I was very excited to get this chance, and glad it came along when it did. I'd been looking into what to do next, in regards to my art. I'm happily showing at the Art Bank, Urban Kitsch, and Butterfly Consignment, and am doing pretty well, internet-wise, but you never want to get complacent. So here I offer up basically an overview, a rundown of my RAW experience.
I'd gone to their site and filled out the application and was accepted. I had to do an over-the-phone interview and, to tell you the truth, I was nervous! In my art, I just do my thing. But there's always the lingering doubt about whether or not I'm "cool enough." I don't paint the broody stuff with creepy dolls and bloody faces, or whatever it is that I'm seeing so much of lately. I like happy stuff, and if I'm not happy, I honestly can't paint! So: Robots make me happy. Interesting things I see make me happy. Cartoon-y things make me happy. Eh, be yourself, I guess.
Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)
On RAW Day, I had to show up at 2pm with my entire set-up in tow. We were being hosted by Bartini's, a bar in downtown Indy, converted from a former train station. That means old bricks, a train rattling overhead, and high ceilings with many pipes. We had taken a walkthrough and selected our spaces. I'd taken photos for reference, and brought the elements they said I'd need for set-up: rubbing alcohol to clean the bricks, 3M sticky wall-hanger things, and those aluminum lights that you hang in garages while you work on your car. And a TON of extension cords and black duct tape.
Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)
I was glad I came in with a plan. It took me three hours to complete my set-up! I just kept working diligently and making sure everything looked nice, and, at the end of the night, I was lucky as none of my pieces fell off the wall and I had no infrastructure problems at all! I even had enough time to clean up and consume nourishment!
The event began with a little pow-wow at 6pm, kind of a "Okay, team, we can do this!" moment. We were also taken aside for a photo shoot and a video shoot, that we could use down the road for our promotional materials. This was definitely something I was interested in: Promotion. Something I knew only a little about. I feel like I have a better handle on it now, and what I need to do down the road.
Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)
We had a DJ with a giant Lego head bopping away, we had a fashion show, we had performance art, and a several bands, including one called Robot Love Song, and they were very pleased with my art! (Heh, robots, who'd have guessed!) I had several friends show up and support me and made some new friends and new contacts for opportunities down the road. It was an incredibly long night, and by the time 10:30 came around and we began to tear down, I was already exhausted! But once again, since I'd planned pretty well, everything went right back into the bins I'd brought, tear-down was a snap, and the Yaris was filled back up. I'd sold quite a few of my smaller pieces and made some good profit on the event.
The crowd was interesting to watch. There were the folks and friends that had come to support their artist friends, there were the 'scene-sters' that just wanted to show up to something cool, and there were the art crowd folks that were genuinely there to check out the latest art that Indy had to offer. A different mix than a normal First Friday.
Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)
I'd started out trying to do art related to television, and was wondering if I should go back into more of a realism style instead of the aerosol stencil + acrylics that I'd been doing all summer. But that aerosol is just too addicting (metaphorically!). I ended up doing a combo of the TV stuff, with the On The Air sign, some of our microwave receive sites (how we take signals in) and the bars and tone test pattern, but then I just kind of got into the robots. Robots are fun! The final piece, a cartoon bomb, was suggested to my by the boyfriend as a last minute addition. The kind of painting you visualize on a long drive back, and as soon as you get home, you can just execute it, because it's been completely planned out in your head.
Now that I've done one RAW event, I can do several more throughout the next calendar year. I'll definitely be doing more of them, especially now that the nerves are overcome and I've got set-up down pretty well.
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