Well...I'm on the backside of the PONCHO adventure. It was a fun evening and a great experience. I now have learned what it is all about and will know how to maneuver through it next year if that works out. My piece "The Journey" went up via a U-Haul trailer. I had a friend of mine, Carol Wilmoth, offer a double horse trailer and that was kind and there was just no way I could have made it in the big city of Seattle with it up and back. Going up Spring Street we hit every red light until 4th Ave. With the Carol's trailer we would have ended up in the bay. Carol also offered me a riding lesson on her horse, Jet, which I gladly took and had a chance to connect with her the weekend before PONCHO at the Quarry Ridge Stables. Vern the trainer there was quite kind in letting me hang with him during giving his lesson on the Hunters.
I was quite pleased to open the doors of the U-Haul after our trek and see "The Journey" made it unscathed from the trip up. I appreciate the boys at PONCHO, John and Greg, who helped me to set up. Also the dear and sweet Susan who checked all the art out and made sure they were delivered to the right owner.
After spending a restless night seeing a blank auction slip, my worst fears, I went for a day in the town. I saw some women who were in a booth next to me at Marymoor Park for the Best in the Northwest Show at the Market and I had a great time walking around. The weather was insane, so lovely. Amazingly we were able to locate a Starbucks, in Seattle of all places. The Market was fun and so was just waking around town and on the waterfront. I left my trailer at the dock, Pier 66 and was worried about it disappearing, another thing that kept me awake the night before. So... needing a long walk about 2 hours before the show I just happened to walk to Pier 66 to check on the trailer and, sure enough, it was still there. One less egg to fry.
I made it to the auction about 15 minutes early, too excited. So, I walked around... Then someone threw a loaf of bread in the water and a flock of gulls landed on it and devoured it. Now, it was great to watch them down below me, but when they took off they were right over head which is not a good place to have seagulls with full stomachs. Especially when you are wearing your, "I be going to the Big City" clothes. Well, I dodged any seagull incidents and made it to the auction with slightly sore feet and cold.
I walked through the silent auction area and checked on "The Journey" one more time. Oh, by the way, I forgot its tail, yep, it's sitting right next to me in my studio. Hey, it could have been worse; I could have remembered the tail and forgot the rest. Anyway... the bidding started at 6 and in about 10 minutes after 6 the MC came on the speakers stating that someone paid full price for the "beautiful driftwood horse." Whuuuuut!!!!!? I was still a bit in shock and found out,sure enough, the beautiful Ms. Kathryn Buchanan was the new owner of "The Journey." I was able to meet her when I took the piece to her place, along with making another "free" delivery for PONCHO. Lessons learned all over the place here. It was great to meet Kathryn, and she has a beautiful place for the piece. She is a horse person and there is a history in her family with them, this is a person who was found by the piece. It was meant to be.
So, all in all it was a good experience and I had a great time. I now know what PONCHO is all about and I very much like the concept due to the fact the money goes to programs for the arts. Knowing what I know I will be communicating with the PONCHO folks and to make next year an even better time.
The next piece is the deer for the San Juan Island Sculpture Park. I will let you all know when I'm done with it.
Tags:
art, driftwood, driftwood sculpture, poncho, quarry ridge stables, san juan island sculpture park, sculpture
Posted at: 06:31 PM | Add Comment