Hey y'all!
If you were not around this last Saturday....you missed the big show.
The 3rd annual flagship Etsy: Made in Canada show.
Hundreds of small business owning artisans all across Canada, taking time from making things to sell to the masses!
It was a fun show - and SUPER BUSY!
It was also MY BIRTHDAY!
So if you missed it...
Shame!

The show was co-hosted by the Toronto Etsy Street Team and 416Hustler - and they did a great job - I was very happy!

​The event was at the MaRS Building...which as you will see in my FEW photos, was pretty neato!

It was wonderful to see so many Etsy artisans!!
What a crazy busy day!
​Met loads of great people....but it was super packed - so there want a lot of time to check stuff out!
Here are the photos I promised:

See what I mean? I took the hall shots at 4 different times in the day!!! BUSY!!!!
Now...a complaint I had......the booths on my side were all right over the cold air grates.....

Honestly....I kinda felt like this all day long:

No....I wasn't wearing a dress.....but DAAAAAAMMMMN it was windy on top the grate!!! Eventually I had to do something....it was CCCCCCOLD! (that is me stammering from the frigid air!) I kid you not.....it also felt like this:

I put down a blanket....and that helped me from freezing solid...although it did look a tiny bit like I was having some kind of strange picnic - or perhaps like I was a homeless person....

IT WAS FINE. RAMSHACKLE - but it worked!
I did make a small error in judgement beginning this NEW piece though.....

I had to explain what it meant.......
I guess it is kinda too "gay" for everyone to get??
I had not thought that it would be something I would need to explain the mechanics of! BUT.
Note to self going forward.

On my short lunch - husband came to relieve me whilst I crammed down a turkey sammie. i became TRANSFIXED with the escalator.......

RIGHT???
IT was really really memorizing!!!!!
(could be I didn't have enough sleep though....)
THIS was what it looked like when I came back!!! 
SO 
MANY
​PEOPLE!

Which was great!

Thanks to all the great people I met!
Thanks to husband for taking care of me!
Thanks to all the folks who organized the show, it was a nice quality show, and your effort did not go unnoticed!!
OH.....and thanks to everyone that came out to support the me!!
YOU ROCK!
​See you soon!

OKAY! So I think I have finally decompressed from the big Supercrawl super experience! Truthfully, it was not as super as I had hoped for.
BUT I really try to look at this whole art career in the long term.
A blip in fortune is expected over a career, so a couple shows in a row that don't live up to my expectations.....not such a big deal in the long run. Honestly, even a couple bad years when amortized over a lifetime are not a big deal in the end.
It also provides contrast. The good is better when you have the bad to counterbalance it! Right??
Besides, you never know what is around the corner - and what non-super experiences will provide SUPER DUPER opportunities! 
Certainly, every experience leads to the next experience - in the same way that each painting leads to the next painting.
So it's onto the next thing.....

This is the 3rd annual flagship Etsy: Made in Canada show. The show which is co-hosted by the Toronto Etsy Street Team and 416Hustler, featuring 130 top handmade and vintage Canadian Etsy sellers!

Saturday September 24th (YUP - my birthday!)
from 10am to 6pm

​The event is at the MaRS Building
(Which in itself should be enough to entice you come out!)
101 College Street

I am located in booth #114

This event FREE to attend and FREE DIY workshops for the public!
PLUS there are 100 swag bags available at the door for you eager beavers!

WANNA PREVIEW OF WHAT YOU WILL SEE?
Check out the look book for the event:
​

SO MUCH GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!!!!
As for me, I will be showing SMALL prints, and postcards and NEW 6" x 6" original artworks!!!! Like these (that you may have seen on my INSTAGRAM feed):

I really hope you can come out! 
Great space - great crafty and arty vendors!
(and you can bring me some birthday cake....no...wine...no BOTH! ;-)
​Thanks guys!

WOW! What a weekend!!!
Those were the longest hours I have EVER worked at ANY show - EVER!
(YIKES!)
There were THOUSANDS of people out this past weekend for the James Street Supercrawl in Hamilton!
And I was part of that craziness with my booth mate Cindy Scaife!
It is hard to know how to describe it!
I ate some good eats and met some really great people and I was entertained by the colourful locals.
From a 10 year old stilts walker, to a 60 year old shirtless dancer (that we nicknames Disco Boris) to the 500 dudes in tank tops , board shorts and neck tattoos!  We really saw a lot! 

The show had a number of frustrations as well, but I promised myself I would not yell about them!

To keep ourselves busy in the off times, or when people were totally indifferent to our art, we would imagine that we had a "Hamilton Bingo" card that got stamped each time we saw something unusual! So....below....I will write (HAMBINGO) each time a photo verifies the fun weirdness!
​Let's go!

WEATHER NOTES: First day/night was BLAZINGLY HOT and sweaty - but dry! Side note - sunscreen bottles left in the sun will produce boiling hot lava and burn your skin......but I digress....

The next day.....we were up early to locate and buy pool noodles to keep the impending rain from pooling in the corners of our tent - so that it didn't collapse on us!

Sadly, I had a rather terrible night sleep, as it seemed that a fair number of 20 year old university 'dudes' don't know better than to yell on the streets at 2am like a-holes! I guess Aaron, Tyler and Ryan just can't image a world beyond their bongs and beer pong where people might need to be sleeping....and not listening to them scream at each other! "CODY....COOOODY....YOU F^*&ING WASTED??" 
Okay - rant finished....
​
Just in case you were wondering...yes...Cody....aka Bra....WAS indeed "s**tfaced"!
​
But that is okay......I knew I had a 15 hour day ahead.....so I had a bunch of coffee and we went to set up!
I was so tired.....but THEN....we saw this...
(See clip below!)

AMAZING RIGHT??????? If only it could have been used to clean up the trash the night before!! :-)

​Oh, and did you notice the operator of this bad boy? It's Captain Jack Sweepoh! (HAMBINGO - hipster with an eye patch)

ANYWAYS.....here is day 2 at the Supercrawl.....enjoy....the photos:

What I have failed to mention thus far is the art installation that backed onto our tent. It was great and all.....but this is how it sounded....all day/night long....on a loop that lasted about 5 minutes on - 5 minutes off....for 12 hours straight!!!!!!!!!

We kept trying to make up words to it, and thought it sounded like a "minor key Mr Sandmand"...or rather Mr anti-sandman. Please enjoy. I filmed this IN MY BOOTH....which will give you an idea of the VOLUME.

Yup......about 38 hours of that "song"!!! 
It was I think waterboarding must be like! 

NEXT DAY.....are you ready for this......
WAS PERFECT FREAKING WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunny.
Perfect temperature.
No wind.
A-FREAKING-MEN!
​I had a great night sleep - and have to thank Donna at The Hamilton Store for making outlives SOOOO much easier! Make sure you go see her next time you are on James North. Her store is FANTASTIC!

After a good night sleep, I packed up and got in my car to drive to the show....and found this under my windshield......

ANYWAYS.......so Sunday at The Supercrawl was for the non-humans.....

That attack doggie started the day.....and then......

Missing from my pets of Supercrawl photo section....ONLY because I couldn't get to my camera out in time to get the photo are:
1. Man with 5 birds on shoulders/head singing (him - not the birds)
2. Lady with ferret
3. Hipster couple with 2 bunnies on leashes
4. Lizard guy
5. The snake people
6. Jojo the rat faced lady
But were any of these odd enough to get onto the Hamilton Bingo Card? 
​Naw.

Oh....did I mention the locusts??????
​I feel like that should have been a sign for me!!!!!!!!
;-) 

..more of the FINAL day.....

So there you go.
A SUPER recap - for the Supercrawl!

Thanks to Margaret and Alex and Donna and Gord and EVERYONE that was funny and lovely to be around for the weekend! I really did appreciate spending time with some great Hamiltonians!!!

Thanks to the folks who came by to spend some time and $$ this weekend!
​
And thanks to Cindy for keeping me in stitches!

ALL DAY
EVERYDAY
12-15 HOURS
LOOPING
ALL DAY
EVERYDAY
12-15 HOURS

You're welcome!

JAMES STREET SUPERCRAWL 

Friday, September 9th 6:00pm 12:00am
Saturday, September 10th 12:00pm 12:00am
Sunday, September 11th 12:00pm 7:00pm 
Hamilton, ON

Supercrawl is a free festival weekend of art and music on James Street in Hamilton, Ontario.

I WILL BE THERE sharing a tent with Cindy Scaife and her art!
I will also probably be drinking to make it to midnight!
(wink wink)
So come by to see THAT!
​
Also.....if you like music.....and I know many do.....

Headliners at Supercrawl 2016 will include The Strumbellas, Matt Andersen & the Bona Fide, The Trews, F---ed Up, Four Tet, Junior Boys, and Sharon and Bram.

FUN.....RIGHT???
For the show I completed some new Hamilton themed works...

There are also limited edition Giclée prints of these bad boys.
For those of you who are NEW to my merch.....

A Giclée (pronounced "jhee-clay") is a sophisticated inkjet method of printing on acid free watercolor paper. They are produced for me by a professional Giclee Printer on an Epson printer with K3 pigment inks. 

All my giclées are printed in 2 sizes, 16" x 20" ($80.00) and
8" x 10" ($40.00). The paper is high qualtity, acid and chlorine free 100% cotton rag paper. Each one is signed and numbered in ink - by yours truly.

​Please note, they are small (limited) editions.....so once they are gone - they are GONE!

I have also made a few new postcards for this event, and some original little art paintings - these are off my INSTAGRAM feed:
​

So come out at see these guys and MANY MORE this weekend!
Remember, this is A RAIN OR SHINE EVENT....and it is FREEEEE!
Come out and say HI!
See you tomorrow?!

Gosh. I really thought that I would be more regular with my posts here. Let's face it, I've been a bit of a slacker lately.
BUT I am working like a crazy man on a bunch of projects, and also dealing with this:

YUP! The old fall kitchen reno. Seemed like such a great idea a few months ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANYWAYS....all I gotta do is get through the next month without a complete melt down and I will have a brand new kitchen. 
HUZZAH!

In the meantime, I have shows to do! Next up, as I mentioned in the

I am super happy with this one!
I really enjoyed painting the landscape!!!
(SHHHH!!!!) ;-)
I may do a part II - "more falls of Hamilton" - as there are so MANY (YES I KNOW I ALREADY MENTIONED IT) waterfalls in the Hamilton area.

SO.
COME OUT. See this beauty in person NEXT WEEK in Hamilton!!!
I will have some prints available as well!
YES...you'll see those next week on this blog!
​Thanks guys!!!!!!