Yesterday Oh Yesterday

I didn't get any sleep, stayed up working on a big painting. Around 6 AM I figured, it's the Royal Street Food & Wine Fest- there's gonna be people, the artists are gonna be quick! I may as well get out there now to get my spot.

A big painting..for me..about 40" x 40"

Turned out the street was totally empty. For hours I was the only one set up. It was a day of minor physical mishaps. My pants ripped on the ride down, once arriving I realized I'd forgotten the clothes pins I use to hang my work with. A kindly, talkative canadian lady watched my stuff while I went to Rouses. All they had were obnoxious pink/purple/blue plastic clothespins. Ah well..the canadian lady bought me some coffee & I drank it blinking, trying to stay conscious.

Another artist showed up, she told me about her other job as a waitress. Said she loved the place, the entertainment factors were high, about a wild day last week involving guns & bath salts. (New band name anyone?)

A guy walked by with a cartoon hand grenade tattoo. I stopped him and asked, "Why would you get that tattoo?"
He stopped and looked surprised. With an enthusiastic gesture he said,
"It's me!"
"What do you mean...internally you identify as a cartoon hand grenade with eyes?"
"No! It's ME! I'm the giant hand grenade down the street!"

---

Yes! I met the REAL hand grenade..the man behind the costume. And the tattoo has been copyrighted so no one else can get it. And he is full of life & loves his job & quite the inspiring fellow.

This was one highlight of my day.

Mid day the sky confused us with a handful of fat rain drops. Luckily ther  was a stack of cardboard nearby to cover things. It hardly rained at all, and the sun glared down and I wanted to nap.

A lady who works at a gallery near by came over & bought this piece:

I usually don't like painting while I'm selling on the street. Oil paint doesn't dry fast enough and it feels too public to focus.
Latly I realize I can work in acrylic & just work on stuff that doesn't require total focus. Here are 2 pieces I worked on, painted on top of magazine pages.

I was thinking about trying to auction off pieces that I might paint over.

<-- This was one of them.

A nice, quiet man, who I think I may have rambled at too long came and got it.

Some sweet folks, Dana & Jeff,  who came to an open studio awhile ago were visiting. They left
with this one ---------------------->

And even left me with a gift of their own work:

Drawing by Dana Burrell

Everything sort went downhill from here.
The much awaited wine & food festival began. By this point, evening time, the artists were covering the fence.
My backwards logic told me: People like to drink wine when they look at art- therefor people like to look at art when they drink wine.
Nope.

No fault to the Krewe of Cork who kindly gave me a fan & actually did interact.

This crowd stayed in their 'designated' area. They hardly wandered over. At one point I asked a guy walking by, "Don't you want to engage with us at all?" He said, "No, I don't engage anything." And hurried off in a little bubble. So, yeah.

This image pretty much sums up my experience of the Wine & Food festival.

To which my sentiments are: Ya'll Hella Boring.

Then I packed up & rode home and SLEPT & SLEPT & SLEPT.