Sunday Morning in San Carlos

San Carlos is our last California show for 2011, and I'm sitting here at 6:00AM with a fresh Starbucks Americano (no run for cream please).  It's kind of like a strong black coffee ( and again, no run for cream please)!  I could write a whole blog post on the number of times I ordered black coffee, and the clerk, barista, whoever was behind the counter asked me that question.

San Carlos is a nice town just south of San Francisco right off highway 101 and slightly below California state highway 92.  This week the show is on Laurel Avenue and runs approximately five blocks south, and then there are two blocks at San Carlos Avenue which intersects Laurel.  It's another town that seems to buck national trends where the downtown section is mostly intact with businesses, and even a large vacant building has a sold sign on it.

The weather is picture perfect California - sunny and low to mid seventies yesterday, and it's supposed to be mostly the same today.  "What's that in my picture"?  Dang aeroplane pulling the Geico gecko sign.  Only at an art faire in California would one see this. 

Yesterday morning started off with a bang with my latest fish going to this fine gentleman.  No, not the good looking guy in the Hawaiian shirt (that's me), it's the happy guy on the right.  As I always tell everyone I wake up better than average, and I'm happy to go to bed in an even better mood.  It's contagious and people really are happy to be around you!

 The sun is still low and I'm going to do some reading for now.  There's still a number of shows to think about over the next few months, and we have to get serious about planning shows for next year.  People are always amazed when they discover the whole process and logistics we artists go about to do the shows.  Most are thankful and often comment that maybe their job isn't so bad.  It takes a certain person to do these  shows and be successful at them.  A lot of persistence and self motivation are the key, but I really believe that anyone can do this.  I've been approached several times to teach a course, but I'm always so busy that it's hard to fit it in my current schedule.

Workin For A Livin'

Life is never boring for the us artist folks, especially those of us that do one-of-a-kind work.  It's either creating new work or even a new line, completing a commission from the gallery, reading endless articles to try and find that next great art show, maintenance on the truck or trailer, or doing some work around our house.  Truth is that I have a great life and I'm the luckiest guy in the world!

It's been slamming this winter at our gallery in Florida, and I'm getting ready for this summer's shows.  Looks like we'll be doing a lot in the upper midwest.  Check our website at www.cliftonmetalworks.com and click on the link for the show schedule.  Everything is current and there are a number of tentative dates and will be for the next few months while we wait to here back from shows and their decision on who gets in.

Back to the work.  Mackie and I have our gallery in Punta Gorda, Florida, and tourist season in full swing in southern Florida.  And, I'm doing an average of two art shows a month.  Eash.  Who the heck set this schedule?  If I find that person I'll...Ok lets go on.  You get the general idea.  The point is that you can be successful with your craft.  It's no quick rich scheme, but you can live comfortably if you're willing to put forth the effort.  Keep positive, get yourself around positive and creative people, and network.  Check out www.artfairinsiders.com for some great folks and good information.

The moral of today's story is to keep creating art and doing what you love!

If Everything Worked Right

We decided that I would come out west and exhibit at our best western art shows this summer. Now that in itself has presented some challenges. First, Mackie and I would be apart for an extended period of time; second, I would have to work and clean out our old house so we could sell it and eliminate making these house payments; third, I would have to make technology work. So lets take the latter.

I opted to drop my Verizon card because I figured out how to use my Droid to connect to the Internet. it works great for viewing email, tv shows, etc but not for getting on secure servers like the ones used by Google and some other companies. That's going to be my excuse for not updating my blog so much. Now that Starbucks is giving free wifi, I have no excuse. So here I am enjoying a nice iced coffee on a muggy day in Vancouver, Washington getting some secure server work completed.

The summer shows turned out great. One down and seven up. Not bad. And, its been very productive getting new work created. I attribute that to being able to focus 100% on my art work. Obviously its paying off with numerous new customers and existing ones ordering new work. The "Guardian" shown above is just one example of ideas that I've been working on for the past two years that I'm finally bringing out. Each one is created from 100% recycled materials if one does not count the welding rod.

I'm getting itchy to head back to Florida, but I've got a number of commissions and deliveries to make on the way east. Life is sure exciting!

I'm going to be creating a lot of new work that will be featured in our gallery at Fisherman's
Village in Punta Gorda, Florida. Soon, I'll have a website for the gallery - my target date is by Halloween. We'll have a number of new work from several of my west coast artist friends that we'll be showing in the gallery. I'll be posting more information here soon. I promise.