The Post-Holiday Pop-Up Shop Update….

Here we are about to enter the last week of January, and I am just finally feeling like there is some breathing room from the holidays. After my last post, there was a frenzy of visiting with family in from out of town, special dinners, holiday events, shopping, ice skating, and trying to enjoy the season, the spirit and the company of those we rarely see. I had actually taken the week of Christmas off, hoping to feel less rushed and “hecticized”, but then work picked back up, and as soon as we crested the New Year, I was back to busy days followed by meeting-filled evenings….and now here we are. Really, where does the time go??

With that said, I want to keep this blog as sort of a historic look at all the things that have spun off from my artist residency, and since the Pop-up shop back in Dec was such a cool event, I feel I have to add another post about it.

Promo poster that I had made for the event

First off, the morning of the Pop-up, our local Fox news stations “Good Day Rochester” morning show did a series of short pieces where they visited some of the businesses that would be participating in the night-time holiday market, and Kelli Berg, owner of Warehouse 127, was profiled. She talked about some of the items that were for sale in her shop, and she highlighted me as the featured artist, showing my photo book and talking about my kallitypes. A very exciting and unexpected plug!

With my mini exhibit

Unfortunately though, as the day went on, that evening was probably the coldest night of the year, definitely the coldest of December, with wind chills in the single digits, light snow and wind. And though the stretch of Railroad Street where Warehouse 127 is located is usually busy during the day-time market days, foot traffic for the night-time market was minimal, and we didn’t end up with very many shoppers.

Here you can see the table where I had loose prints, matted prints and books, the sliding magnetic doors where my framed prints were (above), and the entrance area of the shop (below)

That said, being inside the beautiful and festively-decorated space was warm and cozy, and I was so happy to have a chance to show and talk about my work with complete strangers.

Talking about my work with shoppers

I ended up selling one photo book and one loose (unmatted/unframed) print, and that was enough to make the effort of carrying everything over and setting up worth it. But I’m not sure I’ll do another….maybe I can be convinced to do one more in the spring….but we’ll see.

The interior space of Warehouse 127 with the 20-foot tall Christmas tree, and my Photo Book on display

For now, I am really thankful that Kelli invited me to participate, and I hope there is more to come from the connection in the future!