Sandi Whetzel's Exhibit at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association Summer Arts Festival was a Hit!

I had vowed never again to display my art at the local art festival. It was just too much work without a booth buddy to share the responsibility. But when the members of Umqua River Gallery Dot COM decided to display as a group at the Roseburg Umpqua Valley Arts Festival, I decided to get on the band wagon. And I am glad I did. The whole thing took place this last weekend, June 27th-29th in a big way.

Umpqua River Gallery dot COM is comprised of 14 local artists of Douglas County who are represented in an online virtual gallery. Besides the shows the individual artists enter and their studio spaces at their homes, the online gallery is home to their art at www.UmpquaRiverGallery.com . John Galvin, photographer artist and his wife, Linda, business manager and website developer, are the driving force behind the organization.

Any way, back to the art festival. Our group of artists secured the Gallery East inside the arts center building and nine of the artists' works were represented. It was quite a challenge to get that many artists' works displayed adequately in one room while maintaining good visibility for all and optimal traffic flow through the exhibit. It turned out rather well. Even though it was a very hot three-day weekend without air conditioning, we had a lot of people visit our displays.

I got to meet lots of interesting people, pass out business cards pointing to my blog and postcards describing my upcoming exhibit at the Hult Center, July 18-August 23, 2008. (See my earlier post about the Hult Center Exhibit.) But the most exciting news is I sold a phenomenal amount of art, greeting card art, art magnets, and high quality giclee reproductions of my work. One of my previous art collectors increased their collection of my work from four to now six pieces. I gained another collector who purchased not one, but two pieces of art. I do love my art collectors! And it was fun to hear everybody's reactions to my art. It was a very good weekend.