This is my first year doing outdoor Art Fairs and they have been really fun so far. I am particularly excited to be at the Loring Park Art Festival this Saturday and Sunday August 3rd and 4th. It runs concurrently with the Uptown Art Fair and Powderhorn Park Art Fair. There are shuttle buses among the three sites, and I recommend using them! The Uptown Art fair is more decorative / upscale, the Powderhorn is a little more earthy and I think Loring is right in between which should be perfect for me.

Last month I had Art at St. Kate’s which was a great experience. I am hoping to have double the great experience and have been working especially on new art to hang in my booth. Along with printing cards and giclees, I am framing small works and making sure everything is priced and labeled. It is a lot of work.

It is very exciting as well. I am already looking for more art fairs to participate in. I’m wondering “What’s next?”

The answer, of course is the League of Longfellow Artists’ LoLa Art Crawl on August 24th and 25th. I will be at Forage Modern Workshop this year, a block from Leviticus Tattoo. So, pretty much we know where any money I earn there is going.

But what next, really? I met my goal of becoming a CPSA Signature member in just three years, which is amazing to me.  It will remain a goal of mine to enter their International Expo each year. The Colored Pencil Society is great, and pushing myself to enter their shows has helped me really hone in on what I want from my art.

I have a full time job, and its a good job. I have a daughter who is becoming older and so will have more and more activities to be brought to. Right now is not the time to become more serious about my art career. Loring Park could be a bust. Something is different, though. I feel ready.

In the past five years, I have come to find that having a goal is extremely important. I began with the goal of submitting to the MN State fair every year. I’m 3 for 7 which isn’t too bad seeing as they accept only one sixth of entries. (According to last year’s 2012 data.) Then I decided to join the Colored Pencil Society and enter their shows. That went better than I hoped.

Another goal was to do one art fair a year. This prevented me from needing a tax ID. This year my goal was to try several art fairs, and so I have a tax ID and am collecting sales tax. That might not sound exciting, but to me it is! Goal reached!

So I need a new goal. Winning a prize at the fair or the CPSA show could be attainable. It would be great to actually sell an original drawing. How does one measure success as an artist? These days we certainly don’t skyrocket to fame; there are far too many of us. Money? I might as well quit now if that’s the case. Maybe success is in making people laugh when they walk into my art fair tent. I think I’ve achieved it in that case.

This fish has a goal, to get back to the lake and bite at fewer suspicious worms. Meanwhile, I have a goal to get back out fishing to catch some more subjects; fish and agate.