Artist, shmartist

The lunchbox auction was this last weekend (yes, in the POURING rain, if you've been following East Coast weather).

All of the lunchboxes were lined up on tables, with bid sheets in front of them.  I was dismayed to see that mine was not standing up to handling well - something I didn't think about during construction (well, I did a little, but apparently not enough).  Some of the leaves in particular had fallen off - I stuck things back on as well as I could, while still being discreet about it.  The exciting part was there were bids on my sheet!  More than one!  And none of them were my husband - although he did ask if I wanted to buy my lunchbox back.  Even though I'm really proud of it, I have a tendency to hoard things, so letting go was important.  And what would I do with it, really?  Display it on a shelf?  What's the point of that besides bragging to my friends?

So we didn't bid, and someone else bought it for $50.  $50!!!! There was a bid for $60-but it got crossed out.  I'm feeling a little insulted by that, but oh well.  The winning buyer is a high-school biology teacher, and she loved the roots idea, and planned on bringing it to school to show her kids that science can show up in unlikely places (or something like that, it was noisy there).

No, I didn't bring my camera.  Didn't think of it until we were well on the road.  No, didn't even take any pictures with my cell phone.  I'm both glad it's over (felt very self-concious) and thinking, ok, what next?  The book art on display in the next room takes so many forms, it does make me feel like I should keep working.  I keep saying I'm going to block out time every week, but that hasn't actually happened yet.

But the printmaking group near us has posted its spring class schedule...maybe this time I can actually go.