I recently had the pleasure of showing my work in Ketchum Idaho at the annual arts festival. It was a hot three days and a good trial for encaustic paintings. I’m still in the process of figuring out my booth design, and air flow was obviously not a consideration when I set up shop. My new panels tended to draw heat due to their dark color. My booth was well above 90 degrees all three days. While the wax did get a bit tacky in the heat, no damage was done.

I love the communal effort that fellow artists exhibit at these shows. The second day there, my neighbors and I figured out how to share the flaps of our tents to create more shade and to allow cooler air to flow through. It also opened up a conversation pathway that had been blocked before.

I find it amazing how neatly and fast the artist village goes up and how and beautiful it looks in just a few short hours.

The tear down is just as effective. I had to wait for the weather to cool down before I could pack up my work. It gave me an opportunity to watch the well lubed machine of nomadic artists break down and head in their respective creative directions.