This is a view of the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall at 11th and Pearl, where the POP Gallery is located.
This is the front door of what was once the Chicago Bar and restaurant but will soon been razed to become a modern taller building.
A tripod sign greets visitors near the entrance of POP! on the mall.
First, I'll show two photos of my "old space". One was perfect for displaying small art in the doorway to the back atrium. The spot was fairly brightly lit, so I rather liked it and sold six small pieces from this location in the gallery. What is visible is midcentury style 10x10" paintings on paper mounted to wood cradles with painted black edges.
My second June spot was in a rather dimly lit hallway opposite non-functioning restrooms and was space enough to hang three paintings. I sold two larger paintings in this spot. One, my "Pollock's Magic Paintbrush" and the other was a Diebenkorn-style piece on paper framed and matted.
Parking is tough around POP!, so after circling the area for a parking spot, my car is two blocks away and I've made three trips to the car to bring in new art and supplies for hanging. It turned out that a two hour meter ticket had to be renewed an extra hour as it took me three hours to hang.
Below are a couple of views of the space after I finished hanging my work. (The bright red-white piece in the high right background is not mine.)
While I was working in my space, I heard a few of the visitors inquiring about availability of space because they were also artists! I'm so fortunate for this opportunity!
I decided to hang a blue cord to separate my space from my artist neighbor's (on left). I received a comment I really appreciated from the volunteer artist manning the front desk while I was there after I hung my art. She said, "Your art has a playfulness about it." That, to me, reflects my ideal of making art that is uplifting and cheerful.
I'll be sad to see the end of this opportunity come - September 15th. POP galleries are a great concept and I am so fortunate that there are people willing to work hard to make this happen here in Boulder, Colorado. The Downtown Merchants also pitched in to help subsidize the rent, or the artists could not afford the space. The merchants want a vibrant area without empty spaces on our downtown pedestrian mall, so they like the collaboration. The artists in this community are superb so the quality is great when the customer walks inside the door.
I've been a seller on Etsy for exactly three years and because of all of the recent changes new CEO's have made to commercialize the site and promote "free shipping" as their number one priority, my sales have dwindled from a reliable three a month to nothing. That is, in part, how I've acquired quite a bit of art that I expected to sell that has stopped selling. Because of that, this space has come to the rescue as a great selling opportunity. My dream would be to have some Boulder techie introduce a new version of the old, original B Corporation Etsy which no longer exists.
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The last photo shows the redesign of my space the last month of POP! I grouped like subjects together and minimized the appearance. Sales slowed for me as the summer ended. Weary travelers have spent their art budgets elsewhere.
