What a Blast!! Greg (my husband) and I took on this event full force!! We were sure to get to the gym the Friday before to gain some endurance. We baked chicken the night before as well to prepare healthy lunches to last us through the long weekend show. Fruit, vegetables, and Spinach & Avocado chicken sandwiches on healthy bread. We were ready to go!!
We were up late Friday night being sure everything was packed and ready to go. Our daughter gave us a box of handmade soaps, made with Love. Our grandson also made up cookies in 4 different flavors to share and sell at the event. We had Art in all forms, and from many different artists from our family!! I was excited and already exhausted, but still didn’t sleep much that night.
We were up by 5am and on the road by 6:30. I made a few extra bead characters on our way into Joliet as Greg drove us there. This was the first Quad Con I had ever done on my own without Mr Jerry, and I was a little nervous as we walked in. But once I found John (leader of the Quad Con) he quickly directed us to our booths and thanked us for coming and bringing our Energy to the Quad Con. We had quite a large space and then we were told that an artist next to us wasn’t going to make it and we could spread out even more. Lots of space to get Creative!!!
We had 2 wagons packed full to unload. Tables, chairs, banners, merchandise, Wacky hats!!,
along with paper and pencils to get our ART on with the crowd. We began to set up and talk a bit with the other vendors in our area who were also getting busy with getting their booths lined up for the arrival of potential customers. Soon we were all set up and clicked a few pictures to send on to the group text to advise them we were all set up and ready to Draw!!!
I started out with the evil bunny hat along with a fuzzy pink mustache, while Greg started with the red crab hat.
“Do you like to draw?” That is what I would ask kids walking by, and when I got the answer “Yes”, I would ask
“Can you draw me Wacky?!?
And then it’s on!!!
DRAW!!!!!
It was a lot of Fun!! We were spreading our creativity by getting others to draw and share their own art with us and others!! We found a Giant pencil from Doodle Bob and I made Greg blow it up and now we had switched up hats and props to keep the excitement going!! Greg has a Shark on his head with a Giant Pencil and I am wearing a Pirate Hat and I have a hook for a hand and I am juggling!! The excitement goes on!!
Many times when we would get a young teen to stop and sit down to draw, their mom or dad would join in and they would draw together. Some kids were shy and all we could do was try to excite them with our Energy and Sillyness!! Eventually many grabbed their parents arm and pulled to come over and create with us!! We would say “The ONLY rule is the picture you draw makes you laugh!!”. Art should always be Fun!!! So we keep doing art and loving it!!
The long day was flying by!! It was now 1:30 pm and only 6 and ½ hours more to go!! I was still pumped up and my adrenaline was high to get others to take a break, relax, and enjoy just a minute of doing Art. Some of the art that people were drawing was Amazing!! With Halloween around the corner, it made for an extra spook factor on the theme of some drawings.
A man came up to the booth and introduced himself as “Dan the Magician”. He showed us some magic tricks and really enjoyed what we were doing with art and spreading our creativity to others. He was in search of a wand for his own act and did magic tricks for the vendor to get a discount. He came back a second time and talked with us some more and showed us some of his own drawings and sketches he had done in the past. He was an interesting person and I wish we would have talked longer. He was from a large family as we both are and had a twin sister , but 10 years our senior to Greg and I. But he said he was going to follow our mission on-line and hopefully Do Art will cross paths with this fellow artist once again.
“When the Horns Came Out!”
As the sun went down and the sky light above us in the Mall started to darken I switched to the Black, Dark Horns from Disney Maleficent and some of the drawings got even darker!!
I could barely hear what people were saying due to the mask covering much of my ears. The horns did stop people in their tracks! Someone would give me a look like OHH MY GOSH!! And I would forget I was wearing it and be like “What??” We ended up putting the Giant pencil in my horns and tried drawing for entertainment.
Smiles, Smiles and more Smiles!! I can’t count the amount of Smiles we brought to so many people. Even when they wouldn’t draw with us they enjoyed the entertainment as we were getting the others to draw. It was a Very Long Day Event. But so many enjoyed it. One older gentleman drew with us and his excitement and mood elevation increase from doing it was remarkable!! He continued on his way talking with someone on his phone, about how much just doing that ART made his day!! On top of the picture he wrote “ART is LIFE!”.
So Hey Everyone out there in the Do ART Nation!!
Get together with a group of Friends, Coworkers, Strangers, and or Family and do some ART TOGETHER!!!
You won’t regret it and neither will they!!
