Art and Planning: Another Season Arrives: — What's Next?

Culminating with the recent hardfork-20 ruckus, I'm afraid it has been quite a while since we last checked in from the Red Dragonfly.

In the meantime, it has become October; it has become autumn; it has become a new quarter and a new season.

So it seems like high time for an update!

"Autumn Leaf"

Here in our little town — at least when you're in the art gallery business — there are basically TWO seasons: "Tourist Season," and "Not Tourist Season."

The Joys and Pitfalls of Seasons

Seasonality in business is a double-edged sword.

On the upside, you feel like you're doing really well during the busy season, and it reminds you that there was a purpose to what you're doing.

On the downside, the slow season can be pretty depressing, and by early spring we are often at the edge of losing our enthusiasm.

It's easy to make altruistic statements that "it's not about the money" — and in most cases, it isn't — but it's hard to get much mileage out of that when it's late March and you have a large winter power bill and no cash coming in to pay it.

Having kept the gallery for a few years now, we have been able to fairly clearly establish that good times begin around May 1st and end at the end of September... and we really can't count on much during the remainder of the year.

"Heart of the poppy"

Back to Keeping This Blog

On the positive side, as things slow down in the gallery, I will have more time to keep up with our Steemit art blog.

On the less positive side, it has become increasingly obvious that even though my wife and I have the gallery together, she will most likely not be working here (much) anymore, as we need more of a "paying job" to support ourselves.

In addition, I will probably be forced to take a part-time job, over and above working here for six days a week.

There was a time when we were hopeful that this blog might grow to the point of offering a little "supplemental income," but the broader crypto market slump and general state of the Steemit community increasingly suggest that to be "a nice dream" but not functionally realistic.

Not keen on the idea of going back to working "for someone else," but it seems a lot of people are stuck in hard times these days.

Sailing towards the future...

And so, We Move Forward...

As always is the case, we will just have to take things "one step at a time."

That means economizing, and planning small things that can make a difference.

Next is our first monthly "Gallery Night" of the Fall season. That will happen this coming Saturday evening, and can sometimes be a very positive event... since it often marks the first time a lot of locals come downtown since spring.

That's one of the funny things about a tourist town: Even though the local economy stands and falls on tourist dollars, many locals completely avoid downtown during the season.

Well, this was just meant to be a "quick" update, so I'll stop here! Look forward to more regular contact in the months ahead.

Thanks for reading!

Red Dragonfly is a proud graduate through the @sndbox creative incubator program, part of the "Cohort 1" team of May 31st, 2018. Please support Sndbox and the @sndbox-alpha curation initiative!

The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.

2018.10.01