Artomatic 2008 and The 2008 Greenbelt Green Man Festival,
Washington, DC and Greenbelt, Maryland
May 9-June 15, 2008

(Originally written on May 19, 2008)

That week the only things that I was really happy about were the two concurrent events that I participated in--the start of the 28-day Artomatic show and weekend-long Greenbelt Green Man Festival. However both shows required preparation work, which only increased my stress levels.

May 9 was the formal opening of the month-long Artomatic event. This year I'm focusing on my digital photos. Some of them have dolls in them (Asian ball-jointed dolls, American Girl dolls, an Ellowyne Wilde doll, and a Blythe doll) while others featured other subject matter like outdoor signs, animals, robots, and landscapes (the majority of which were photographed during a recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina). My photos are currently displayed on the seventh floor right next to the men's room. Here is what my area looks like in a photo that I took a couple of nights before the opening. (Click on any of the photos on this page to see a larger version open in a new window.)

I went down to the Artomatic site for the opening night festivities. I spent the first couple of hours in a drop-in drawing workshop featuring nude male models. I haven't drawn much in a while so I was rusty at first but I finally found my groove and I managed to make a couple of passable drawings of male human figures. The workshop ran from 7 p.m.-2 a.m. but I grew tired after drawing non-stop for a few hours so I left that workshop and went outside the building where I checked out a troupe of fire dancers. Yes, they were doing intricate dance steps while juggling, flinging, and swinging around flaming torches. It was quite well done and I even took a lot of photos of the fire dancers. There were times I wished I had brought along my videocamera as well because fire dancing is one of those things that video can convey much better than still photos but I didn't so I had to make do with my still camera.

Even though there were lots of exciting events going on that opening night, I couldn't stay very late because I had signed up to sell my wares at The Greenbelt Green Man Festival the following two days and I had to arrive at the site early to set up. I became concerned about this festival because the weather had been so rainy for the last two or three days. (It had stopped raining just in time for the opening of Artomatic the night before.) When I woke up that morning, I heard the rain pelting the roof of my home and I began to feel sorely tempted to just blow off that festival and stay in bed. However, I managed to force myself to load up the car. By the time my husband and I set up my area, it had stopped raining but the weather remained cloudy and cold.

I didn't sell any of my dolls but I managed to sell some of my polymer clay necklaces and my Shrinky Dinks photojewelry. I managed to sell just enough stuff to break even on the vendor's fee.

Even though I've been working as a vendor at this festival for the past two years and this year was the third year in a row, I always had this big beef regarding the scheduling of this festival: It is always scheduled the same weekend as Mother's Day. It's not so bad having it on the day before Mother's Day since many people were looking to do some last-minute shopping. But holding the second day of the festival on Mother's Day has always been a bit risky because many people prefer to spend that day with their mothers doing things like going out to dinner. The first year I participated it was very sparsely attended and the fact that it was cloudy, cold, and windy didn't help. Last year I had a really successful day in that I sold more stuff than the day before because the sun was shining brightly and it was warm. In fact, the festival was crowded despite the fact it was Mother's Day and I was so busy that time literally flew by.

This Mother's Day was the opposite of last Mother's Day and it bore more of a resemblance of the first year that I worked this festival on Mother's Day. It was very cloudy and the temperature felt much colder than the day before. Even though the official end of the craft fair part of the festival was 7 p.m., the weather forecast called for rain by 5 p.m. so I had already decided that I would leave this festival early.

The bad weather and the fact that it was Mother's Day really affected attendance. Unlike the first day, where I managed to sell a few items despite the low turnout, I didn't sell a single thing. I got the occasional browser but I went for long periods without talking to anyone. In fact, I ducked into a nearby store to purchase a puzzle magazine just so I wouldn't go crazy from the total boredom. The day was so bad for me sales-wise that I started to slowly pack my stuff up around 3:30 p.m. I began to pack faster when it rained briefly for about a couple of minutes and I knew that it was a signal to get everything loaded into the car before it really started to rain hard. By the time my husband and I returned home, it had started to rain hard.

I did take a few photos of my booth on the first day. (I didn't bother with pictures on the second day since there was far less action at the festival.)

The last couple of photos are the ones of a march by the members of The Beloved Order of the Green Man as they made their way past my booth.

Last Friday was the first of my three required five hour volunteer shifts for Artomatic. (All participating artists were not only required to pay a $60 fee but they also have to work at least three volunteer shifts. Anyone who failed to complete the volunteer requirement would be barred from participating in any future Artomatics.) I worked the 5-10 p.m. shift and I got more busy as the night wore on. (They had me working at the front desk where my duties included greeting visitors, clicking the number of people entering on a counting device, handing out maps of the exhibits, and answering questions on where certain areas were located on which floor.) Friday and Saturday nights tend to be the busiest nights so there were throngs of people coming in as the night wore on. I was relieved when my shift ended at 10 because it was getting to be a total zoo with all the people crowding their way into the elevators. The elevators were so jammed that I basically rode it to the 10th floor (where the Artomatic office is located) so I could turn in my volunteer badge then used the steps to walk down all 10 floors because it was much faster than waiting for an elevator.

I managed to chill out by watching the fire dancers perform again that Friday, just like on the opening night the previous Friday. This time I brought my video camera so I could tape them in action. I'll eventually get around to editing the videotape and posting it on my YouTube account. (By the way, the fire dancing troupe is known as Flights of Fire.)

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