Bohumila Augustinova Chats About Why She Loves Pop Up Outdoors Art Shows
I was part of Melrose Art in the Yard. It was their second or third year and I was set up next to couple of my friends. We loved the event. I have a big front yard, so we decided that maybe we could do our own version of the event. Just with all of the artists in the same area.
Starting the event wasn’t all that difficult. I organized plenty of art events before, so this may have been the easiest event I ever organized. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot of work. Just not as stressful.
There are few things I really like about it. First, I love and adore working with local artists, so showing my work right by their side is always a pleasure. I love that neighbors come on foot, with their dogs and kids. It has a true community feeling to it. I get to know some artists that live right in my neighborhood and so many of my friends come to support the event.
We have a few artists that been with us since the beginning and few new faces as well.
We have Michael Krajewski, who’s been selling his work at this event since the beginning. He brings his smaller works of art and sell them at amazing prices. Michael is also a collector of vintage toys, so he always entertains us with different toys he brings.
This year for the first time Tennyson Corley is bringing her amazing ceramic sculptures. They are really humorous and charming.
Wayne Thornley, he’s been one of my favorite local artists for years and a good friend. He’s dangerous to me, because I know I’m going to want to buy more of his work. He brings paintings and his wish boxes, and I have the feeling I need another one of those.
I’m excited because Liz Donato who was my first ever pottery teacher will be joining us. Her pottery is so beautifully made.
Ellen Fishburne is one of our neighbors and she does amazing watercolor paintings and notecards.
We are doing this once a year. We settled on the Saturday after Thanksgiving because it’s “shop local day.”
The only tricky part of this event is that even though our front yard is big, it’s not big enough to grow. We can only have about 17 artists. At this point, the only call for artist we do is on the neighborhood facebook page.