In order to get such a semi-professional set-up, I was up until about 1 AM on Friday night bagging/boarding/pricing prints.  On Saturday morning, I got out of the hotel a little late, and got a little lost in Silverton.  I finally got to the show about an hour before it was supposed to open, and got everything done as quickly as I could.  I think it ended up looking pretty well...

Some things that you have to expect when you embark on something like this is what are politely termed "learning experiences."  What that means is that because you don't know what you're doing, therefore you miss out on sales (or needlessly compound your workload) because of something stupid you've done.  They're unavoidable, inevitable, and hopefully you learn quickly instead of doing the same stupid things over and over again.  There are good learning experiences (like if you're a panicked newcomer, there's likely a far more experienced artist/artisan calmly sipping coffee nearby who will lend a quick hand or show you how to properly get your booth set up), and bad ones (like driving away people with poor/off-putting body language - I have a tendency to cross my arms when I'm sitting, which combined with my nearly perpetual wearing of sunglasses and general appearance makes me look more like a bouncer than someone who's easy to talk to and wants to discuss his artwork, which is counterproductive to selling art).  It's important to be really sensitive to how people are reacting to you personally.  It's usually pretty subtle, but if there's something minor that you're doing (and probably aren't doing it intentionally) that's keeping people from checking out your work you need to be able to adjust.

One view from my booth...

Another learning experience for a first-timer is seeing how your work is generally perceived.  Certain words or phrases will pop up repeatedly over the course of a weekend.  In my case, I had a general idea, but until you've actually sat and watched people's faces for two full workdays as they look at your stuff, it's all hearsay.  The words that I got mostly were "different," "interesting," and "unique."  As you can imagine, the tone behind those words varied wildly.  Some were bewildered, some were enthusiastic.  Generally speaking though, people were very positive.  From a cursory glance, it didn't seem that there was much work similar in tone to what I do, which helped me out quite a bit.  Not everyone has the same tastes in art, and I surely don't expect everyone to love what I do, but just having non-decorative work present was enough to make a few people happy.   

Another view from my booth...

One of the things that this weekend taught me was how hard everyone works just to be there.  Everyone's work may not be to my tastes, but knowing how much sweat I had to put in just to show off my work for two days means everyone there deserves respect.  After years of doing comic book shows, I figured I had a ball-park estimate of how difficult it would be to do this.  But the truth is that at least in this instance, art fairs are a million times harder.  Some of the other artists assured me that things really do get easier as you work out the kinks, and I definitely hope that's true.  Otherwise I'm going to have to embark on a winter-long training regiment on an Olympic-athletic level.  

EDIT:  I forgot to mention also, but if you're going to start doing these kinds of shows, it's far easier to prepare if you know someone who's got some experience at doing art fairs, and can guide you through the process.  I'm beyond lucky in that regard, and I would have flailed around much more without some serious help from my printmaking instructor, Gene Flores.  Thanks, buddy!

An alternate view of my booth.  Is this my good side?

On the whole, I think the trip was pretty successful.  I wasn't expecting to sell out of my entire inventory at my first show (give me a couple of years first, and then maybe...), and I didn't, but I did manage to cover my trip and a little bit (in an off-year, in my first show, including my first batch of "learning experiences," etc.), and that feels pretty damned good.  I've got four weeks until show #2 (in West Linn, OR), and I can't wait for it.  I'd love to do the Silverton show again next year.  It was a great way to spend a weekend, and even though I don't have anything to compare it to, I thought it was a great show.  

It's back to work tomorrow (I think this is printing week - I've got a couple of wood cuts done that I couldn't get printed for Silverton), but for now it's drinking coffee and decompressing time...

c.