DAY FIVE - South Plains Fair

Today was the first "nice" day since the fair started. I love the rain, and I really wish I were in a position to enjoy it more. But I need dry skies and happy people to make money. Anyways, I showed up today around 3:00 and got set up. I talked with a lot of the other vendors about last night. Turns out I was right in going home early. Most of them barely made ANY money at all. Besides I really needed to rejuvinate and get my head back in the game. I was very pleased to make a Hundred bucks in just a couple hours. Much sooner than I'd expected. I was almost content with that and would have been fine to sit on my ass from then till close. But I still got a little trickle of business the rest of the night. People were very weird tonight. I think it's because of the rain all weekend long, but tons of people showed up and bought pretty much just food and walked around. I was only one of about a dozen vendors sitting on their asses as throngs of people tossed money at the food folks for "Pork-chop Onnastick" and Fried Bananas. But not much else.

But whatever, by the end of the night I'd made about a $200 total. And also I'd stumbled onto one of my old staples that I'd seemed to forgotten from my past. Doing kids as comic book characters... I am after all a comic book ARTIST. So when someone asked me to draw their kid as Hell boy I was a little unsure... but when I suddenly had all kinds of kids wanting to be drawn as Hellboy and spiderman I suddenly remembered how popular they were. So I memorized a couple of the faces and redrew them as soon as the kids left, so I could put them up as samples. I'll prolly do more as the week goes on. Live and learn.

I felt MUCH better today about this whole thing. The last few days have really sucked. I let my hopes get up about money and that's a bad reason to be motivated. Especially when it backfires. But I feel back on track, and I'm back to having fun doing what I'm doing. And best of all... I'm back to entertaining.

--Will

DAY FOUR - South Plains Fair: "Game Called on account of Rain"

I showed up today around 4:00. It was still raining and the fairgrounds were empty. I saw a bunch of other vendors standing around talking about the weather and the crappiness of the fair this year. I got to talking with them and finally felt like I fit in. I also got to talking with Tobi some about Caricatures and the fair circuit and all kinds of stuff. It was pretty neat, I guess some of the animosity has melted with the rain. That or he's more pissed at the rain that he is with me... lol. Either way it was fun talking with him. It's always interesting to talk to someone who does what you're trying to do, but they've pretty much already mastered everything you're trying to figure out. It's so rare in my field to just be able to bullshit with someone about this type of stuff, it was kind of a relief.

Anyways, I wasn't up to doing anything today. Sunday sucked the life out of me. And Monday was doing the same. Not to mention the roof of my tent caved in over night and soaked a bunch of my prints and paper. That sucked. And the lake... was back. So I stitched the tent back together and went to the trademart building and played Star Wars: Rogue Leader on the game system in there. After a couple hours of that I came back to see if any of the other vendors had set up. But most of them were still debating about it. So I started to head out when my girlfriend showed up. That was a nice surprise. We kind of wandered around for a while and decided to leave about 8:00... by then Tobi had finally decided to open his booth, but he didn't get much business. On our way out of the park I noticed some elephants on the south end of the park. I love elephants... if you've known me for long you know how MUCH I love elephants. We hung around and watched them for awhile as the trainer was trying to get them set up for giving rides later on. They brought in a small bulldozer to haul hay around and one of the elephants was trying to pull the driver out... it was funny. After a while the trainer called us over to come pet him. It was so awesome. We stayed there chillin with the elephant for a while. Then actually got to ride on him. It really made the whole weekend worth while. Yeah it did.... ooh and I got pictures.

--Will

DAY TWO - South Plains Fair: "Wet and weird"

Today kind of sucked. I usually like the rain, but not when I need good weather so people will want to come to the fair. I woke up around 11:00 am (went to sleep last night around 4:00) and was still wore out. I checked outside and it was pouring down. So I called my mom and asked her to call and wake me up when the rain stopped. She never called... it never stopped. Lol. I finally went up to the fair park around 4:00 pm to see if my tent had blown away. It hadn't but there was a fairly deep lake formed in the middle of my tent. That sucked. But at least most of my stuff stayed pretty dry. Turns out the other caricature artist had shown up some time around 11 am and had only done ONE caricature between then and the time I showed up. He seemed a little pissed that he didn't stay in bed too. I laughed and went home to get some dinner before I headed back.

I show back up around 6:30 when the rain finally stops and I begin sweeping the lake away from my tent and set up the rest of the booth again. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and I didn't really finish getting ready till around 7:30 or 8:00. Between the time I showed up and the time I was ready, Tobi seemed to start getting some regular traffic. My traffic was however much slower to trickle in. Which is ok. I was ready to write today off anyways. And I had Misty working with me today so it was fun to just hang out and catch up. She'd never seen me do caricatures before either so that was kind of neat. I also got to see some old friends. Sarah and her beau showed and so did Jenn and Brandon. Brandon hadn't seen me do caricatures in a couple years either, so it was neat to show off the new setup.

The entire day seemed to be a struggle as far as business went. I had to fight for every drawing, and had a lot of customers pass for no reason other than it didn't feel right tonight. I could tell that was pretty much what was going on with all the other Airbrush artists too. It was just a very... very weird night. On the other hand, I did feel a lot more comfortable with entertaining people. Both while drawing and pitching to get them in the chair.

In the end, I made about $200 tonight. Still not bad, especially for about 4 hours worth of work... but its not the $400 - $600 I was expecting for Saturday. And they're forecasting rain till Tuesday. Suck.

Oh and I only spent $3.00 bucks tonight... on a funnel cake... mmmmm... funnel cake.

--Will

DAY ONE - South Plains Fair: "Good Omens"

Well today was the first day of the fair. I showed up at about 1:00 pm and started setting up the booth. Usually when I'm setting up for a show I try to look for good omens. There were several today. Not only was I interupted several times to do caricatures before I even got any samples or signs up on the wall. But I kept running across Lady bugs all day as I was getting things set up. Lady Bugs... go figure? But they've always been omens of good fortune for me. I've had strange run-ins with Lady bugs every time I've fallen in love and on numerous other occasions they have been precursors to very important events in my life. I'd say that's a fairly good sign. I finally got my entire booth setup around 3:00 and I think it looks pretty swanky. I even put up my painted original Hellboy paintings on one of the tables and that brought in a terrific amount of traffic all night long.

Today was very strange. The fair has me set up less than 100 feet from the other caricature artist. I turned the back of my tent facing his just so we won't be staring at each other all day long.. lol. Course I also put a second "Caricature" banner on the back so anyone at his booth can see there's another option. Hehehe. I think the awkwardness and tension set in pretty early do to our close proximity. I could tell Tobi (the other caricature artist) was pretty pissed about the whole situation. It didn't help that I was busy pretty much non-stop from 3:00 till nearly 7:00 pm and he did all of maybe 3 caricatures. Every time I looked over he was leering at me, arms crossed and head steaming. I could tell he was pissed from 40 yards away... lol. Then it started to rain for about an hour, and that was a pain in the ass. My tent is definitely not made for all-weather. So it was a challenge to just keep myself from flooding out. Luckily everything is pretty water resistant, and that which is not can easily be tucked in a tupperware tub.

The mood seemed to change quite a bit once the sun went down. It seemed like Tobi started getting more business and mine slowed down a bit. Not too bad, but about 3 an hour instead of 6. But whatever. I'm curious as to what the difference is. It may be my lighting or something. Dont know. The rest of the night finished out pretty good. A few minor crisis' with my power cord flaking out on me and little things here and there. But overall not a bad first night. I made about $300 tonight. It blows me away that it would take me 40 plus hours to make that in a "real" job before. Sheesh. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good and maybe even better. Lets hope the signs are there.

I think compared to all the other airbrush artists there I did damn good. (but again it's only the first day... have to be cautiously optomistic). Wes said he only made a hundred. Same as his first day last year. The T-shirt guy near me seemed to be about that slow most of the day... maybe a little better. And Tobi... well I'm thinking I did twice the business he did. Mostly due to making $200 before he even started getting busy. I'm trying to not get too cocky. Arrogance is Karmas bitch. But I'm happy with how I've handled things. Being really nice to people is a good way to do business. That seems to be what's put me ahead so far. Hopefully that will persist. By the grace of God.

Oh and one other fun fact.... I only spent $6 bucks on fair food today. heh. That's a new record for me. I bought a footlong corndog for lunch and a carmel apple just before closing. It really helped bringing my own water, soda and snacks. Lots less temptation.

--Will

The 2004 South Plains Fair

Well the fair starts this friday. I will have a booth outside this year, for the first time ever. I'm very excited. I'm almost completely ready to go. I'm not really as nervous as I thought I'd be. Course, I still don't know what to expect. Right now I'm hoping to do 20 caricatures each day. Which is pretty reasonable at this event. But we'll see. I hope that some of you guys come out and see me, and maybe even get a caricature. I'd appreciate the support (and the money.. lol). I'll be across from the Bingo Parlor on the midway. As far as I can tell it's a pretty primo spot. But I guess I'll find out sometime this week.

Anyways, wish me luck, pray for me.

--Will

Following your Inspiration

There is a fascinating essay from Solbeam this week on following your path and seeing the signs that guide us along the way. I know it's a bit out there, and probably not for everybody. But its definitely dead on with the way I live my life. And perhaps an indication of where my thoughts... and life are headed.

--Will

From www.solbeam.com

"...there are NO wrong turns along your path. Every part of it IS you. ESPECIALLY the “wrong” turns. I learned about honesty from stealing. I learned about truth from lying. I learned about unattachment from hoarding. I learned how to appreciate food by fasting from it. I learned silence by seeking refuge from the noise. I learned stillness from movement. And I’m learning humility from too much ego. Change, evolution and enlightenment are not born from mediocrity. Make extreme decisions and extreme enlightenments will follow. Every single bend, turn and cross in our paths presents another learning exercise or application for the purpose of personal growth. We only stop living when we stop learning. There are no mistakes; Only opportunities to grow. And remember -- your adventures are never lost; Only changed."

Rejuvination

I... feel... incredible. I feel like I haven't felt in two years. I feel confident, self-assured, secure, talented, funny... happy. It feels like all of the turmoil and stress and breaking down I've gone through for the last two years has finally paid off. For the first time in a long time... I feel Righteous again. Like my old self... but better, stronger, and more prepared for what lies before me. The slate is clean and the wounds are mended. And now it's time for me to finally move forward.

I'd like to go into more detail, and I may at another time. But for now I just want everyone to know that William is back. I really missed knowing who I was! It's good to have myself back again. hehe.

"Keep smiling Ya'll!"

--Will