First off, a huge thank you to everyone who came by my table! It was lovely meeting those who decided to give TaigaCon a try and I do always enjoy the interaction with art admirers. <3
This was TaigaCon's first year and it was...slow. A lot of the artists were complaining about not even making enough to cover their table. I probably was one of the best sellers there and while I was in the black, I could easily surpass what I made during the whole three days at TaigaCon in a day or less at AWA. Sunday morning, I chatted a bit with one of the organizers and he said that attendance was around 400 (I'm assuming that was for the weekend, not for just Sunday). The artists and vendors were in a single room together and most of the time, I think there were more of us than there were regular attendees. Sunday afternoon in particular was a complete bust. Totally dead. We just stood around chatting with each other because there was literally no one else there. I'm sure the fact that it was Easter didn't help matters and MTAC was the same weekend, which people seemed to think might have affected our attendance.
Be that as it may, I did meet some very nice people at the con, both artists/dealers and con-goers! Two standouts for me were Delilah Buckle and Licca Kirk (that's pronounced "Lisa"). I adore Licca's watercolor style especially and she does these amazing shadow box watercolors that I really want to try my hand at too! I feel bad for stealing the idea, haha, but they look pretty cool! So...inspiration. >o<
I guess my verdict for TaigaCon is that I probably won't be back until it grows a bit. I would love to help it grow by being in the Artist Alley every year, but now my personal time is even more precious than ever, since my full-time job takes up most of my week, leaving me with little time for my own art. Weekends will be the only time I have some uninterrupted hours for myself, and that's if I don't have plans to go out. If you like a slower paced vendors' room--and it was great to be able to take my time talking to people who stopped by--TaigaCon might be a place for you to check out. I didn't have any serious complaints about it other than the lack of attendees.
With that, I leave you with a doodle that I did during the (ample) downtime at TaigaCon.
