It was a risk but with the uncertainly of the jobs market we decided at the beginning of the year to see if we could make it this year working together as a team full-time as HarmstonArts. We both have always had other jobs in addition to this and my corporate life had been a big part of our income. So what did we learn this year? First and foremost that after more than thirty years of knowing each other we really could stand to be around each other 24 hours a day. We learned that we were really happy doing this full-time, knowing that our successes and our failures were ours alone both to cherish and to  resolve. We learned that what we were offering in the marketplace was not for everyone and that there simply were parts of the country that we were better off leaving off our list in 2012.

Best of all this year we found out that there are people from our distant past who decided to go to an awful lot of trouble to find us. We were reacquainted with childhood friends, cherished coworkers, dearly loved family members.  We had moments when we were able to make a sale to someone that included a connection that surpassed much more than an exchange of art for money and for that we will always feel blessed. Finding confirmation that what we put on the walls could mean as much to someone else as it meant when it was created is the reason that all artists decide to put themselves in such a vulnerable position and this year we were fortunate to have some very special moments.

We also learned rejection when we had times when no one seemed to like what we had to share. Was it the images, was it the prices? We probably won't ever know but it definitely was a sign this year that the economy has hit the independent artist hard. How do you explain the change in customer's perception of worth in the art world? Does original art mean very much in a world of bargains? As we struggle with our all original artwork we will continue to appreciate the many clients that have supported us and what we do.

The economy has made many people artists these days and there are so many people looking to quickly put something out there for people to buy. We also search for other ways to create new items to sell so I certainly can't fault the  industriousness in anyone. Yet will people stop appreciating original artwork that takes months to make?

Time will tell but for now we will continue on the road ...together 

We are always asked if someone can come and see "our studio" and while so many of our artist friends have spacious studios we actually work in a corner of our garage. We nevertheless do occasionally have customers come by to visit and pick up pieces of art and now we have decided to actually open the garage up for the public to come and see Steve in action for the first time.  We are pulling out all of the artwork we have collected over the years that we just can't bring due to the confines of the truck and a 10 x 10 booth space so that people can see the pastels and mixed media pieces as well.  What will our neighbors think? Do they even realize what we do for a living? It will be interesting to see who will come to see us and whether this open studio tour is successful or not...

People always tell us how lucky we are to live this life and I guess in many ways they are right but for most of our days this is pretty hard work. During the active art show months the times when we are home when Steve is not in the studio printing, we spend long hours matting and framing new pieces and packing up more unframed pieces. We make more greeting card sets, go through the inventory to decide what pieces will work at what show and try to determine just how many panels to bring to set up the booth given the space we have been given for each show. We have to clean the tent, especially if the last show was at a dusty location and in addition I am always shipping out packages from that trips activity. This all usually takes place in a matter of days before we turn around and pack up the truck and head out again for parts unknown.

Most of the time we leave ourselves no free time to stop and just relax and have fun along the way. We may stop for an hour or two to stretch our legs but usually not for much longer than that because we have to get home to restock or get across the country for the next show.

Recently we changed that though and we took a detour and went to the Oregon coast for a few days between two of our favorite shows in Oregon. After living 14 years in the Northwest we had never done that and it was wonderful to just drive along the shore and take in the scenery and all it's splendor. We forget sometimes that just stopping to enjoy a simple roadside meal is oh so special. Along the way we discover two very special stops that everyone should visit someday.

The drive along the coast and turn around the bend and see the Pelican Brewing Company in Pacific City Oregon has to be close to Nirvana for any beer lover. It is definitely the most beautiful brew pub I have ever seen and even if you don't like beer it is a beautiful place to stop and watch the ocean for lunch.

We had rented a little place right on the ocean but on the last day we decided to drive up the coast and just stop when it felt right. I had read about an old hotel that had been converted in Wheeler, OR but I wasn't sure if we would go there and yet the minute we saw it we knew. The hotel , The Old Wheeler Hotel has been many things including a brothel during the height of the lumber industry boom and for the last three years it has been lovingly restored to it's glory into an 8 room B&B. The town is very small but it feels very warm and inviting. The hotel faces the river and there is a tiny restaurant around the corner run by a master chef who came there from Nantucket. It is very informal, the waitress even hugged Steve goodbye. The stay was short and magical, We should do it more often...

People are always asking where the ideas come for new pieces and many come from photographs, often that we take as we are driving across the country to different shows.

Keep your eyes on the lookout for a new piece that will look very similar to this photo. It is an old house that struck Steve for the shadows of the trees on the building. It will be more graphic and will be the first true architectural piece ever done.

When you travel to an art show and you spend time setting up the booth and talking to everyone about the work that you do sometimes you can get lost in the day to day activity of just doing your job. Make no mistake, its a great job,particularly when people respond favorably to the work  and when sales are brisk. There is however another part of the art show that is particularly special. Every now and again a show will recognize you for the quality of your work among your peers and when that happens it is a very special moment. It has always been a challenge for all the artists at any show to find some way to distinguish the level of their work from their peers at a show and today with the influx of booths full of imports and artists who have decided to take shortcuts in their artistic approaches, well some days it is next to impossible. 

The screenprints that Steve makes take months to do and we have made a conscious decision not to ever make reproductions of any kind. We have other artist friends who also make things that take enormous amounts of time and energy to produce. For many art patrons, this can get lost in all the booths ,displays, and the price tags . In Park City this month we were joined by  other artists by being rewarded with a Best in Show acknowledgement in our category. It means we are invited back next year and for us it means the hard work is validated by the Kimball Art Museum team. That always feels good and keeps you up for the next show when you need to explain the process one more time...

We were at the art show for four very long days, from noon until 11 every night. There were going to be lots of people there and compared to the past year we expected to do well at the show. Yet sometimes there are moments that make you so happy to be doing this for a living. To have it happen several times in one show is exceptional . Late on the first night we met them. They were the vision of hope,love, and the promise of a very bright future. They were infectious. They said they were getting married in the fall and loved  our art but had never been able to buy art yet on their own. Over the course of the next few days they kept coming back, they brought their family to look at the piece they wanted, the family even came alone to look. Then on Saturday night  very late they came back together hand in hand and with no one around sat down in our booth, heads together and made what for them was a big decision. They bought their first piece of art together and in the process reminded us of how we felt in those early days together when we also made those same  first important decisions together as a couple.

We have gone around and around about the use of ETSY in our business. For the large art that we sell we have found that it really has not been a great tool for us. With  Printmaking now making a comeback, we are seeing a lot of people trying to sell small one color simple wild graphics that sell for $10-20 and we just can't find a market there for detailed multi-layered fine artwork in the same space.
 However we have an assortment of greeting cards that we used to screen-print years ago that we have in boxes that are we don't display anymore and other small pieces that aren't on the website so we will now be putting these on the ETSY site instead.  We also are considering making our holiday cards again so I have added those back to the site to see if there is any interest. If we see people like them we may just go back into the card business again...

We recently found a box of old photographs and as we sorted through them, mostly looking at pictures of our  grown children as toddlers, we came across pictures of our first house in Chandler AZ. It's funny since recently we have talked about going back to that house since we still own it and the mortgage is very low. In the batch of pictures was this photograph, our first garage transformed into Steve's first "studio". Up until then he had always been working as a commercial screen-printer, never daring to think he could make his own artwork.  Looking at this picture reminds me of those days when we both worked regular jobs, juggled two very small children and this part of our lives was only a hobby. How very far we have come in 23 years....

The business of doing art shows is a fickle one. You can't help but take it all personally.  What you are selling is made with your  own two hands. You drive long distances, stay in less than the finest hotels, eat at random hours and then stand out in the public and wait to see if someone not only likes what you do but likes it better than the person next to you who is also selling something they made with their own two hands.

When it is good, it is very good as it was for us in  a little gem of a show in St. George, Utah. We won Best in Show, had two Purchase Awards and sold  A LOT of art. People loved what we had to share with them. The booth looked great and the people came out to see what we had to offer. We left the show feeling like regular fat cats. A few days later we drove to the Midwest to do our very first show there in Kansas City. Same artwork, same booth but very different response.  There were lots of people and they said they liked the work but they definitely found something they liked better somewhere else. No matter what we did we just never could engage. We were a long way from home and felt like fish out of water. 

We love what we do and we know that every show is different. We don't take anything for granted and we don't question the decisions anyone makes when they walk into or out of our booth. When it is right for them, it is right for us. That is just the way it goes.

We are finally home after two great shows in sunny Arizona. There is nothing like soaking up that vitamin D. The venues were both great and the show is Scottsdale was especially beautiful. I especially enjoyed a new twist on show food with the show offering gourmet food trucks this time. I think they were a little overwhelmed by the crowds but it was still great fun and a wonderful change of pace. Now it is back to the studio to finish some more new pieces and to anxiously await the results of our applications for the shows we have applied to this year!