Artomatic 2007,
Crystal City, Virginia
April 13-May 20, 2007

(Originally written on May 7, 2007. Updated on August 13, 2009.)

The Exhibition

I've been to previous Artomatics but it was mainly as a visitor. This year was the first year I actually participating as an artist. Here are a few shots I took of my own exhibit space before the show started. (Click on any photos to see a larger version open in a new window.)

Here's my entire exhibition space from three different angles.

Here are a few doll-related things in my exhibit. I took two of my cusomized 1/6 scale dolls and put them in display frames. This one is an Obistu 1/6 doll that I customized to resemble Chi from the anime and manga series Chobits.

This one is a Volks Dollfie Plus (a Volks Neo-EB B Tan Skin Dollfie Plus, to be exact) that I customized into an exotic-looking fairy doll.

This one is a framed photo I took of my two small Asian ball-jointed dolls (a Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo and Orient Doll Ji) trying to imitate the statue in the background (which is titled "Mother and Child" and can be seen in the Old Greenbelt section of Greenbelt, Maryland).

This one is a framed photo I took of my Volks Dollfie Dream next to the Testudo statue that's on display on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park.

I took this photo of my Volks Dollfie Dream looking at her own photograph on display at Artomatic. (She's wearing a different wig and outfit from the photograph.)

Across the street from the building where Artomatic was held was this special mailbox that was painted to resemble R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies. I took photos of my Volks Dollfie Dream next to this mailbox on the same day as I took the previous photo.

During the installation of my exhibit, I brought along my small 1/6 scale Asian ball-jointed doll (Soul Doll Kimmy) and had him sit next to a blank wall in the building playing an electric guitar (which was originally made for Barbie).

Artomatic Marketplace, May 6, 2007

During the month-long Artomatic event, there was a weekly Marketplace that was limited to Artomatic participants only. I participated in it only once. I sold mostly jewelry, polymer clay boxes, and customized dolls. I had a much smaller space than I usually get at various craft shows so I had to leave one of my small portable tables at home and I left my Barbie fairy dolls behind as well. (Artomatic caters to a mostly adult audience while the Barbies tend to interest younger children.) I managed to take just two photos of my table.

A photo of my table taken without a flash.

A photo of my table taken with a flash.

There were a few people milling about on the 8th floor but there wasn't a lot of foot traffic even though next Sunday is Mother's Day. I still managed to sell two necklaces though. I had one guy who stopped by my table, took a look at my 2 foot tall doll (my Volks Dollfie Dream) that I have out there for show (she's not for sale, I decided to use her as an attention-getting device and she has appeared in two of the zines I'm currently selling in my area as well as in one of my photos that I have hanging on the wall), and pulled out one of my zines telling me that he paid the $2 and he really liked my zines before walking away. That was very nice!

It was a pretty laid-back experience selling in the Marketplace. There was a deejay spinning some cool tunes and there were a few vendors selling a variety of stuff. It was too bad that there weren't more people visiting because it was a really good show.

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