Art Festival Cut Short by Tropical Storm!

Sooooo, festivals are a whirlwind anyway, even without tropical storms! SO much  of a crazy whirlwind that I have wondered if I should stop doing them all together. So I did, stop doing them, 5 years ago after a ginormous event in Atlanta I undertook while 3 months pregnant; haven’t vended a festival since. Until last weekend when, on a whim I called the number from the radio advertisement for Sweet South Cottage and Farms French Country Market, it just sounded so… Festive! Right? (It was!) How could I resist?

The Fall event was only days away when I heard the ad on the radio, so I knew that I had missed the deadline by many months to be an artist at this juried event. I called anyway, to inquire about future events. Lo and behold, the event coordinator herself, the fabulous Lisa Ard, answered the phone and informed me they had just had an artist drop out that day due to a medical emergency, leaving one, and only one, artist booth space available. Believe it or not, earlier that day my husband, king of fixing/building/finding insane deals called me with "I just found a great deal on an awesome 15 x 15 tent, you still want one?" I replied "No thanks, I don’t need one." Then I called him right back: "Actually, sure, if it's such a great tent go ahead and get it, we'll use it for something." This was hours before the radio ad and phone convo with the event coordinator! Well, the synchronicity was too much for me to deny and I promptly paid the event fee and began gathering and purchasing supplies and packing my vehicle during the remaining 48 hours that I had to prepare.

Arriving at daybreak the next day I proceeded to ... build an entire art gallery. The other vendors are beyond impressive and amazingly organized. I remind myself they have much more practice and that festivals are not my main focus. I watch in awe, learn cool new systems of hanging, organizing, displaying and packaging and get new inspirations. After setting up, rearranging, rearranging again and scarfing down an arugula turkey sandwich I truly had a wonderful Friday. Then, early afternoon, we were informed that a tropical storm was on the way and that the Saturday portion of the event (the BIG day) was canceled. Nonetheless I enjoyed meeting lots of people and sold notecards, petite paintings and multiple copies of my children’s book. Oh and I got to show off a few of the larger pieces that I decided to bring for the day, which resulted in a couple of sizable commissions. If I missed you at the event, check out my website and if you are local, attend one of my Tallahassee events in November. (Subscribe to be invited.)

AND, met a most fascinating llama named Tina (highlight!!!) , a sweet, majestic creature, who literally was humming a sweet song (did you know llamas did that? They DO! I took it quite personally.) 

Will I do another festival anytime soon? Uhh, no not too soon! Back to focusing on online sales, interior designer collaborations and also exploring, for the first time in a long, successful art career, gallery representation. I continue to work on my underwater figure paintings, large scale semi-abstracts and the Honey and Stellz abstracts, a collaboration with my exuberant 4yo, Stella. Thank you for tuning in! Stay in touch, I love hearing from you!

x o x o x o x o x o x o x o       H o n e y   H i l l i a r d ,   A r t i s t

ps I'll be announcing the newly patent-pending ArmScarvz in November 2019, so get your Christmas list ready, can. not. wait! to show you the new styles. Be sure to subscribe to receive updates on fresh paintings by Honey and the journey of ArmScarvz.