 Finally, My Dale (Scott's Dale) had an art festival for me. I wasn't sure when it would happen but it did happen and I got to go there last weekend. I should be used to these type of honors but it still overwhelms me a bit when a whole festival is thrown in my honor. I want to thank the state of Arizona and the City of Phoenix for the honor. I hope to be picking up the royalty checks very soon. I think they're in the mail. I really shouldn't have been surprised though. Gosh, "they" even named a whole village after me in England. Who would have guessed?  Nottinghamshire, UK Attenborough is a little village south of Nottingham in, of course, Nottinghamshire. That really put me on the map - literally. Been there. Did you know "Attenborough Studio" is a real thing? It's at the Darwin Center in the Natural History Museum, London. Though, to be fair, there's a guy named David who thinks it's named after him. We'll keep that one quite - just between us for now. Yup, been there too. As I was driving to "My Dale" Art Festival I was eager to grace them with my presence. I looked forward to being able to wave to my people. Then, as if a crushing weight fell on my head, I realized how far Scottsdale is from where I currently hang my hat in Surprise. It takes almost an hour to get there. Why do we live in Surprise and not in Scottsdale - you say? Partly because stuff is really expensive in Scottsdale and - well - nope - that's it. It's expensive. There are a lot of other reasons but I don't want to bore you with them right now. Scottsdale has a great "Old Town". It gets overrun with tourists this time of year or at least it was last weekend. Partly because the weather is great but it's also spring training season here in Arizona. Scottsdale Stadium hosts the San Francisco Giants. Fans were out it droves drinking, merry making, and basically whooping it up to a karaoke version of "Take Me Out To The Ball Ole Ball Game". Fans can be loud. Nevertheless, I was there for the Art Festival. When I go to these things I like to learn something. I look at it as gathering intelligence at a trade show. How do they do this and how do they do that. I pay particular attention to the artists, how they set up and how they sell. There were a lot of fabulous works on display and some less fabulous. I would say all of the people exhibiting were really professional. Nothing looked amateurish or poorly executed. I did notice a lot of the same old stuff but there were some interesting new takes as well. There was high end (ish) art. Nothing even close to the $100,000 range but nothing was bargain basement priced. There were bands playing the whole time on two different stages, the beers weren't outrageously expensive but the food was a bit more than I thought it should be. Even though it rained while we were there (mostly an irritating drizzle), we had a good time slinking in and out of booths, commenting on this, admiring that, giggling profusely, and generally spending a wonderful Saturday afternoon in Scottsdale with friends. I spoke to exhibiting artists about how they applied to show their work at the festival. That's how I learned about a web app called ZAPPlication.org.
I've been playing around with the ZAPPlication website, exploring different venues to exhibit and sell artwork. There are several shows where I might be able to play show-and-sell. Who knows, I might come to a town near you! Some of the artists I met go from show to show every week selling their artwork. I could paint during the week, sell my wares on the weekend. Doesn't sound like a bad gig to me. It would be better than working during the week and painting on the weekends. I'm in the middle of trying to figure all this nonsense out. Hang with me, please. It's good to make meaningful progress toward a worthwhile goal. It makes me feel good. I hope you have a wonderful project that you're working on too. I hope you have something that makes you happy and makes you feel good. It does create a bit of brightness and lightness in life. For now, I leave you with this bright and cheery bird for the weekend.  Until next week, I wish you peace.
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