It's been awhile since I did a longer blog post! Been so busy lately - hell, The Daily Misfortune is practically a weekly misfortune. But being busy is a good thing.
This weekend's Hudson Flea / Artist & Merchant Market started out bleak, but got better and I can see it has a lot of potential. It was actually in an old school house, which is a very unique venue. It was hard to find though from the entrance I came in, which was next to a parking garage. Inside there was a big room with lots of tables and vendors, but I was lead way back past darkish hallways of lockers into the back-most classrooms rooms which were available. Sometimes I forget to take pictures of the whole scene - maybe in the future I'll do video blogs...
Mindy Indy at NJ Artist & Merchant Market
I shared a classroom with jeweler Allison Cannarsa - awesome hand-made jewelry! In this classroom we had tons of space to spread out, and even a chalkboard, so I didn't even need the pole frame things I usually have to stick my sketches on - I just posted them all over the walls, and used the chalk ledge to display my custom comics. Drawing on the chalkboard was great too, and I love utilizing special elements of each setup. The downside to all this great space was that hardly anyone walked by, let alone come into our room, let alone bought anything. Allison actually did pretty well because women liked her jewelry and she sold at a higher price than say, my mini comics, of which I sold 2 on Saturday.
Mindy Indy at Hudson Flea NJ Artist & Merchant Market. I love the bold primary colors of the scene!
On Sunday I did MUCH better when I moved into the hallway, which was right in the middle of where people walked by - you can't avoid walking by the table as easily as you can avoid walking into an enclosed room. Especially when it's near an entrance/exit! I sold like 10 mini comics and did 2 sketches, which isn't crazy good like NYCC of course, but it was a heck of a lot better than the previous day, and made back my table of only $20. Having a low table price also made this show more chill, so I wasn't as peeved that crowds weren't forming. I also seemed to get lots of interest in my custom comics, which will pay off later for those larger projects.
This Daily Misfortune is based on a poem by Jacqueline Hallenbeck, another artist vendor at the market! She had an old toy machine where you put in a coin and out comes a little pop-capsule with a poem inside. Mine said:
"I rode a poem
from Peru to Ecuador...
My behind's still sore."
All in all, there were some pretty diverse and interesting things at that market, ranging from rooms of huge beautiful paintings to a room of art installations to poems to jewelry to comics to music performances. This market has real potential to grow, and I think I'd try it again, as they're considering having it weekly or monthly in the future. Everyone that's selling any kind of art should participate in this market because if we have enough vendors, there won't be empty rooms and empty spaces in-between everything because vendors will line the walls!