SOWA Art Walk/Boston Photos

We had a wonderful time at the Art Walk! Met a lot of nice people, saw a ton of amazing art, and I discovered a couple of artists, both new to me, whose work just blew me away. Check out SEAN FLOOD. There's a link to his website at right under artists I admire. Wow! This guy is about two years older than my daughter, and his paintings are amazing. The photos on his website, while great, just don't do them justice. These are big paintings, and you need to see them in person. I wish I had a tenth of his talent!

I also really liked the work of JAMES MUSTIN (also a link at right). His paintings speak to me. They're very urban, very understated. Sort of industrial looking. Water towers. Utility poles. Sharp-edged buildings. Simple backgrounds. Wow. Love his stuff!!

We saw lots and lots of dogs (on Saturday, it seemed as though every other person there had brought their dog!), and on Sunday afternoon, I sold six paintings. Woo-hoo! We will definitely do this again next year. The only thing I'd do differently is that next time, I'm staying in the city. The back-and-forth was too tiring. Even though the hotel we stayed at was only about ten miles out, it felt more like a hundred.

Now, for the fun part: the photos!

Friday afternoon. Headed back to Portland after setting up. The Tobin Bridge, perennially under construction.

Heading in on Saturday morning.

I take photos of blue doorways...

...while Jen takes photos of red chimneys!

Outside 560 Harrison Avenue on Saturday morning. We were waiting for them to unlock the doors so we could get in. I believe the booths in the parking lot are vendors who set up there every weekend during the summer. There was a hot dog and french fry stand that did a whopping business. They ran out of french fries around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon and had to replenish their supply for Sunday.

Our setup, left wall. The venue was a former office building, so most of us had our own little rooms. We quickly discovered the pros and cons of that kind of setup. At least I was able to hang all the paintings I brought. This photo's a little blurry. Please excuse!


Right wall.

Original Saturday setup.

Jen had two photo posters on the front wall by the table, her laptop running a photo slide show, and her prints on the table. Her large framed posters were on the wall beside the door. People would come in to look at my paintings, then turn around to leave and see Jen's posters, and dismiss them without bothering to look. They seemed like an afterthought, and the people who like to look at photography instead of paintings weren't coming in because the posters weren't visible from outside the door.

So on Sunday morning, I decided to do a little rearranging.
This is Jen standing in front of the table Sunday morning.

We moved Jen's big framed posters to the front wall to the right of my paintings, moved her sign over there, too, to identify her and separate her stuff from mine, moved a few paintings to the outside wall where Jen's posters had been, and put her laptop on a small TV table in the corner, by itself, where it didn't get lost among all the other stuff on the table. This display drew in more people who were interested in photography than we'd seen on Saturday. Jen got a lot of positive comments, people really liked her work, and she made a sale that I'm not sure would have happened if we hadn't changed things around so people could actually see her work.

And a fun time was had by all.

Headed home! Sunday night sunset, taken from a gas station on Route 1 in Peabody. Jen took this out the window while we were fueling up for the trip home.

It was a great experience, but I have to say I'm glad to be home!