My favorite conversations inside my booth at Flagstaff Art in the Park

This past weekend I took part in my very first 3 day art festival. It was an intense 5 months leading up to this festival; making art, ordering prints, sourcing materials for the booth itself, arranging transportation, and generally stressing about every little aspect of this orchestra that I've never participated in before.

To make things even more complicated, I made a conscious decision to go against the photographic norm of all art festivals I've ever been to. I didn't want to feature landscape photography on my walls at all. I wanted to go into this festival knowing for a fact that nothing on my booth walls could be found at any other booth among the 100+ artists. There's no doubt that my work stood out from the rest, but I got the feeling that the majority of people had no idea how to interact with my work.

With all that said, here are some of my favorite conversations and moments that I had with guests to my booth over the 3 day show.

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Guest: What's your background, is it scientific?

Me: I have a Bachelor's in Studio Art with a Minor in Ecology.

Guest: I knew you had some kind of a science background!

Me: This is one of the best things you could have said to me right now!

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Guest: Are you the artist?

Me: I am, these are all my photographs.

Guest: I want to shake your hand. Thank you for doing something unique! Thank you for putting yourself into your art!

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Guest: It looks like my knee surgery.

Me: You had your knee surgery recorded?

Guest: No, my friend did the surgery, she let me watch the whole thing.

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Guest: It looks like an image through a microscope but because of the lack of focus in the bottom left corner I know it isn't.

Me: Wait, what? Is everything in focus at the same time in a microscope? I had no idea. (stores this information for future use)

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Guest: It looks like fire, but it looks like flowers, but it looks like fruit...

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Guest: I see fire.

Me: That's awesome, I've had someone tell me they see a phoenix in the negative space. I point out the head, body and 3 tails of the mythical bird.

Guest: Woah!

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Guest: That one gives me a calm feeling.

Me: That photograph is called Swirling Serenity.

Guest: No way, I get art!

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Sun: Oh, it's 2 o'clock I should start pouring light into the Klarite Photography booth.

Me: Sets up easel in the new sunlight to hold Riven, which happens to be printed directly onto aluminum and absolutely glows in the light.

Guests: Walking in a nondescript fashion on the far side of the park.

Me: Am I crazy, or are those people walking straight at me?

Guests: Walk straight past everything, including the food vendors, straight to Riven. That is so incredible.

Me: :)

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