Last weekend was a learning moment for me. As I prepped for my local farmers/art market: Riverside Arts Market I thought to myself, why not make some new items. So I started with fridge magnets and ended with postcards. Now, lots of people tell me I shouldn’t waste time on cards and stationary BUT it sells. It’s a piece of art you can enjoy or share and you don’t have to spend a lot of money or worry about where to hang it. When I was young and trying to decorate an impossibly ugly studio apartment, I bought interesting note cards and framed them to hang. So, I have a history with cards. I also worked in the hospitality industry for years selling tchotchka’s to tourists and I know the power of a postcard.
So off to market I went with fun new art magnets and 30 postcards of differing subjects, mostly local shots of iconic things (statues, bridges etc.). Low and behold, I sold almost all the postcards, but only one magnet. Here is the lesson: at the end of the day a woman stopped by my booth and saw the magnets- “where are the ones that say Jacksonville on them?” she asks? I collect magnets and your art is perfect for what I wanted but I go home tomorrow. Oops! Big miss on my part. So Saturday I will have Jacksonville collectible magnets to offer. You only have to tell me once.
By the end of the day I had sold all of my matted prints of our memorial statue known as Winged Victory (official title: Free) and an art piece of a mural at an intersection in town known mostly to locals.
Local art is important to locals and visitors alike.
Still Life With Cat Studio 