A Whirlwind Weekend

March 28, 2011 by 12 Comments
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.

——————

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.”

Filed Under: Photography, Solopreneurship Tagged With: ,

Desert Botanicals at Tempe Festival of the Arts

March 24, 2011 by 10 Comments
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.

—————-

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.

Filed Under: Photography, Solopreneurship Tagged With: , ,

Sticking Points – Facing Challenges in the Face of Fear

March 11, 2011 by 16 Comments
Sticking Points

Sticking Points © 2011 Bo Mackison

There are sticking points in life. Places where you can’t see the beauty of the cactus plant because you are focused on the thorny spines. Places where it becomes hard to focus on the whole because there is a part that is strange and unknown. I am at a sticking point.

I achieved a huge goal in my “art show plan” this past week. And, as is sometimes true in life, achieving a big goal added new challenges to my life. It also brought the gremlins out in full force. The gremlins are showing up as fear. FEAR — in giant, capital letters.

Last year–my first year doing an entire year of art fairs–I did smaller shows, regional shows. When it came time to send in the applications last autumn, I made the decision to apply to big shows, to the nationally ranked shows that drew artists from all over the country. Five months ago, it seemed like a great idea.

When the notifications began showing up in my email box, there were quite a few rejections. There were some wonderful acceptances, too, for really good shows in the Midwest. I was thrilled. There were also several shows where I was wait-listed – my art was good enough to meet the show’s requirements, but there was not space available. Yet.

Last week I got a phone call from the Tempe Festival of the Arts, one of my wait listed shows. There was a space available. Did I want it? Yes, of course I wanted it. I made some arrangements for an assistant, and I accepted the space at Tempe. And all was good for a few days. And then…the inner critic started blathering.

Yep. The inner critic focused on FEAR.

One of the biggest life challenges I am working to overcome is my fear of the unknown. It is one of the reasons I came to Tucson. I had visited Tucson several times and I was deeply attracted to the region, but I had no connections. When I made the choice to live in Tucson for a couple of months — alone — I knew I would be living in a place whose daily special was a serving of the unknown. I also knew that I would have to come up with the resources to deal with all the fears that ride piggy-back on those unknowns.

When I agreed to do the show in Tempe, I achieved one of my art goals – doing a nationally ranked show. Coupled with that acceptance was  taking on one of my huge fears — doing a show in a city that I had never visited before, and well outside my comfort zone. I also chose to  face my fears, meet them head on, continue to move forward.

Then suddenly, I saw only the thorns in the cactus, not the whole plant. I let fear speak. And I began to listen.

Global Pattern

Global Pattern © 2011 Bo Mackison

It took me a few days to realize that if I listened to my fears, it would interfere with a big life goal – showing up as the artist I want to be. I gradually realized that it was okay to have fears, but that I did not want to allow fear to govern my decisions and my life.

I really am pleased to be in the Tempe show, and I am stepping up to the challenge. I am choosing to be the artist I want to be.  I am choosing to be a person who does not let fear get in the way of her dreams.

Living in the desert offers many life lessons. I choose to see the cactus, aware of its thorns, but focused on the beauty of it as a whole. That cactus has a lot of similarities to living a full, meaningful life.

———————-

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 exhibiting her photography at the Tempe Festival of the Arts in Tempe, Arizona, March 25-27, 2011.

Filed Under: Solopreneurship Tagged With: , , , , , ,