We had a GREAT day of selling and visiting at the Art on
G Street Market, especially considering this is a BRAND NEW event. The first Saturday was last week. I'm signed up to be there again on July 25 and August 15. We applaud the Anchorage
Downtown Partnership for organizing such a professional event, giving talented Anchorage artists an affordable venue to show and sell their work. People
were saying that this event is long overdue and a wonderful alternative to the Saturday Market. Booths were only $100 (with NO commission taken) and they offered artist's the option of renting one of their tents set up for an additional $25, which I took advantage of since I'm not a "regular" festival seller and don't own my own tent. Though I am a little rusty on having a good feel for what kind of items I needed to have on hand, sales were wonderful -though I should have had way more driftwood salmon. The salmon sold out by 10:30 am and the large garden chimes by noon! We didn't think customers
would be up for the large purchases of the chimes and figured if we did sell one or two, Derek and Willie would need to be making deliveries today, but not so! Customers pulled up and we loaded them into their trucks. I was also a little worried because although the morning started out sunny, the large buildings downtown kept us in the chilly shadows. But as the sun moved around, thankfully
most of the vendors had some sunshine. The day gave way to a crazy wind gust that toppled the street barricades and sent the cool wind kites blowing through the intersection. Quick thinking by my sister and Derek rescued the barricades and huge flags before cars ran over them! Yes, there were sand bags -just a brief, crazy strong wind that sent displays and tents flying. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any damage. Hey, it's an OUTDOOR venue and vendors need to be prepared for all types of weather, especially in Alaska! I was a little disappointed in a couple of vendors because they packed up and left in the afternoon due to the shadows and then the wind. Not very cool. You just don't pack up and leave when everyone else stays put. Hopefully, the Downtown Anchorage Partnership will address that issue or at least those vendors won't be asked back...
My friend Jana's store!
The Art of G Street Market wasn't the only event happening. The Alaska Statehood Celebration brought a LOT of people downtown to the streets to watch all of the performers, listen to several stages of music, check out the Hero Games, see the Antique Auto Mushers car show, street circus and even skateboard ramps with skateboard demos!
Famous potter Kris Bliss whose pottery can be found around the state, had a booth with her ware and also had set-up a throwing demo booth that everyone LOVED! Downtown Anchorage Partnership organizers were able to run power out to the street so the clay could fly. Kris also bought one of my large, garden plant stands and chimes first thing in the morning! Thank you Kris :o) though after she bought it, she said now she'd have to sell a lot more pots at the fair! We were joking that the good thing about artist-to-artists sales and bartering keeps the art world a spinning.
My friend Stacy, Stray Cat Designs, (they don't have a web site because they're currently off the grid or I'd put a link) had customers happily buying all day long. Stacy is very hip and has always had style. She (and her daughter) creates hand made jewelry, hand dyed fabric items and her batik T's are wonderful! We were booth neighbors at the Bad Girls of the North Show last November. Stacy and her family live in Talkeetna, AK and do a lot of fairs and shows. Thanks to her, I learned how outdated my credit card machine was and upgraded to the latest technology! We've known each other since high school and our paths crossed again about 20 years ago when we both worked at JC Penney department store, she was a women's dept. manager and I was the display manager dressing mannequins and windows all day -we're both soooo glad we've moved on to living artful lives that don't involve escalators.
Laura Mendola of fused glass fame and my clay mentor, traveling artist Bill Sabo (now spending his winters in St. Pete's at the Clay Company) stopped by to say hey and check out how the sales were going (which were great!). I sent Bill home with a Raven for his FL digs and he's trading me one of his delicious pots. I think the best part of the Art on G Street Fair Market was that our family had a chance to see lots of artist friends and customers. Derek saw lots of his teacher friends as well as his students and their families. Willie was a great help at 7am (well before he is normally up on a Saturday) helping us set-up and delivering the large works in his open bed truck (again!) then he stayed home to keep an eye on Tauzer-Schnauzer, who is thankfully on the mend. Gus got to eat his fill of festival food, get free silly putty at the Imaginarium, play the race cars and watch the Silk Acrobat girl Jessica Joy McVean, perform death defying feats high above the street -all in a beautiful, skin tight, shimmery gold suit... (We think the costume was his favorite part).
4 comments:
Hi Cindy, hope Tauzer is still doing ok, do you know what caused the attack? Do you think it could have been antifreeze or is it an actual disease?
Wow, that street fair looks like a lot of fun, wish they had something like that around here, one of the benefits of a bigger city I guess. So glad your sales were good. I'll have to go back and check all the links.
Hi Linda- Yes, we are VERY fortunate to have such an active city and art community.
Blood work showed it was not antifreeze. Tauzer had what the doctor described as acute hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE). I read a link from my earlier post/comment made by Donna as well as I looked up HGE on Ask.com and the descriptions are exactly what Tauzer has! She's doing better but still is not 100% :o( and VERY, VERY stinky. Her tummy is really girgling and she still doesn't want to go on her "walkies" but is eating and drinking and wagging her tail :o)
hi cindy, looks like great weather despite the wind attack glad you had a fun filled day...
Hi Ang! Yes, we were sooo lucky, during the week before the show/fair it rained and was gloomy...then out popped the sunshine early Saturday morning! Whew! We were thinking had it been rainy it was going to make for a looong and chilly day! It's been ALMOST as warm here as it is in your part of the world -well almost :o))
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