Door’s Open to Adventure

Evening Time

Door's Open © 2012 Bo Mackison

Art is alive. It puts energy into the world…as an artist, respect your art and think not only of success but of your mission to provide opportunities for your art to grow and expand and touch the hearts of others. ~ Lisa Jill Allison from “Art from the Heart

ART SHOWS — PART I

I’ve been doing art fairs and festivals on a frequent basis since June, 2010.

In 2010, I did about 10 shows. All of the shows were small shows in the Wisconsin/Illinois. Sherpa accompanied me to all the shows and did most of the work in the earliest shows. I have painful memories of my first show – an non-juried show at a smaller university in Wisconsin. I was in such a state of panic that I sat about 50 feet behind the booth, perhaps whimpering a bit, while Sherpa stayed in the booth and talked to the few customers that wandered in. The show did not have much fine art, but it did have stenciled skeleton tee shirts and crocheted Barbie clothes and anthropomorphic ceramic turtles wearing ballet costumes, firemen outfits and such. Even though the mark was not high, I could not quite reach it — I was out of my league, even at this level. I wondered how I would ever be successful in the art show business.

The rest of the 2010 shows were not quite so disastrous, though I never really was comfortable in the booth by myself. If Sherpa was not available, one of my kids who were in college would help me out. We made it through the first full year, and decided we had learned a lot in a year and we would continue.

And so I continued my on the job training in 2011. I also moved up in the art fair world and applied to many shows that were well-juried and had a national reputation.And I even got accepted into some of these top notch art festivals.

I did a couple of shows in Spring 2011 in Arizona, but I still had a fair amount of trepidation and depended on Sherpa for set up and company. In the summer we did 12 shows, including four area shows, but mostly I did shows in the Chicago/Michigan area. By August, I had mostly conquered my fear of “being an artist” and talking about my photography with strangers.

I could, and did, do artist talks about my photography and what it was like being an artist on the art fair circuit. I had stuck my head of my introverted shell and found the world to be a rather nice place.

My two Holiday shows in 2011 were my best shows ever, and I did much of the set up and some of the booth time solo. Sherpa or one of my kids never left me on my own for long, though, which was fine with me.

And so I began the 2012 season with two big shows scheduled in Arizona. No problem. Sherpa and I drove the car and art trailer to the Tucson area in November and flew home after getting settled in our new condo. I flew back to Arizona after the winter holidays. Sherpa planned to fly out a few weeks later for the first show.

These plans were carved in stone as far as I was concerned. Carved deeply in stone.

And then Sherpa became involved in a difficult problem at work. The figuring-out-a-solution job quickly took precedence over Sherpa’s visit to Tucson.

Here I was, 1,000 miles from any family members who I could call on for an art fair fill-in. The only solution at this end was for me to do the show on my own. I would have to drive to the show, set-up of the booth, and do at least the first two days of the five day show by myself. Sherpa thought he could come in for the long weekend, but there were no promises.

I’d already plunked down my booth fee, I had my art in Tucson, and I was in Tucson. There really were no other alternatives. I needed to set up my booth for the festival and do the show by myself.

This was new territory. Scary territory. I wasn’t sure I could manage. I was, in fact, quite certain I could NOT manage. But even in the art show business the motto is “the show must go on” and so I started planning in small steps.

How would I make the transition from Bo doing weekend art shows with Sherpa’s support to Bo doing weekend art shows solo?

Tune in tomorrow for Part II for the next part of the story.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is discovering that every day provides opportunities to learn new and amazing things.

Tubac Festival of the Arts

Yard of Pottery

Yard of Pottery © 2011 Bo Mackison

If I’ve been quiet lately on the blog front, it is because I have been busy on the art festival circuit. I set up my booth on Tuesday – a noon to nine experience! – and the Tubac Festival of the Arts show started yesterday. My booth – Seeded Earth Photography – takes on more of a Southwestern theme when I do the shows in Arizona, but I also display my trademark macro-botanicals. I think I have a split photography personality – half Midwest and half Southwest! But then, I am fortunate to photograph two regions of the United States that I love and call home.

My booth is in a lovely spot at the corner of Tubac and Hesselbarth. (Booth number C 26.) I can look out the front and watch the crowd and the horse-drawn trolley shuttling visitors though the town.  I can look to the back and I am on the edge of a fascinating outdoor sculpture garden and the Tumacacori Mountain range in the distance. A tiny slice of heaven!

Horse Trolley at Tubac

Horse Trolley at Tubac © 2011 Bo Mackison

The Tubac Festival of the Arts, located on the main streets in Tubac, continues today through Sunday. Hours are 10:00 am to 5 pm every day. The event is free, although there is a $6 parking fee which supports various local non-profits.

Tubac is surrounded by engaging (to the senses) high desert vistas and mountain ranges in every direction. It is a beautiful location for an art festival, in a village well-known for its art community, art galleries, and dozens of working studios in both newer complexes and in century-old buildings. Located 50 miles from Tucson, it is convenient yet I feel like I am in a totally different, mystical environment.

Truly, a place to see. And it’s a great time to visit when the Art Festival fills the streets with white tents, artists from across the country, and amazing art.

Tubac’s slogan is “Where History and Art Meet” – it is a charming village and a scenic art festival venue.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. If you are looking for Bo this weekend, come to Tubac!

Blue Pottery on Ocotillo

Blue Pots on Ocotillo

Blue Pottery on Ocotillo © 2012 Bo Mackison

I lose my center. I feel depressed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over any encounter, and to extract its juices, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.    ~ May Sarton

I had copied this quote in my journal, and until I got to the ending and noted May Sarton’s attribution, I thought I had written those words. Maybe I wouldn’t have written such perfectly paced phrasing, but the sentiment was right on.

Am I trying to keep all the little pots filled? Am I being careful to not be harmed by the thorns on the ocotillo branches as I draw nearer? I do think things over, slowly, simmer them for awhile. Sometimes I repeat the same experiences in order to capture the essence.

May Sarton and me, hmmm?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is exploring the Sonoran desert and  examining the smallest of encounters.

Blue Doors

Evening Time

Evening Time @ 2011 Bo Mackison

I’m taking the day off from the computer – substituting a day of quiet, time for reflection and long hand writing, time for reading and aimless walking, and filling the empty well.

Bird Cage, Ocotillo, and Freedom

Study in Brown

Freedom © 2011 Bo Mackison

A visit to Tubac Presidio Historical Park in Tubac, Arizona, gave me an opportunity to photograph some amazing objects from an early historical period in Arizona–from the middle of the 18th Century through the early years of the 20th Century. The above photo shows a part of the historical museum’s veranda. The wooden bird cage is hung from a ceiling made of ocotillo, a thin, wood-like desert plant.

The park protects the ruins of the oldest Spanish presidio in Arizona, founded in 1752. It is the site of the first European settlement in  Arizona.

Tubac is one of only three presidio sites to survive into modern times. The second (if you can consider this surviving) is buried under downtown Tucson, the third in is Cochise County. The Tubac Presidio Historical Park was Arizona’s first state park, dedicated in 1958.

In early 2010, the state of Arizona decided to close the park due to severe budget cuts to the Arizona park system. Santa Cruz County administrators and the Tubac Historical Society stepped up to thwart the crisis.  The county assumed the role of governmental agent for the park and the Historical Society took on the administration and maintenance of the site — a bold move to protect a historical gem in the town whose motto is “where history and art meet”.

All of the people who take care of the Presidio are volunteers–a difficult, though rewarding job–and they deserve big thanks. Without their many hours of time and effort, the park would be boarded up and fall into a state of disrepair. So kudos to the Tubac Historical Society docents.

The park preserves three historical buildings which are on the National Register of Historic Places:

Old Tubac Schoolhouse

Old Tubac Schoolhouse © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • Arizona’s second oldest Territorial school building, the Old Tubac Schoolhouse, built in 1885.
Otero Hall, Tubac Presidio Historical Park

Otero Hall © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • Otero Hall, an adobe building built as a community center and later used as a schoolhouse, built in 1914.
1930s Kitchen

1930s Kitchen © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • And the Rojas House, a typical adobe row house that has the original furnishings of Luisa Rojas, a life-long resident of Tubac, built in 1890, and restored to the period of the 1930s.

On a personal note, I love the photograph of the empty bird cage. It is very symbolic to me–I feel like I am tasting a type of freedom and independence I haven’t experienced since my college days.

I’m learning that independence gives not only freedom, but also demands responsibility. I woke up this morning with such amazing feelings, almost too hard to describe–feelings of wonder and accomplishment and the knowledge that whatever needed to be done today, well, I’m the one that had to do it. But the responsibility feels good; it makes me feel competent, effective, satisfied.

And so I love the photo of the empty bird cage–the bird has flown to freedom.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for the next eight seven weeks, exhibiting her photography in art fairs, taking photographs of Arizona landmarks, both historical and natural, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and learning to live on her own. Her mantra is “Bo goes solo!”