. 

I guess it was a Nazarene thing —

a no dancing, no movies,  no drinking, no smoking, no PDA —

well most of the fundamentally forbidden. 

Maybe it was from the depression experience;

the expense of it. Maybe it was just Father

clamping down. Or the day-to-day

existence of kids & garden & fixing meals

ready at the appointed time. 

What purpose would make-up serve?

It would roll off and mix with the sweat

of daily toil adding a confusion to

a direct purpose driven existence. 

I would play with the things on her dresser.

Touch each object she preserved 

in its wooden drawers. 

She had silk handkerchiefs emitting

the delicate scents of flowery perfume. 

In the Baptist church she would make them into

fragrant churches, steeples and all the people

to entertain me for a while.

There were glittering pins for her dresses,

long dangerous looking hat pins, necklaces

of the various type lying in crystal glass 

containers (or was that just the straight & safety pins)

— just in the drawer ready as for daily use 

— for the next club luncheon!

A small black lacquered (corean? japanese?)

music box sat on top and when opened

played a song I do not remember.

Was this from one of her brothers that

served in corea? Where did it come from?

Maybe there were scarves that felt silky

in those drawers? I would put them around

my head — and they smelled like hairspray

and mother’s hair.

I would open each rouge & powder & lipstick

twisting each in turn like an orangescicle though

I don’t remember making the step to actual application!

She must have known of these explorations,

but never was there an objection or reproof. 

I put everything back and I think

wondered at their purpose and power. 

Was there some fantasy or release

from today’s repetitions. I don’t really

know. She might not herself. 

Did it cover some ache or wound

of which I think there were many?

Did it take her into a better world

if only until the slippers broke and

the carriage was made into pie?

Oh, but then she would

from time to time,

and her face would light up. 

She would glow not with the forbidden,

but with the result. It seemed

to me to change her; 

the very way she carried herself 

out into the world.

And out she would go as if not caring

or knowing that tomorrow would

be just as yesterday. 

East Lansing

August 17, 2010

Greenfield Series

©2010 Make-Up — Joseph W. Yarbrough

Reproduction prohibited without written permission.

Fine Arts Festival - Brighton

This is one of the photographs that was purchased at Holland’s Art in the Park 2010. It is called Gone & Done. When you see me, ask why.

Art in the Park - Holland August 7th I participated for the first time in Holland at their Art in the Park last year, and I was anxious to go back to this event again this year. I was not disappointed! I would hate to disabuse anyone of the notion that it is all about the art. The reality is that one cannot continue to drive hither & yon without at least covering the entry fees and the gas — at least sometimes. Well Holland was no disappointment on that score. I had my best one day sales ever. This included an order for three framed pieces which I sent along the first of last week. On top of it the folks who bought the framed pieces were very nice and we had a lot of fun talking as they decided which prints to have in their home. That felt good. Not just the sale, but the thought that this couple really wanted these prints, and their e-mail indicated that they were very pleased. Art in the Park takes place in a city park right across from Hope College so it is in the downtown area. The day was bright and sunny. It was humid. Does anyone remember what Michigan humidity feels like? Setting up a booth in the weather we’ve had ain’t all that much fun. But once one is settled and the show starts most of that is forgotten. I had some very nice neighbors in Jeff & Lisa who were marketing metal objects from jewelry size to as Jeff phrased it, ‘man art’ size. Jeff moved a ton of his hot dog—marshmallow—Jiffy Pop over an open fire ‘man art’ pieces. Lisa did the non-man art. All of it was very nicely executed. They live in Lowell. Look them up. The park really is canopied with very large trees so except for a brief period we were in shade despite the humidity.

Art in the Park - Petoskey - July 17th

One of the prints that did sell was to a women from Okemos—-right down the block from where I live!

The photograph is called Design.