Art Market

I've participated in the Carey Street Crawl three times now.  The last time I did it, I said that was my last time; however, last night's space was split with a coworker friend, which made it easier to commit to.

It was an enjoyable evening, although a bit chilly.  There were several more vendors than in the past, probably because we're officially in holiday shopping season.  There was a  decent crowd, but we realized it was heavily influenced by the band's intermissions, most likely because of the cooler temps.

Again, I had no sales, but lots of lookers.  I even tried not putting price tags on things to get people to ask and tried a different display, but it didn't help.  My friend sold only one of her scarves, but also had lots of lookers.

Since I've done the market a few times now, I feel like I'm one of the gang.  There are some folks who have participated since day one; I think the first Carey Street Crawl was in March of this year. But the long time vendors seem to recognize me and I them, which makes it more like the community gathering that it's supposed to be.  For similar thoughts, read this post.

Lifestyle

Happy 2014!!!  This will be an even bigger year for us than last with the impending birth of our daughter and all the lifestyle changes that accompany being parents.  While that's incredibly exciting for us, I want to talk about a different lifestyle here.

There are so many art associations and involvement type organizations for people to join all over the place both online and in person.  Local ones, such as the St. Tammany Art Association and The Arts Council of New Orleans; regional ones, like Louisiana Division of the Arts; national ones, like Freelancers Union and the National Endowment of the Arts; and selling focused types, like Etsy and Big Cartel all offer membership and benefits of varying degrees for a fee.  Freelancers Union offers health insurance benefits for any type of entrepreneur (not just artists), which is pretty cool and to my knowledge, fairly unusual.

What these organizations offer collectively is a certain lifestyle. You can be a part of one or all, and depending on how involved or active in these groups you become, they can act as your professionsl network all the way to your social life. There's a sense of belonging with your own type and profession.
 

This post was originally typed in January 2014.  It was never published until now because I never thought it was finished.  Today, I decided it was ready.