Sheep Incognito Blog

Who knew that clouds could hold that much water - and save it until we finished tear down and loading, just to unleash it right as we drive onto the interstate?

It was a looong drive home, filled with lots of water - almost like a diving expedition, minus the oxygen tank. Well, and of course, minus the cute little fishies - instead, there were hundreds of semis on the road, adding the huge spray fountains from the road, to the buckets of water from the sky.

We did manage to get home safely around 3 am this morning. We've all been zombies today, so maybe this evening there will be a 6 o'clock bedtime for every breathing thing in this house if neccessary with the help of my friend Benadryl and Pinot Grigio...

The show in Birmingham was awesome - in every way. The people were very knowledgeable about art (hey, some of them even knew what a giclée print is, and what distinguishes it from an original. I was impressed), and they were there to support the artists in any way they could. The weather was perfect. Not hot, just warm. Not cold, just a cool breeze. Not wet, just enough to keep the dust from flying around. Not dry, just enough to keep natural curls from turning into a sheepish bad hair day. Not crowded, but plenty people to shop. Not empty, enough people to meet and chat with. One of my favorite "meets and greets" there was James, a nice guy that took some time to ask about the sheep and the artist life in general, and life in general in particular - just random things, but a great conversation, nontheless. The downside is always having more than one person there at a time - it chops conversations into little pieces, and by the time you get back to that platter, the conversation walked away or changed directions.

As it turns out, it really is my favorite part of doing art shows to meet people and hear about their lives, their views and their perspective of the world we live in. Any money we earn is gone after a while (something about money self-destructing, I think...it always seems to disappear, and not come back...it must not like me) - people I've met are something I usually don't forget (minus the names usually - another one of those artist brain things. I wonder if there ever was a study done on that - the connection between being right-brained and forgetting names and numbers...hmmm). 

The human connection is what keeps me doing this - otherwise I'm just producing pieces of fabric with paint on them. Sounds boring.

But add in the people whose homes those pieces of fabric go to, and the emotions that the paint creates in them, and all of a sudden, it's not just a thing, it's art. And if those emotions are pleasant ones, that's even better- it gives a bit of a purpose to "slapping paint on canvas", other than just painting my feelings into the piece.
So I think that is the real reason of "Why Sheep?" (which is probably the most asked question at any of my shows) - people associate sheep with something pleasant, something harmless, something soft and stupid, and something non-threatening and simple to understand (I know I do...) - add a bit of fun and smiles to that mixture, and there you have it: the perfect product: a sheep.  Really, there should be more sheep stores around. The world would be a much happier place.

So to all of you that now have one of my Sheep Incognito living with you - thank you for giving them a happy home to be. If just that one wall looks a bit brighter in the world, then they've done their job well....that's why sheep.