I arrived at the venue spot just before 9:30 AM and unloaded my new tent. After reviewing the instructions, I set it up inside the indented area where the second set of Griffins office windows are located. The tent went up smoothly except the bolts on the concrete weights for the tent legs donot line up with the holes in the new tent. I was able to jury-rig a method of attaching them which should work ok for now. I will have to enlarge the holes in the tent feet to allow them to mount to the cement weights. I set the tent up nearly identically to the way the old tent was set up, I am pleased with the new tent.




Shortly after noon a couple and their college aged daughter stopped by and the daughter decided to have a charcoal drawing done while they waited for a table at the HopCat Resturant. They are from Berrien Springs and the daughter goes to Grand Valley. She waited patiently while I got organized and then we started the drawing. I felt some pressure to complete the drawing in the advertised time of 30 to 40 minutes because they were given an approximate time similar to that before their table would be ready. The drawing went well and I was nearly finished in around 20 to 25 minutes exceptforthevery curly hair which took me another 20 minutes. They were happy with it, but I took a photo of her just to be safe in case I needed to make some corrections.




Some time later a man, who had previously told me he wanted a portrait of his seven year old daughter, and his daughter came by and began to discuss what the pose should be. He wanted to purchase the portrait as a gift for his mother. I had her sit in the studio area and took some photos of her as she directed on how she wanted to be portrayed. After some family discussion we decided on a pose and they had to leave so he could get back to work.




A short time later, I started to pack up and to get the van so that I could get started for Stevensville. I arrived there about 7:30 PM.

I woke up and started surfing the net to find a replacement tent for my ArtPrize venue. I found one on Craigslist in nearby Lowell; it was a used one that they were asking $500 for. It might be worth it were still available and if I could get it quickly. I also found that Sam's Club in Comstock Park had some white pop-ups for $89 according to the phone representative there. I will buy that one at the end of the day if I don't hear anything about the other one.




I went to the temporary studio inside the arena and painted until early afternoon then I went for lunch and stopped by the Gerald R. Ford Museum to see Leslie's display. I talked with her a little, studied her exhibit, and congratulated her on placing in the top 25 2-D exhibits. I also visited DeVos Place and the hotel connecting south hallways to all of the art there. I returned to the arena studio and painted some more until deciding to go to Sam's Club to buy their white tent.




I found the tents but the $89 tent was blue and the white tent was $199. I decided the white tent was the better choice although more than I would liked to have spent it was good quality and worth the price even though I had to pay the 10% mark-up because I i'm not a member.




I arrived back at my GR home about 9:30PM and retired shortly after fixing and eating some dinner.

It was another chilly, breezy day in front of the Grand Rapids Griffins offices. I didn't have anyone sit for portraits but I did finish the pastel of of the college aged woman that I started on Day Five.

When I woke up, I checked the weather and noticed that predictions were for 25 mph winds with over 40 mph gusts. I immediately became concerned about the safety of my outside temporary studio. I searched the web for comments about tents like mine surviving these kind of conditions. Most comments were negative about operating in these conditions. I found a help phone number for the Carousel Canopy company who made my tent and talked to a representative who told my to take it down because it would probably not survive.




When I arrived at the venue, I told my Griffins contact, Marissa about my concerns and that I had made a decision to take my tent studio down. She agreed that it was a good idea. I had an appointment to do oil paintings in the afternoon and evening of two subjects so she gave me access to a small dressing room in the arena area to use for a studio for my portrait sittings.




I started tearing down the tent and was 75% finished when a gust of wind from the south came swirling around the arena and pushed the tend down, breaking four cross brace members in the ceiling. I salvaged the pieces and packed it all up and put it in my van.




My friend Mark, from St. Joseph, had called me and was planning to meet me around noon. When he arrived, I met him and explained what had happened during the morning. We went to the BOB for lunch and planned the activities for the rest of the day.




I met Emily, a friend, ex student and model, for her portrait sitting at 2:30 PM in the arena studio. She sat for a couple of hours as we discussed resent activities since we last saw each other. Emily had attended the Chicago Art Institute School, then transferred to Kendle College where she got her degree. She recently married and is managing a wedding dress store.




After Emily left, Mark returned from some ArtPrize venue visits including the Gerald R. Ford Museum, where he met Leslie Adams and her friend Laura, both ArtPrize artists. Mark told me that both Leslie and Laura would be coming to my studio later for Leslie's portrait sitting. Mark and I went for dinner at the pizza place around the corner and he left for home shortly after that.




I met Leslie and Laura at the arena at 9:30 PM and took them to the temporary studio inside. I began the portrait and soon Laura left to drive back to her home in SE Michigan. After an hour Leslie and I both were too tired to continue the sitting so I photographed her, cleaned up, and

dropped her off at her hotel on my way to my place.

I was up early but not as early as I wanted to be because there was a lot to do. After getting ready to go I had to load the van with the materials I used to complete some of the portraits. Because I didn't make more mats the day before, I had to go to my studio and cut some mats before heading to Grand Rapids. I was able to cut nine 16” x20” and three more 24” x 30” mats and be on the road by 10 AM. I had wanted to be at my tent site by then but there was no deadline so I relaxed and let things happen when they would. I made good time and was at my tent by 11:15 AM and set up to operate shortly after noon. My tent had made it through the wind and rain with no apparent damage. I went inside the Griffins' offices and added the newly finished drawings to the window display. There now were a total of 13 individuals in my display, two charcoals waiting for a model release from parents, and another 4 still needing some work.




I finished the charcoal of the 9 year old girl and the pastel of the college aged woman who had left for work after about 45 minutes into the portrait. I hung these two on my display walls in the tent until I had time to get them in the windows.




A short time later, a great looking African-American man with a full white beard, who had stopped stopped by the booth the day before returned to tell me he wanted his portrait done. I was excited to do this one because of his interesting look. He decided on a charcoal and he wanted his purple African beanie hat in the portrait, but he wanted it in color. So I decided to do it. When he sat down, the pose he struck, had his hand on his chin, it added to the look so I said let's do it. The portrait went well and was soon finished except for a couple of details I added later. During the time he sat he grabbed the side of the temporary studio walls several times to try to hold it from blowing away in the wind gusts. The wind was getting to me because there we times I didn't feel safe and was worried about injury to one of my subjects while sitting for me.




But tomorrow would be the day to worry about that because the day had come to an end I was ready to rest.

I spent the day trying to catch up on finishing several of my portraits that I had started and a couple that only existed in my camera. During the evening Carol and I visited my daughter, Shari and family. After returning home I was back at the easel. I finished all of the multiple person charcoals but didn't get at the pastels or the oil. I started but didn't finish the single charcoal of the nine year old girl. I had intended to get to my studio at the BOX to make some more mats but didn't get time. Hit the sack at 12:30 AM.

I arrived at the venue spot (my tent) about 9:30 AM and unloaded the van and set up the studio area and the display area. After setting up my tent, I went inside the Griffins' offices to begin the window layout fpr my display. I cut and then taped together several pieces of 1/8” foam board to fit the widows for my display. I used pieces of the Velcro I bought to mount seven portraits on the pieces of foam core that I just fabricated to fit the windows.




When I finally got back to my tent I found Rick and Anita were waiting for me to do their portrait. They were about 1 ½ hours early for their appointment so I told them to comeback in 15 minutes while I tried to get everything organized in my ten and on my literature table. I did a charcoal of them together together on a full sheet of Canson paper to be matted to a horizontal 24” x 30”. They were a fun couple and we had a great time while I worked.




A short time after they left, a couple of women who happened by, decided to have their portraits done together on the the same sheet of paper. They had been friends since elementary school or maybe even before that. They said they wanted to be smiling in the picture, I told them only if they could hold it for half an hour. They both insisted they could. So I said I would try. They were delightful to draw and converse with, but they talked between each other the whole time so the smiles were not always there. They seemed happy with the results and I took a photo so the drawing was relatively successful and they said they wanted to purchase it.




When things slowed down in the evening, I packed up my van and headed to Stevensville, not to return until Wednesday morning. Because of the wind and predicted rain on Tuesday, I was not sure if I would find my tent still there when I returned.