I love a good outdoor art festival, but doing one indoors is a real treat. Artsfest at Annmarie Garden is still mostly an outdoor festival, which I have enjoyed for the last 7 or 8 years (lost count). When they opened their brand new 15,000 sq.ft. Arts Building last year and offered some indoor booths, I pounced! An indoor show means freedom from obsessing about the weather (good for my mental health), leaving my 75 lb. canopy at home (no physical exhaustion at the end), and a level floor (which lets me create a more polished display, and it's safer for the pots). So now there is another level of quality to what was already an outstanding event.
Special thanks to Anne and Jim Williams, who have been letting me stay at their house in Calvert County during this show for several years. It is fun to hang out with them, plus Mary, Jack, and Eli the irresistible dog. "Pet me." "Yes Eli." And many thanks to Karen Grossman, who was my middle school art teacher, and started me towards a life of art. (good teachers make a difference!) She is now a serious potter too, soon to complete an MFA in ceramics at Hood College. Some of her classmates were also in this show, so she came to wish us all well. And she sat in my booth so I could take a break!
