Ending 2013 on a high note and rolling into the new year

Detail of one of my newest Dye Drawings on cotton fabric ©2013 Ayn Hanna

Space reserved and Contract signed? √

Booth, floor, and lighting ordered? √

Pre-marketing Post cards designed and ordered? √

Holidays?  What Holidays? (Just kidding.)  Actually, we had a very nice quiet family Christmas Day and fun New Year’s Day tucked between the flurry of “to-do” items that had to be done in December to start the prep for my upcoming American Craft Council Show, Feb 19-23 in Baltimore.

And from an art business perspective, 2013 ended on a very high note with the sell of several of my large textile paintings to a wonderful and very generous new collector.

our living room has been over taken by “the booth”, in 2 parts

Ahhh, the Glamours of Show Prep

Yep, that’s my new booth set up in the living room – it’s so big it won’t fit in one piece, hence the 2-part construction.  It arrived last week so now we’ll be doing a dry run booth display/design this month, figuring out arrangement of everything from artwork to lighting in hopes it will make the real deal set up go smoothly once we’re on the show floor in Baltimore.  

Lucky for me I have an uber-organized Partner that’s making all these ordering,curating, and logistics decisions happen – not that I’m not organized, but umm, Momma needs to get busy making some more Art to put IN the booth, you know what I mean?

Various raw materials and works in progress around the studio.

Come late January, we’ll be carefully packing up this booth, the lighting, the bee-uuu-tiful flooring (faux wood grain anti-fatigue mat puzzle pieces anyone?), all of my artwork, and various other sundry supplies and shipping the whole shebang off to the East Coast where we fully expect to be reunited with all of it again on Feb 17th, piled high on a palette in front of booth space #719 in the Baltimore Convention Center. (I’m putting those good intentions out there into the Universe…please feel free to join me in setting that intention – thanks!).

Emma’s wondering, what’s the deal with all these carpeted walls invading her living room?

It’s all a bit unsettling, but it’s the excellent adventure we’re signed up for and by golly, we’re going to enjoy every bit of it.  Working our way through the list of big important “to-do’s” one step at a time, learning the hows, whys, and wherefores of each new item gets us that much closer to being ready for the big show and more knowledgeable and prepared for the next time (yes, there will be more….in fact, I’ve got 2 more ACC shows beyond this one already planned for this year).

And now, it’s back to my favorite part of preparation – the making. 

Thanks for joining me in this journey,