Turquoise and silver bead necklace with pewter charm currently showing at Heron’s Way Gallery in Leonardtown, MD; earrings:  sold, by Tammy Vitale

Have spent hours taking pictures of jewelry and none of it is coming out well.  Got notice that a torso broke in shipment and am dealing with that.  it is raining buckets outside.  Buckets.

Yesterday morning I had coffee with a dear and wise friend (it has been way too long) and last evening I went to St. Mary’s College to listen to Lucille Clifton read.  First Anne Caston read (she used to be a part of the poetry women I hung around with, who I was introduced to by Grace Cavalieri, whom I love dearly and who interviewed me and put my poetry on her NPR radio show The Poet and The Poem in, um, 1997?) My sleep is off and I had a nap in the afternoon which made the "late" evening (home at 10:15 pm) totally doable and enjoyable.  Only saw one of the whole crew who used to meet with Lucille once a month to write poetry, and she was a late comer to the group.  Wonder where everyone else is?

A while back I promised notes straight from my journal at the Buyer’s Market – whether or not they make any sense.  So here you go, it gives a snapshot.

Thursday, February 14 08.  What a trip up – they said snow, freezing in the early a.m.  Husband was off work so we leftWed instead of Thursday as planned.  Halfway up the road toward Philadelphia, the windshielf wipers went out on the passenger side with a clunking noise, so Husband’s driving in the rain, on I95, big trucks, did I say rain? and then wind and with all this he’s hand-operating the wipers with the switch.  About an hour out of Philly we stopped and he broke out some vent fins on the front of the van so he could get to the wiper mechanism and wired it back together.  When we stopped we were starting to get ice balls.  Lucky us – that passed and it cleared up rain wise – but the wind was whipping pretty good, blowing the van, especially when big trucks came by.

Coming into Philly proper, one is on flyovers.  When there is wind, flyovers are windier yet.  We were steady climbing the wind rocking us and my fear of heights and bridges kicked in so hard I had to close my eyes and remember to breathe.  Meanwhile Husband drives on and we are shortly in our room, drinking wine.

I have the best guy around.  He didn’t want to drive in dark and rain (and that was before we even thought of the wipers going out), but he did because he knew I was starting to freak about the weather.  When the wiper broke, he bandaided and bubbletummed it back together and make it work.  AND today we celebrate 23 years married!  Smart woman, me.

Friday, February 15 08.  Set up yesterday was beyond smooth.  We went to the downstairs load in at 9:30 a.m. and got right in despite warnings on the handouts "not until 10."  Easy to see the freight elevator could be a jamb but no that early, and having a great cart (www.handcarts.com) made the move in amazingly easy.  All of the booths were marked with information packets on the floor (What a difference having carpet down this morning makes!  It covers the raw edges of our floor).  We already lost 1 light – snapped at the juncture (the  one not packaged.  I wrapped the electric wires around the legs – don’t do that).

Everywhere cargo movers – but if you’re moving in without contracted help, you’re on your own- goo thing – I though we had to wait for loaders from the handouts which I found unclear about load in all together.  no good info on where to go – we went to the lower level off Race Street and there was tons of space – we parked right by the dock!  There was already a line for the upper level and elevator.  Our booth is in the back by the loading dock (the open bays keep it really chilly – coat and scarf chilly) and the bathrooms – so not totally out of the way.  The extra dollars for corner booths are probably worth it.  Lots of double and triple booths.  one buy said he makes $40 – 50K off this show.  Folks are mostly very friendly – all the security and paid workers are amazing.

You know the handout said no cardboard containers allowed in your space?  Not so – I’m guessing old timers know all the place to push the envelope.  The person behind me had the entire back of his set up filled with cardboard containers.  So much for fire proofing.

Schedules here flex.  For instance, "must be out by 6pm" stretched a lot.  We were done looking around and left after 7 pm.

Got a chance to walk around and talk with several artists after we set up (I think we were completely done by around 2:30 – not rushing – Husband set up lights and brought all the lines down to 2 switches).

Walking around you can see all the different ways booths are done – the trick is to make it look elaborate without actually being elaborate.  Mine is pretty traditional – they do say if someones sees the booth before the work, that’s not necessarily a good thing.  But I can truly say that lighting is where the dollars should go.

What I want from today:  to get my feet wet; interest; a sale or two.  or three or as many as the Universe would like to send along; to make new artist acquaintances – some who will become friends; to see the rhythm of a show like this; to drink it all in; to learn everything I can learn about shows and artists who do them – many here say wholesale is the only way to go.

We have music and goodies.  Husband is off for coffee.  I’m behind the desk writing.  From where I sit the view is amazing – lots of pretties to look at.  I have my camera pass.

***Lot of lookers at functional but the fact that the glass torso lady ($1800 for the one I called on) is here and is a long time exhibitor tells me that non-functional buyers are here – they’re coming back for a reason.  At 10 a.m. no buyers pour in the door today.

***Neighbor didn’t notice necklaces on the pieces – interesting to know.

***I notice I love all things sculptural – and most folks are going for functional – perhaps that is what sells?

***So far having food in the booth has done nothing and there aren’t many who have it beyond mints – perhaps it works better at smaller venues.

***Nobody looks at the photobooks or the information book.  Buyers walk around with bags for literature.  The dust pan and broom have disappeared!

***Want to look busy.  Feels like the old days when as a secretary I had to make busy work.

***closing is 6 pm not 4 pm – how did I get that wrong?  Dinner at some Chinese food place – we’re next to Chinatown and the fancy restaurants are being converged on by every vendor (1400+) in the convention center.  Back to the hotel.  2 Sales!

thought for the day:  …I think that the truth of art allows us to take a microcosm, a tiny thing…and let it stand for so much else.  But the artist needs to know a great deal more than she or he is necessarily going to put into the work of art.  The artist needs to have reflected on things that may not go into that poem.  There’s a work of constant reflection on one’s own consciousness and on the conditions of life that surround the … images…It seems to me that it is the responsibility of an artist to move out from our own necessarily circumscribed lives into the experience of others whom we don’t know and might never know, and in doing this to experience what we could never have experienced ourselves… Adrienne Rich being interviewed by Bill Moyers in The Language of Life:  A Festival of Poets