A Whirlwind Weekend

Seeded Earth Studio - Tempe Festival of the Arts

Sherpa in the “Midwest Gallery” © 2011 Bo Mackison

Sherpa and I spent the last three days at Tempe’s Art Festival exhibiting my photography. What a weekend! I am so, so grateful that Sherpa was willing to fly to Arizona for a long weekend so he could be my assistant.

The show was open from 10 a.m. til 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A total of twenty four hours. But when Sherpa and I added the hours we spent unpacking and carting the tent, display walls, art and other necessities to our 10 foot by 10 foot site, setting up until one a.m. for the first day of the show, opening and closing the booth each day, and then the packing everything back into the trailer for the drive back to Tucson — wow! We easily worked another 15 hours “behind the scenes.” And we didn’t count any travel time nor the time it takes to actually create the art.

I love the art festivals. I love talking art to the many thousands — yes, thousands! — of people who stop at my booth and look at my photography, talking about a specific photograph that catches their fancy, or asking questions about techniques or camera gear or locations. And of course, I love to talk art with the wonderful people who like what they see enough to purchase my art for their homes.

But doing art shows is lots of work, too.

That is why I want to send a special thank you — decorated with big hugs and kisses — to my best assistant ever. He is my biggest fan and my strongest supporter, and without his encouragement and help, I could never manage the travel required for 16+ shows a year — Spring in the Southwest, Summer in the Midwest, Holidays in Wisconsin. I couldn’t physically manage the strenuous load-ins and load-outs. And while I can work in the booth alone, it is surely more enjoyable having my life-long companion there beside me, working together.

It always gives me a thrill when a customer asks him about “his” photography, and he smiles broadly, nods towards me, and says, “My wife is the photographer. I’m just the roadie.”

Well, this photographer loves her roadie, and she thanks her Sherpa for helping keep this creative dream alive.

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Bo Mackison is the photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art festivals and often about living life solo. But she didn’t have to live life “solo” this past weekend as her soul-mate and show-assistant flew to Arizona for a long week-end. She said good bye to him this afternoon as he boarded a plane back to Wisconsin. But it won’t be long, this adventure is winding down. Only two and a half more weeks and I, too, will be saying “Good bye, Arizona. Hello Again, Wisconsin.”

Sunny Days at Tempe Festival of the Arts

Seeded Earth Photography at Tempe Festival of the Arts

Seeded Earth Photography at Tempe Festival of the Arts

Sherpa came out to Arizona for the weekend and proved invaluable in helping me set up and assist in manning the Seeded Earth Photography booth at the Tempe Festival of the Arts in Tempe, Arizona. Plus it was great to see him after his exile in snowy Madison!

Tempe Festival of the Arts

Tempe Festival of the Arts

The streets were filled with enthusiastic crowds and I had a great time explaining my artistic philosophy to hundreds of people. Most people don’t care why I do the kind of photography I do, but these people not only cared, they wanted to hear about my photography, why I shoot macros, and how I decided to show on the art fair circuit. The conversations were a highlight of the first two days of the show.

Tempe Festival of the Arts - Saturday Afternoon Shopping for Art

Saturday Shopping for Art at Tempe Festival of the Arts

The weather was perfect. The crowds friendly and seemed to enjoy the festival. One of my favorite parts of the show were when people would look into my booth, stop in their tracks, point at a specific photograph of mine, and break out into a huge grin. When they came into the booth, they were a pleasure to work with.

Today, Sunday March 27th, is the last day of the Tempe Festival of the Arts. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you live in the Phoenix area, there are 300 artists who would love to talk to you and have you enjoy their art.

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Bo Mackison is the photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo”.  She is at the Tempe Festival of the Arts through Sunday, March 27th, showing her botanicals and several photos in her new desert series.

Desert Botanicals at Tempe Festival of the Arts

Agave Abstract

Agave Abstract © 2011 Bo Mackison

This abstract photograph of several agave leaves focuses more on the pattern of the plant and the colors. Since it was photographed using a shallow depth of field (not all of the plant was in focus when I composed the photo) the tiny spines transformed into luminescent circles. If you look closely, only a part of three different leaves are in focus. The rest is left to your imagination to fill in what YOU see.

This will be one of the new photographs in a series of desert botanicals that I will be introducing at this weekend’s Art Festival in Tempe, Arizona. In addition to the botanicals, there will also be two other new series — an Arizona National Park series and an Arizona Mission series. I’ll post a few photographs from these in the next posts.

Seeded Earth Photography and I will be exhibiting at the Tempe Festival of the Arts held in downtown Tempe, the Mill Avenue district. The show begins tomorrow, Friday March 25 and runs though Sunday March 27. The festival is open from 10 a.m. to dusk each day.

I’ll be on Mill Avenue in a corner booth, Booth #1422, Easy to find — I’m located near the Jack in the Box. If you’re in the Phoenix area, stop in and say hello.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo”.  She will be at the Tempe Festival of the Arts this weekend, showing several of her new desert series.