fringe-festival

‘jealousy’ — drawn on the street at the fringe festival, 2008

the fringe festival is finally over (well, three weeks ago).  it was very productive in many ways.  i got a nice suntan and a knife stuck in my heart.  as usual, people said to me whatever they felt like saying.  it was wonderful and amusing.

i was surprised that many people remembered or recognized my drawings from my show at the mendel gallery over a year ago.  some people even remembered them from my show at royal red gallery at phonographique three years ago.  a few people told me there were looking for me at this fringe this year since i wasn’t there last year.  the best moment was when a guy told me that he’d had seen one of the drawings, ‘inseparable’ somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where.  he left then came back just to tell me the postcard was up on the fridge door at his friend’s house.  he was so excited he came back for the third time to show my work to one of his friends.  i was very touched by all this.  so thanks and arigato!

i kept track of comments that i enjoyed.  so here’s the diagnosis;

•  ’you should do medical illustration.  you’ll be great!’ — i don’t think so…
• ‘do you draw family portraits? i have a photo here.’ — no thanks…
• ’she’s a freak!  she’s a freak!  she is a FREAK!’ screamed a guy with his full body tattooed and wearing a scary outfit with spikes.
• ‘i LIKE it!’  said 8 year old boy who flipped through all the drawings.
• ‘i wish i could draw…’ — i feel the same way
• ‘ahaha!  look at those boobs!’
• ‘these are amazing!’
• ‘i had the EXACT same image ( an elephant coming out of my belly) recently.  i should draw that!’
• ‘do you like creepy stuff?’ ‘no’ ‘… then why do you draw creepy stuff??’ — good question!
• ‘do you take any drugs?’
• ‘you look normal, but i know you aren’t!  you are not normal!’
• ‘did you draw these?  they are so weird and grotesque.  and you are so adorable!’ — do you want a candy?

i feel so energized and encouraged.  thanks for all the encouragement and cheering as well as your nasty looks.  i did a couple of drawings sitting at my booth and i’ve been drawing away ever since.

more soon, including news about shows i’m doing in september…

ah~, it’s so nice to be on the street with my drawings.  i started busking at the fringe festival here in saskatoon last night.  this is my first fringe since elijah came along.  and this is my first time ever being away from elijah for more than an hour.

i’ve been showing my drawings at galleries nowadays, which is very nice.  but i really like being on the street, where most of the people who come by are there just to look around, not because they’re particularly interested in art or in my drawings.  i like the randomness of having people stumble upon my work and seeing their reactions, good and bad.

the busking areas at the fringe have been very busy already this year.  i’ve been setting up on broadway, near 10th.  i have a little table with books of prints and postcards that people can browse through at their own speed.  there are a couple little stands that i put single prints in, so people can see them from a distance walking by.

some of the prints and postcards are of my newer drawings that i’ve never made into prints before.  the only one of the newer drawings that i’ve shown in saskatoon before is ‘new wings’.  the other new drawings are on first view, but i’ve already put the images up on my blog.

for the fringe festival i do a different printing technique than the archival prints i sell in my online shop.  they’re not as expensive to make, so i can sell the 8.5 x 11 prints for $10.  postcards are sold for $2 each, or 6 for $10 (i’m from kansai, i have to offer a good deal).  people keep telling me the prices are way too cheap.  i want them to be cheap enough that even little kids don’t have to worry about the cost if they find an image of mine they want to take home.

this year i’ve already had a lot of people coming up to me who know me from somewhere — my blog readers, people who remember me from previous shows in saskatoon, and even some asian girls who saw my drawings in the hong kong fashion magazine, milk.

a couple people asked for my autograph.  i double-checked to make sure they weren’t out of their minds.

i got a few negative reactions — people saying ‘urrghh’, or ‘creepy’ — but not as many as i was expecting.  one older woman did sniff at me with a disapproving face, which i was glad to see.  i don’t know why, but those negative comments don’t hurt me anymore.  i kind of enjoy them.  a couple of harsh comments go a long way to motivate me to draw more.

i ran into some of the local artists as well — artist kris moffatt, poet taylor leedahl who is representing local book company jackpine press, artist carole epp, and young artist michael.  i’m hoping to meet the artist kristin bjornerud who will be back in saskatoon for the summer from hamilton.

if you’re in saskatoon, come and see me on the street at the fringe festival!  you can say whatever you want, and you don’t have to pretend to be nice.  i’ll be happy to see you anyway.

maybe you’ve noticed something new on my website today…

finally, my online shop is ready! it took a long time but we wanted to make sure that everything works well. i really like the design. it’s clean and well-functioning. i hope it’s easy for you to look around.

you can read more about why i decided to open a shop on my “about this shop” page. the catalogue includes some of my original drawings, prints, postcards, posters, and handmade books and useless toys. i make all the handmade goods at home, drawing at the kitchen table and sewing my toys on the living room floor. everything for the shop is done from our second bedroom. the website was designed by my husband, paul. prints and postcards are made by local print shops so i can supervise them directly to make sure of the quality. all orders are packed by hand. i get to be my own boss and deal with people directly, without a mediator.

one of the final things i arranged for the shop was printing a lot of postcards. i’ve been selling my postcards at the fringe festival in saskatoon, and other art fairs, and they’ve been really popular. but those postcards were just color copies of my drawing images on nice white cardstock paper.

my new postcards are much nicer. the paper is thicker and the images have a glossy finish. for the first time, the back of the postcard is designed with the plastique monkey silhouette icon. it’s pretty cool — looks just like a real postcard. in my shop, there are sets of 6 postcards, featuring some of my drawings, my loud silence photographs (with the doctor and nurse dolls) and images from my spencer (amigurumi) storybook. as an opening special, all postcard sets are being shipped for free anywhere in the world.

i wanted to have my spencer book (the boring life of spencer, the ennui dog)ready to sell in my shop for the opening, but i’m still working on improving the design and the price. at art festivals and street fairs, i’ve been charging $85 CDN for one book, because i was paying so much for printing. at that price, some people bought it, but many more just read the whole thing (and brought their friends over to read it again), because they couldn’t afford to pay that much (i wouldn’t either!). the spencer book is always so popular that there’s line-ups to read it. i really enjoy watching people laughing so hard as they read it.

anyway, i’m hoping to have the book ready in the next couple of weeks. i’ll be putting the whole story up on this blog, so you won’t have to buy it to read it. in the meantime, i made a set of spencer book postcards, featuring pages from the book. you can look through them in my shop (there’s a slideshow).

my shop is just getting started. if you have any comments, questions or concerns, please let me know. i’d like to hear from you.

i hope your experience at my shop is pleasant and i hope you can find something you like.

IRASSHAIMASE! (welcome!)

well, there was a huge storm friday night and everyone ran for cover. i’d only been at my table for an hour. saturday was sunny but too windy, so i stayed home and slept all day. so the fringe festival only started for me on sunday. today was a holiday, and it was gorgeous — lots of people out having a great time.

i set up my table at noon and stayed until 9:30pm. i met all kinds of interesting people. some of them were from out of town: regina, winnipeg, and even ibaraki, japan. some of them remembered me from the fringe festival last year, or from one of my local shows. it was nice to see some familiar faces.

i probably talked to at least a hundred people today. i was happy that a lot of people liked my stuff. i like watching people laughing, and people laughed a lot when they read my spencer book. it was fun to find out what they thought about my drawings. i got a lot of positive comments, and quite a few people saying “ew” or “yuck!”. both are great feelings to express. :D

here are my favorite things people said to me at the fringe festival this weekend:

10: you’re so japanese. (am i?)
9: those are awesome! (everyone in saskatoon says “awesome”)
8: ouch!
7: there are many strange people, but you’re good at expressing yourself.
6: wow! these are super cool!! where is my wife? (his wife ditched him — she didn’t like my drawings)
5: do you know dali?
4: do you have nightmares?
3: that’s disgusting! (she whispered it under her breath as she walked by)
2: craziest stuff i’ve ever seen
1: do you take any medication?

i’m selling postcards and 8.5 x 11 prints of my color pencil drawings. they’re both printed on white cardstock, so they’re not too expensive to make. i’m selling postcards for $2 each, or a selection of any six for $10. single prints are also $10. the images are the same, only bigger on the prints, and the postcards have my name and the title printed on them. for this kind of street festival, i think it’s the right thing. sales were okay, but i’m just happy to think that my postcards will be put up on someone’s fridge or mailed all over the world.

here are some of my postcards (click to enlarge — slideshow):