Of Fairs and Erasers

Table at the fair
on the first day

My friend Sarah has a wonderful entry on her blog pertaining to erasers and how she was encouraged to use hers as much as she wanted in order to further her drawing abilities. Her take on the eraser is fresh yet very foreign to me. I was taught in my freshmen year of college to throw mine away. It was seen as a dirty little crutch. Something that would hinder development and so I threw all of mine away and just struggled with line and form and wasted ALOT of paper.

I'm not sure which theory is more correct, but the entry brought back many odd memories of my personal struggles as a young artist. I tend to think that both methods, with much practice, get a struggling artist to the same place of satisfaction. But it's in the practice and the many mistakes that we truly grow.

This past weekend I had to experience some hurtful growing pains. The fair went well, but my presentation really lacked character and pizazz. I guess I was just plumb tired from trying to make pieces to fill my table that I forgot to really think about how I wanted to present my work.

New white cloth

An hour into set up I decided that I HATED the new black cloth I recently purchased and I hated the pieces I had made (except for the porcelain bowls with birdies). Thankfully I was at the fair for two days and early the next morning I got there before they opened and changed up my entire set up to something more pleasing and feminine. A total "erase" if you will. I bugged my fellow vendors out with the change. They were confused, but I was more satisfied and felt I was able to sell better with the change that had been made.

Newest china painted pieces

Close up

Things sold well, but after all was said and done I decided that I really need to rethink my marketing all around. I also need to hone in on exactly what it is I want to do with my clay creations. What do I want to be making and why? I guess you could say I need an "artist's statement" and some definite direction. I'm not really sure what that statement would be since up until this point I've pretty much been the "Horse/Rat/Chicken loving gal playing with clay".

So, I have quite a bit to think about I guess. I'm on the verge of an explosion I feel and I need to reign in my thoughts and desires and erase the unwanted and the clutter. I get the feeling that action is going to be a tough one for me since I'm not all that used to using that eraser.