April 2015 Recap

This past month instead of dropping a new item on the online store I decided to present them at two live shows first. They’re pretty sweet posters and they’ll soon be available on the shop. Can you spot them in the pictures below? If you think you know what they are, email me at adrian@iamsotare.com and if you’re right I’ll send you a little surprise!

Eastern Shore Fan Con

First up was the Eastern Shore Fan Con. This event is a mix of comics, video games, anime, and cosplay. It’s held annually at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

I’ve applied and researched a few conventions and for most of the artist alleys, you pay for a table or for two tables. I’m used to having a 10 foot by 10 foot tent for Sotare, so to condense everything down to the one table was a challenge. I did some research and saw that a lot of artists use cube organizers to display their work, so I stole that idea and came up with my table display.

I could not find any more wire cube organizers for purchase, so I had to improvise and buy a laundry rack to connect my two cube towers. The laundry rack was six feet long and I used velcro ties to secure it to the two cube towers. Then the Sotare banner was attached using a mix of tape and more velcro ties. All in all I was pretty happy with the booth set up. I was actually set up about an hour early for the event, which was awesome as it allowed me time to tweak my booth. Once I get more cubes I can tweak the design even more and make things look even better.

As for the event itself, it was pretty cool. Met some really nice people there, was introduced to some new artists, and made some friends. It was really great to see people who wrote and drew their own comics, a guy who was developing a video game, some unique fan art, and lots people who were having fun. All in all it was a good day. On the way home I got to cross over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at sunset- and it was amazingly beautiful.

Fenton Street Market

Next up was the 2015 opening day of Fenton Street Market. I was at Fenton about 6 or 7 times last year, so I’m pretty familiar with set-up and everything and have it down pretty well. I did want to switch things up a little bit and bring some of my spray art and other works with me to markets this year, so that proved to be a bit of a challenge. I drive a Honda Civic. So my tent, weights, tub of shirts, tub of supplies/posters/accessories, tables, chair, mini dolly, and art all have to fit in this small coupe. I was able to fit more in than I thought possible, which allowed me to bring some bigger canvases down to the market.

Market day was great, although pretty cold. There were some people out shopping, but not as many as there would have been if the weather would have been warmer. Still, all in all, a pretty great day. It’s always great to meet new people and get to know them. It’s really awesome to be able to make an instant connection with someone because of a similar interest. I was able to share the vision of Sotare with a good number of people. Lots of them were stoked about Sotare’s positive message.

I truly believe in the Sotare message. If you have a dream or a goal, really try to find a way to make it reality. This could be taking a big leap of faith and launching something huge. Or it could mean scaling your idea down to something you can test in a smaller market and in a smaller way before making it bigger. Whatever it is and whatever you want to to- go for it. Dream it. Plan it. Work it. Make it reality. The world needs dreamers. Part of what makes the world a beautiful place is it’s vast diversity. Is your idea a little out there? Good. It’ll be something new and fresh. Doesn’t mean people will flock to it right away. But over time you never know what will happen. In fact, you never know what will happen with anything if you don’t try. You could fail. So what? Try anyway. Success is just a series of failures that eventually leads you to the right destination.

Keep leaping forward. Things can be pretty dark in our world now days. Be the light in someone else’s darkness.

-Adrian