What Happened? A Whirlwind Weekend of Migraines and Art Sales...

How was the Artisans Market? Well, from what I heard, Saturday was fabulous! I however, was not there. My booth was there, my work was there, but I was NOT. Pardon me while I whine for a minute. I had a migraine on Friday night. I have only have them on about 5 other occasions in my life. Apparently the men in my family are afflicted with them, but I have never really asked a lot of questions as I didn't think I really suffered from them. I know I am having a migraine when silver flashes of light appear in my vision and I can no longer focus. It is not a picnic when I am driving, which is when three of the previous ones have happened. I don't need to be feeling stressed, although the first one I ever had happened when I was riding in the back of a VW van that my boyfriend and a friend of ours were driving around hair pin turns in Australia. They actually laughed when I started puking. (It was a long time again, and he is my husband now, so he is not the insensitive jerk I make it sound like.) Since then, the other migraines all happened while I was pregnant, twice with Q, once with E. This time, I finally decided to admit I can get migraines that have nothing to do with the car or pregnancy. They start with the visual stuff, and sometimes I don't even get a headache. This time, I puked seven, yes SEVEN times during the night, and my head felt like it was going to split apart on the right side until about 3 PM the next day, a 14 hour headache! Needless to say, it was the day of the ultra busy art sale. And people kept calling to see where I was, and I could hear all the crowds, and being the social butterfly I am, I was SUPER BUMMED to be in bed. SUPER BUMMED. Andre had to come home and watch Quin while I slept. Luckily, if I sleep next to Elle, she will sleep and sleep and sleep. So, I got all rested up and on Sunday, I headed out with the kiddos, dropped Q at a friend's, and brought babe with me....

...And all told I made $15 more than my booth fee!! It actually makes me laugh! All that work, and the totally frustrating fact that I was so thrilled to have been called on Monday to be told I was no longer on the waiting list, and that by Friday night I was actually completely ready. Then, blammo! I really get upset when my body let's me down. I try to be so good to it. And I know, I know, for those of you who are reading this and thinking, a migraine is usually the result of something underlying, I know you are right.... But, back to the artisan's market, and the silver lining, which I can ALWAYS find. As a professional artist, art sales always about more than the sales. For example, during this one, I got to meet nice local people I didn't know, I got to check out some other creative work, I traded some of my work for a few Christmas gifts, I got to see the generous friends who stopped by to give me breaks and hold Emmanuelle, and I never know when someone will call me later about something they saw today...


Did I ever tell you the story of the woman in Maine who was given one of my $3 photo cards? It had tulips on it and she pinned it to a bulletin board and looked at it for 2 years. Then she contacted me one day. Turns out she was starting an online gallery of Maine artists. And she not only wanted me to sell my work on it, but she wanted me to visit the 16 or so participating artists' galleries to photograph them. According to the typical Maine expression, it was "wicked fun" and very interesting, and I photographed the pieces they would be selling in the gallery in the studio. In the end I never sold a thing on the website (not sure if anyone did) but I got to meet these amazing artists, and I was paid something like $7,000 for the contract. Later, I had a solo show in her brick and mortar gallery and sold work, and I met the music producer who had an office down the hall, who hired me to shoot three album covers and paid me $3,000.... so, you never know...

Plus, I met two of my closest friends at art sales that were flops. I met the wonderful Kirsten, Kiki, in an elementary school gym in Kingfield, Maine. She worked for the local paper, and I was selling photo cards. She later wrote an article about my portrait photography, and we became amazing friends who worked on amazing local projects in the public school system and for the historical society. And I met my lovely pal Karina, in a community centre in the Hintonburg part of Ottawa, at a craft fair neither one of us had any business being in, we just didn't fit. I AM SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE THESE WOMEN IN MY LIFE, and I never would have met them had I been focused on the bottom line. Everything happens for a reason.

And back to this weekend, if I had not had to go in at 9 AM yesterday to set up, which I would not have done would I have been there on Saturday, I would not have watched Quin sweetly wave at and say good morning to the 2 dozen or so elk exiting on the Canmore on-ramp, nor would I have heard the most beautiful new Jann Arden song on the CBC. It is called All the Days and it brought me to tears... I am grateful for all of this and for all of MY days.