Big Art Show, Washington, DC, April 28, 2007

(Originally written on April 29, 2007)

Oh, man, I am so tired from yesterday. I had to drive all the way up to Baltimore to drop off a few framed photos for an upcoming show that will be opened to the general public this coming Thursday with the official opening date being this coming Friday. Unfortunately the organizer of that show had the drop-off time being very close to the starting time for the drop-off of stuff for the Big Art Show in Washington, DC so I had to drive the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to Baltimore, find the place where the show is being held, find parking (which I was lucky to find quickly since parking is a bitch to find where the show is being held), drop the stuff off, made a brief five-minute introduction to the show's organizer (we previously communicated via e-mail), get back in the car, get back on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (which begins in Baltimore), and drive the entire length of the road until it ended in Washington, DC, where I had to find parking (which is even more difficult than in Baltimore), then haul my stuff to the Rock and Roll Hotel. Whew! Reading that previous sentence is exhausting enough but having to live it was even more exhausting!

So I arrived at the Rock and Roll Hotel just in time to pick a spot. Even though the Big Art Show was being held on both floors of the nightclub, it was still crammed with many artists taking up the limited empty spaces that the nightclub had to offer. As a result, I had less space than I would normally have at a typical arts and crafts fair. Since the show was being held in a nightclub that was targeted at adults, I decided to focus more on the necklaces, polymer clay boxes, and zines. I didn't put out my thrift store Barbie fairy dolls mainly because of space and I figured that most adults wouldn't be interested in them. (The show was held in a nightclub and the Big Art Show's official start time was at 7 p.m.) I did put out the Asian 1/6 customized dolls (or the ones that aren't currently being displayed at Artomatic) since they were more unique than a Barbie doll.

The good news was that there were quite a few people who did come to the show despite the fact that most of the marketing for that show was limited to certain Internet sites (like MySpace) and I never saw an ad in the local papers for this show. The bad news was that most of the people were more into doing alternate stuff--a) either watching the live bands perform or socializing with each other or b) drinking at the bar or c) doing all of the above. I still managed to sell one of my polymer clay necklaces and two copies of my Dolls Gone Wild zines, which wasn't bad considering the fact that there were no vendors fees for participating in the Big Art Show. (Basically spaces were available on a first-come, first-served basis. All the available spaces were taken up as the show got closer so the organizers made it clear that if we didn't claim our space by 5 p.m., they would give it away to other vendors who didn't make it to the initial registration but who still wanted to participate.)

Even though I didn't make much money at the show, my husband and I enjoyed ourselves. We were focused on the really cool interior design of the nightclub (which lived up to its name by focusing on photos and other mementos of various rock stars and rock bands). We were located on the second floor of the nightclub, which had a deejay that played all kinds of rock music. My husband and I also became fast friends with the vendor next to us, who is a photographer based in Richmond. We exchanged business cards at the end of the night.

Well, here are a few shots of my vending area at the Rock and Roll Hotel. (Click on any of the photos to see a larger version open in a new window.)

For the record, this show was the first time that I debuted my new tablecloth (the old one, which I purchased for $1 at Target's 1 Spot section finally bit the dust after the Riverdale Holiday Market back in December), which I purchased at Target for $15 and it's made out of very sturdy cloth. As for my Volks Dollfie Dream, I had her out for display purposes only.

I really loved the interior of the Rock and Roll Hotel so much that I decided to take a few photos of the place for the hell of it. The walls of the hallway leading to the restrooms were totally decorated with giant collages of various rock stars and rock bands.

There were also a couple of side rooms that each had its own theme. One of the rooms that I wasn't able to take photos of (mainly because the Big Art Show literally spilled into that room with more vendors) had a Ramones theme. The other room had a blood-red gothic theme that I was able to take a few photos of. (I was glad that I got the photos when I did because that room was also overtaken with Big Art Show vendors.)

I have an Ellowyne Wilde "Nevermore" doll that would look absolutely perfect in that room with her black outfit and red hair.

Here's the main focal point of this room, a tribute to the late Sex Pistols bassist, Sid Vicious, and the girlfriend he was accused of murdering, Nancy Spungeon.

Here are some unique mannequins hanging from the ceiling.

The second floor ceilings had a bunch of winged guitars that were dangling on wires. Those guitars brought back memories of the old AfterDark screensavers from the late 1980's-early 1990's which featured flying winged toasters traveling across computer screens.

The past week was totally hectic for me with preparing for two shows simultaneously as well as still keeping my eye on my current exhibition at Artomatic. Now that yesterday's crunchtime has passed, I can rest easy for the moment.

Big Art Show, Washington, DC, April 28, 2007

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