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I ran into this wonderful post on Facebook and found myself "shining" through it. 'Had to share it with you. Gate open on Contributor, Christine "Liz" Larue. - Victorine
Social media can be a funny entity. In one of my clay groups, a potter had a particularly bad day at an art fair where she set up a beautiful booth. But no one came into her booth to buy. She was totally deflated.
I was in her position at one of Chicago's biggest art fairs on the Northside years ago. The first day, I bombed. Nada. No one was in the booth. You question why you are here. Is it because of my brown face, my pottery...what? People passed me by, waving nicely, but have yet to come in. The second day, out of spite, I grabbed one of my funny hats and stuck it on my head for the day.
That day, with that hat, people began to crowd into my booth. First, they laughed at the hat. Then they wanted photos of themselves with ME wearing the hat. Then, standing around, they began to look at my work and started buying. My clay studio boss came by and yelled, "What happened? How'd you get these people into your booth?" She was yelling from the back of the crowd. It was a whimsical gimmick, but folks enjoyed it. I sold a lotta pottery for our studio.
We set our booth up at the same art fair the following year. Once set up, I strolled around the art fair. I spotted at least 15 artists, all WEARING CRAZY HATS ON THEIR HEADS! Whaaat, I thought! Did I start a trend? I then called my studio boss. We have a little gallery in front of our studio where we sell all sorts of things, a lot for kids. I told my boss, "Bring me THE SHEEPDOG PUPPET, NOW!" She complied. This puppet was the size of a sheepdog pup about six months old. It was huge, quite beautifully furry. One could hold the puppet up by its mouth, animate the head, and hold the bottom like you would a puppy. It was quite life-like. I used one in my social work practice with kids who were afraid to talk about their abuse to me but would tell the puppet.
I had MORE people come into my booth to pet the dog that wasn't a real dog! They were stunned to find it wasn't real, laughed, asked about the puppet...was for sale, etc., and they bought our pottery. I noticed other artists with their crazy hats on walking by my booth glaring at me cuz I had on this crazy hat AND had the sheepdog puppet, too. I thought, "Yeah, bring it ON!"
For future art fairs, we brought kids toys, bolo bats (those handheld paddles with a rubber ball on the end of an elasticated string), bubble wands, more puppets, and even Hershey's kisses - we discovered how many folks loved chocolate! They were all fun, wacky gimmicks that art fairgoers enjoyed...and got them into our booth to sell our Ceramics. We did that fair four years in a row and watched madly how other artists started bringing in more wacky gimmicks of their own. The practice made the art fair more whimsical and joyful as artists delved into their childhood.
I posted this photo of me in this hat last night, explaining what I did to the potter who had had a first bad day at her art fair booth. I wanted her to know I had felt her same pain and how I handled it. I just checked that post, and it has gotten over 130 likes! LOL!
By the way, my father came by my booth and volunteered to wear the hat for a while. To see this tall, older Black fellow wearing that crazy hat sitting in front of my booth got even more people into the booth! I had to admire my Dad's willingness to play on behalf of his crazy artist daughter...that took a lotta male guts!
Happy Heavenly Father's Day, Dad!
Thanks for believing in your daughter's whimsy and taking it with joy and support. It meant a lot to me.
Good luck to any artist doing an art fair this summer. Be creative. That perfect booth might use a little jazzing up - your way!
Christine LaRue
Artist Bio
Christine “Liz” LaRue is a clay artist and illustrationist. She is known for her intricately textured figurative sculptures and emotionally illustrative drawings. Chicago-born though also raised in Utah and Idaho, Ms. LaRue is of Creole/Cuban descent. Her art has been influenced by her Afro-Latino heritage. Ms. LaRue’s interests have been in pre-Columbian art of the Olmec, Maya of Mexico, Nazca, and Moche face pots of Peru. This also includes the bronze sculptures of the Ife of Nigeria and Tā Moko tattoo art of the Maōri.