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.
