Getting ready to show my work!

I kicked off the new year by spending the day working on the booth I’m getting ready for attending some art shows this year. I’ve made it my personal goal to show my work at a minimum of half a dozen outdoor art festivals. I still have some research to do before I figure out what shows I will actually try to get into and I hope it will be easier to find them now that the new year has started and shows begin to announce upcoming events. For now I’m just seeing the big one and I’m not sure I’m ready for that just yet.

My main goal of attending so many shows to start is to start working on my presence. I don’t really expect to sell much of anything, but it’s a chance to start getting seen and to familiarize myself with the scene. Learning how to be comfortable talking to people about my art and dealing with the critics are both going to take some real practice.

To that end, on the 1st I put together what I would consider my first draft of my booth. I still need to do a lot of painting if I really want to fill it up with a good variety, but I’m in a good place to start.

The booth itself is a simple 10 x 10 pop up tent with walls. To hang the artwork I’ve created a chain system. For each wall there are two 1 x 2 inch boards running the length of the wall and zipped tied to the legs of the tent – one at the top and one at the bottom.

Each board is actually two pieces with a hinge in the center making it easier to transport as they are five feet long instead of ten. Those boards have hooks attached every ten inches where the chain attaches connecting the top to bottom. Combined with weights on the bottom board, it keeps the chains from moving around too much and makes an easy way to hang the paintings.

Each painting has a traditional wire across the back and from there I attach two carabiners, each one then attaches to a different chain. It keeps the paintings securely attached and easy to level. The biggest challenge are the 8 x 10 paintings, but so far even those seem to hang well as the chain will come together a bit naturally providing support to keep the painting lined up.

I’m not sure that the single 4 foot table will be big enough to store everything I might need for setup in the event there is no room to store anything outside the booth. I might set up an additional board that will cut across the back corner and hang material from it as well to create a hidden pocket in that corner to use for storage. Beyond that, there isn’t a lot of flexibility in the setup, but it was easy to put together and I should be able to fit the entire setup in a small car. Eventually I’ll probably build some freestanding walls, but I figure this might work for now while I gain some experience. I’ll come back with a round two version after a couple of shows.

I really like the rug, but the issue is that the 8 x 10 leaves a bigger gap than I thought it would. I might just get a runner to put in the back for now and later on look into a full 10 x 10 booth. Again, for now I think that should work while I try things out. I’ll either tack the rug down if I’m on grass or use double sided carpet tape to keep it in place if I’m on asphalt.

Thoughts?