Susan Brown

Reflections on my Open Studio

Date
10/29/2021 9:04:10 PM

Author
Susan L Brown

Two weekends in Oct. 2021, 9/10 and 16/17, were my Open Studio exhibition in Santa Cruz, CA, where I live.
Santa Cruz Open Studios (SCOS) is a juried show, with a wide variety of artists throughout Santa Cruz County. It's a big deal here, and well known and well publicized through the Santa Cruz Arts Council, including ads, articles, even an app with a map, and a beautifully printed catalogue. In fact, I had visited SCOS in years past, as I'd heard about the excellent quality of artists here.
I was accepted into the OS, and started planning in August. Little did I know how much work was involved!

Luckily there is a guidebook for what to do, and also a consultant available, plus a local curator, who came to my home and studio, for a modest fee, to give me her recommendations, which were very helpful. Even so, I had postcards to design and print, emails to write and schedule, paintings to frame and mount, prints to make, helpers to recruit (as it was clear that I would need someone to take payments, as well as guide visitors to the exhibit, most of which was outside in our garden, especially due to Covid precautions.)
Then there was getting the garden in shape and cleaning out my studio--which, typical as an artist, was not the neatest! My husband, Rick, was instrumental in these efforts, which took weeks; including weeding, filling in gopher holes, trimming areas, mowing. putting potted plants around in strategic areas, etc. (We even posted a sign,"Watch Your Step-Gophers at Work!")

Then the day before the exhibition, we put the display panels (6 sides) up in the garden open area. And disaster happened! Gusty winds up to 30mph blew through the yard--toppling the panels which sailed through our yard! It took Rick and me 5 hours to finally stake and secure them properly--including four trips to the hardware store to get the right stakes that were sturdy and long enough!

That was time we had planned to do our set up "rehearsal"--luckily, at least the paintings were not yet on the panels...
Then night before the first day, we had to post all our signs, but first we had to make them! A good friend of mine who is a graphic artist came to our rescue and wrote most of the text on the signs. At midnight, we were out like "midnight marauders" posting signs on telephone poles, and putting the large sandwich boards, gotten from a realtor who didn't need them any longer, on street corners, directing people to my studio address.
Actually, the Green Signs were the most effective way for folks to find me—in fact, one of my best experiences was a lovely guy who just saw one of my signs, came to view my art, and ended up buying two of my abstracts.
As he viewed one of my portraits in my studio, he asked if I would consider painting a wedding portrait for him as a gift for his fiance! It's definitely an honor, plus pressure, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

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