Rhondak at Pirate Fest 2008 John's Pass

John’s Pass Pirate Festival 2008

View From a Tiki Bar Artist

http://www.rhondakwrites.com

http://www.rhondakwrites.com/



Yeppers, this is me, RhondaK. Day one of the Pirate Festival at John’s Pass. There are no Day Two pics as I spent the night under a bridge…from that two hours of sleep it is hard to say anything was fun, funny, successful or happened for that matter.

I cannot do two day art shows. I am a whiney baby.

And YES, that is my real hair.




I made up a two sided sign for this event. It worked pretty well.

The upside down mermaid is one of my logos of sorts. I drive around with a huge one in the back of my Jeep.

As usual with a show I wrestled with NIPPLES or no nipples. I thought this was family and life is too short to have to explain over and over Mermaids are mythological so the nipples are equally as mythological and not porn.




This is my set up before I cleaned it up. I had to set up in a sort of pie shape to get a prime spot in BarMuda ( between 3 bars). I think my set up my flexible and colorful. This is unfinished. It took 2 hours to set up.




I take being a Native Floridian Seriously and paint a lot of signs about it. These I sometimes hang on my chair. I want people to get it without my hitting them over the head. A guy walked by and said I was like the New Orleans artist Dr. Bob. I’m not. I’m me. Where I’m working from is a Florida swamp, not one I’ve never seen or know about. I’m dirt hard, river flowing real. I sold a lot of Florida Native signs at this show. People GOT IT. It is one of my original works.




For this show I brought 2 6 foot ladders, a 4 foot one, 2 wire racks.

It looked pretty interesting.

I sold a lot of my higher end work.

The mermaid at the bottom is my sister’s. I sold almost $100 each of my sister AND my mother’s work. Almost $200 for my family.

That was a first!




For the Pirate Festival I didn’t do a lot of PIRATE signs. I did do some $5 ones though.

They read:

Instant Pirate: Just add rum.

Ride a pirate, save a ship.

Booty. Wenches. Grog. Repeat.

It’s a pirate’s life for me.

And others…..




This is my small ladder. Signs are:

Time flies when you’re having fun…birds of a feather five o’clock together.

Give a man a fish…

Paradise Ain’t Cheap…

1 Tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila FLOOR ( a George Carlin classic)

I miss my X..but my aim is improving.

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere..




This is my small ladder. Signs are:

Tiki Bar…come hang out with nuts. ( my sister’s)

We’ll drink no wine before it’s time. IT’S TIME.

Wine is never wasted in the company of a cat.

Bath( with mermaid) My peace of paradise.


I put my long boards on the side of the 6 foot ladders.

These signs are special. The top one is made out of wood from a house that used to face Lido Key. It was taken down by one man in a front end loader. It is shatter in an interesting way.

The other wood has various stories too.

Some Anna Maria Privateers taking their dogs for a walk at Johns Pass. The dog’s name is Jasmine. The owner has a tattoo of a

pawprint on the back of her neck.

Bellydancers!

This woman was my bellydance

teacher for about a year. I didn’t learn much I’m

afraid. But these girls had a nice

time!

This is Tym and a snake I and my

sales girl Eve really LIKED.

Tym does body piercing, jewelry AND takes down palm trees PLUS sells reptiles…

boas in particular.

There may have been some rum at this point. Leaning or pulling on one of my display ladders usually goes BADLY.

This is a REAL pirate. He lives on a real boat with a beautiful girl he married the night this pic was taken. When she threw the bouquet it hit me full in the face causing some bleeding from nose to cheekbone.

DAISIES. I’m scarred by a wedding bouquet of daisies…


That’s me and the Eve at the end of the night. There may have been rum involved, but we loved some snake.

The Pirate Festival was two straight selling days. I didn’t do well the second one, but sold a lot of original and higher end work at the event.

I didn’t really clear expenses the way I’d like, but it was the last major show of my year. It was too much for me. It was my 20th show this year. I’ve been trying to make money to get the Jeep fixed and get some eye care. I think I’m going to bulk up my Etsy sales site…because shows are like gambling.

You really don’t know if you’re going to do well and there is so much out of your hands.

Truth is…making and selling your own art is pretty sexy and fun LIKE A SNAKE.

Rhondak at Pirate Fest 2008 John's Pass

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