Winter Festival Concludes

I skipped last night's dinner and variety show, but I was back in the Studio this morning for the brunch and Open Studio event.  Got a little later start than I had hoped for, so while I arrived before the official start at 10 am, the main lot was already full.  Saw no empty spaces looking up Main, so I moved my car to the back parking lot, which only had Brendan's car at the time.  Last year the building took care of the brunch meal, which was fine except for that they ran out of food much faster  than they expected.  This year they had a caterer doing it.  Similar menu- steam tray of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon (very crispy), cut up melon, potatoes, bagels, danishes, etc.  Filled a small plate and took it to one of the tables set up right by my part of the show.  As I finished my food the tables started filling up.  Chatted briefly with some of the people I knew, then headed downstairs to set up for the Studio visitors.

I'm sure that the biggest action remained up on the first floor, but I had a steady stream of visitors for the next few hours.  I had brought quite a bit of stuff with me for the occasion- a pile of some of the other supermarket prints not in the show, sketchbooks, the block for the next supermarket print, the half done block for the Asbury themed boardwalk print, my press clippings binder, postcards.  I figured if things were slow I'd try to do some more sketching on the blocks, but that never happened.  Had a bunch of family members show up.  Some people who I had met on Friday were back and made the trip downstairs.  A few critique group members were there, some for the building event, and one specifically to see me (woodcut convert Mary, who had more details regarding a furniture building job she has for me, plus wanting to discuss her plans to attend this year SGC out in Portland, a city where she had great fun printing last year.)  One person recruited me to be part of shore themed art show late in 2016, with an eye on some boardwalk prints.  Answered a lot of questions about the process (woodcut is an obscure concept in the 21st century), and showed many more examples of what I have done.  People seemed impressed, both with the technical skill, the level of detail, and with my weird ideas and sense of humor.  Can't say with any certainty if anything today will lead to something, but some seeds may take root.

By 2:00 pm the crowds were thinning, as the day transitioned from what were were doing to the Open Mic event upstairs, so I started packing up.  By 3:00 I had loaded my car and took a ride up to the beach.  Still a bit breezy today, but as warm a day as we have had in 2016, so an opportunity to collect more shells for my 3D class this week.  Filled a plastic grocery bag with decent sized pieces, which added to ones I collected earlier this year and leftover pieces from the fall semester, means I'm all set.  Days like this draw lots of visitors to beach towns, but eventually I was able to work my way out of Ocean Grove and get home.