Meanwhile, at the Art Show ...

Dallas, Oregon may not be ready for the likes of me, or my art ...!

Reality #1 is that I'm set up in an event center that's not in the thick of the vendor-traffic ... Reality #2 is that most of the vendors are advertising local businesses, and VBS's coming up ... along with the notoriously greasy fair food. Very few artists ... most of those will be in the art show on Sunday. I'll have a tent in the park for that, and there should be a significant crowd ... today was Oregon's 'biggest small-town parade" (though seriously, some of the floats are unadorned *tractors*!) ... 20,000 people show up in addition to the town's 15,000 inhabitants.

Mark (main squeeze) and Zach (son #3) got shang-hai'd into being the king and jester, respectively ... they got to pump up the crowd before the parade, singing show tunes. It was a RIOT! They were dripping wet in their regal costumes ... Mark came over to me and "dubbed" me his wife (I got a drippy-beard kiss, LOL!).

I was hoping for more traffic ... but we're just too far off the beaten track.

I did sell a lamp yesterday ... and I'm purchasing two of the big mirrors (they speak to me, so I have to keep them).

This art is not what this town is used to ... they seem to like it, they ooh and ahh, but can't imagine it in their homes (these are very practical people ... farm-stock from Mennonite backgrounds, and former loggers). Frivolous furniture seems to strike them as being akin to gold toothpicks ... as in "what's the point?" Perhaps some of them think I went and desecrated perfectly good wood, LOL! I do get the occasional soul who loves it ... a few have asked if they can commission me to paint something they already own.

I figure they have to be exposed repeatedly ... in the same way in which we don't usually like a song the first time we hear it, and have to hear it a few times before our brain recognizes and remembers it. So, I'm inoculating folks to my art..!

I have, however, had some wonderful conversations with folks ... the owner of the event center is a mama to 7 kids - former YWAM missionaries ... she wanted to hear my "whole story" ... she'll get Part II tomorrow. Her daughter in law is quite open to hearing things beyond the pale of orthodoxy, and wants to read "The Shack" ... another woman was a self-professed pagan, who's unschooling ... another, the wife of the city commissioner, wanted to discuss a book she's reading, The Infidel, which led me to discuss "A Deadly Misunderstanding" ... which led to me saying, "I see all people as beloved of God," and she said, "well they are - they're all His children!" (not your typical church-going sentiment!). Another woman, the one who bought the lamp, wants to get our girls together (she's the one who won the auction of my other lamp, last month) ... when I said, "I had to leave Christianity in order to find Christ," she looked deep into my eyes, and said, "Oh, we *must* talk ...! We have much in common!"

The Chamber of Commerce wants to get me hooked up with the rest of them ... (which means I have to get all official, and get licensed, and start paying taxes, UGH!). I did get a couple of leads on some stores that may want my things ... and just interest in general. Perhaps I'll get more interaction-schmooze time tomorrow...!

I plan to have a BLAST, regardless...!

And, honestly, I love my own things ... it's ok if I hang on to them. I shall find my niche!

Shalom, Dena