Duh!

It's been about a month now since Oil City had their Oil Heritage Festival.  About ten of the National
Transit Artists set up in the Grafitti Gallery for the arts and crafts show.  We could set up out in the street, but that involves having a tent, setting up at 6 in the morning (and I am sooooo not a morning person), sitting out in the heat (and maybe rain), and taking it all back down the next day.

Instead we chose to set up in the Gallery where we could leave our pieces for several weeks and not just two days.  It's still a lot of work hauling everything down to the gallery and figuring out where to put everything.  It involves hauling down the tables, the jewelry and all the displays.  True to form, the elevator always seems to give out at this time of year.  So, it's a lot of running up and down the stairs carrying heavy loads.

Swan Daashuur (another jeweler in the Transit Studios) and I had displays that took up the most room.  As we were setting our displays up we kept talking about what we did last year.  Notice...... I said talked about what we did.  And..... tried to remember.  Sometimes we remembered and sometimes we did not.

This year we wised up and took a picture of our set ups.  Duh!  How easy is that?

This isn't how it looked last year but I think it was better.  I even had a couple of people make a comment on how nice the display looked.  

Next year I won't have to strain my brain trying to remember what I did.  Duh!  An easy solution.  

"Art Car"

For the past several years the artists of the National Transit Studios have painted on a car for the annual Oil Heritage Festival Parade.  The past two years I have not participated in the painting as the time just didn't coincide with my other activities.

The theme for the car this year was Drums.  Once a month there is a drum circle held at the Transit Building where people can drum to their hearts content and the car was based on that.

For now the car is sitting in the alleyway at the Transit Building and will eventually be towed away to the wrecking ball.

(Since I didn't make it to any of the sessions, I'm not sure who did what on the car but I will make a few assumptions based on the artistic style.)

Crocodile and Lion are the work of John Manders

Notice the knit bombing on the grill and hubcaps.  I imagine this is the work of Corrine Carbaugh.

Other artists that worked on the car (at least I think they did)..... Joann Wheeler (Assemblage artist), Anissa Gage (Poet, painter and drawer) , Maureen James (Stain glass)  and George Cooley (Painter and Installation artist). 

The car was a visual display of art coming up the street. 

Oil Heritage Festival Day two

Yesterday at the Oil Heritage Festival was pretty promising as I mentioned in my post.  We were hoping that today would be better since people would be off work and more likely to stop by.  That was not the case.   The number of people in attendance was disappointing to say the least and it wasn't only for us.  The outside vendors also saw quite a drop.  The weather didn't help as there was once again a tornado warning in effect.  The sky got pretty black and all the outside vendors cleared out about an hour early as today was the last day.

We were able to stay open a little longer since we had nothing to take down and made an extra sale or two.  We also have the advantage of being able to be open tomorrow during the car show.  It's a whole different crowd and I know when my husband takes me to a car show, I usually look for something else to look at.  So.... hopefully tomorrow will add a few sales.

Today was the 5K race that all the members of my son's family participated in.  I wasn't able to see the race but "the crew" stopped by after the race.

John Manders (our resident book illustrator) was once again doing caricatures out in the street in front of the gallery.  He was positioned in such a way that we were able to watch him draw when he wasn't busy.  (He even did a caricature of a Mastiff named Lenny today.)   Yesterday he did seventy caricatures.   I had him do caricatures of my three grandsons today.

Tyler the oldest

Ethan the middle child

Cody the youngest

That time of the year

For over 30 some years Oil City has hosted the Oil Heritage Festival on the third weekend in July.    Well, it is that time of year again.

Two years ago, I bought a tent and set up in the street.  My goal was to get my feet wet at outdoor exhibiting and to create a gallery setting within the tent.  As was mentioned in a post on that show, I succeeded at both my goals and made some money too.

Last year, I moved inside the Graffiti Gallery and exhibited with Swan Daashuur (the other jeweler in the Transit.)  We were positioned behind the tents and sales were pretty dismal.  Swan sold more than I did but still not as much as she expected.

This year I had planned on going back out on the street but Swan persuaded me to try the Gallery one more year.  This year the Festival Committee left the space in front of the Gallery open so it was more visible.  We still did not have the number of visitors the street vendors did but it was so much better than last year.  Sales were pretty good today (hoping that tomorrow is even better.)   And, we will be leaving the show up for the entire month of August.

Work by John Mander, Corinne Carbaugh, Abby Bunnell and Swan Daashuur

Part of my display.

 The outside vendors set up  today and it was a good thing it wasn't yesterday.  We had severe storms yesterday and the fire sirens kept going off to warn us of possible tornadoes.  (The Transit Building is built like a you - know- what.  So, if I have to be somewhere during a storm the Transit is my choice.)

Today the wind came up again and it rained for about an hour.  Some of the tents were toppled and people were looking pretty wet.  So..... I'm thankful I was inside.  Linda Lineman who paints porcelain decided that she was tired fighting the weather every year and will join us inside next year.

Oil Heritage Festival

Every year at this time Oil City celebrates their heritage with a festival.  This year's festival begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Activities for all ages are planned for the next few days, including an adult and a young peoples art show at the National Transit building (where my studio is located.)   Tomorrow is a children's olympic competition and tomorrow evening is a children's pet show.  Friday and Saturday is the annual craft show.  Also on Saturday is a run and a parade Saturday evening.  At some point there is a car show, plus many other activities.  The culminating event on Sunday night is the fireworks.  (Since I'm too lazy to go find my paper with the information of all the activities for the festival, I'm missing lots of the details.)  If you are interested just google it.

Last year I tried my hand at a booth during the Art and Craft show.  I was planning on doing it again this year and then just got too stressed out thinking about all that work (that sounds pretty simple but I'd just been in some kind of funk.)   Last year was successful and I felt good about it.  But this year it just wasn't appealing to me.

Instead, I am setting up my work in the Graffiti Gallery.  There are eight of us that are offering our art for sale.  Assemblage artists, a stained glass artist, painter and book illustrator, along with Swan (another jeweler in the studios) and myself.  My work and hers are so different from each other that we feel we can exhibit and sell together.  Hopefully people will come in off the street to visit.  (It's supposed to be hotter than you know what, so maybe they'll come in just to cool down.)

If the weather is anything like last year (hot, stormy and windy) I'll be glad I'm not out on the street.
If you're in town, stop by and say hello.

Tomorrow I'll share a photo of a new piece I just finished today.  (Another one of those things that have been sitting around for a year or more.  It finally talked to me and I love what it said!)

Oil Heritage Festival

The Oil Heritage Festival starts this Thursday, July 22 and runs until Sunday, July 25. This is the 32nd year for the festival which includes a parade, concerts, a car show, 5K race, art shows and an artisan craft fair. To find out more information, check out www.oilheritagefestival.com.

The festival has an adult art show and a children's art show which is held in the National Transit Building and the Transit Annex. I saw both shows tonight and they are worth the visit. (My seven year old grandson won a second place ribbon for his drawing "Grandma's Fruit Bowl.")

There has always been an arts and crafts fair at the festival. This time they are trying a fine art and fine craft show. It's hard to make changes and the fair is a big change from the past. Instead of a one day fair, it is one and a half days (this coming Friday and Saturday.) And, the kind of art vendors (for the most part) will be different. It will take time to grow.

The new "Graffiti Gallery" will also open this Friday. This is a co-op gallery and the National Transit Artists are the first to show their work. The gallery is street level on Seneca St.

This will also be my first show. I bought a tent (boy did I buy a tent) and I'm stressing out about how to set it up to best show off my work. Only three days left to get things together. The bad thing is that they are calling for rain this weekend which is not good for turnout or for the artists in their tents. (I was at the Three Rivers Festival as a spectator and saw what a bad storm can do.) Hopefully the rains stay away (like they did this past weekend.)

I'm not expecting big things this weekend. Instead I am looking at it as another learning experience (but hoping for the best.)

If you're in Oil City this weekend, stop by my tent and say hi!