OT: Bellevue Art Fair / Festival

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I am in Washington for 1 of the 2 yearly events bring our consulting, sales and support members from around the globe. Groups send people to 1 every 12 or 18 months. I tend to have a speaking opportunity but this year chose to be a proctor during some instructor led labs and in doing so stayed in Bellevue vs. Seattle so I could easily go between campus and the event.

Having arrived early for a team event on Saturday I had the morning to myself and found I lucked into the Bellevue Art Fair / Festival and I think it is possible that 3 were going on at the same time. The one that I was at had a booth with art from a young artist Mary Yap and her work was beautiful, the piece that I liked was of a tree as it was losing its leaves in the fall but still just a few on the limbs, it had great reds and yellows but it was one of the sentimental pieces she was showing but not selling. Anyway she did that piece when she was 11 I think and here she was trying her hand at a booth but she wasn’t there to really sell her work. No she was looking to sell prints of a few pieces in order to raise money for the teachers and librarians in the Bellevue school district. While she was obviously talented a few things stood out, the first is that she stepped out and introduced herself with a handshake, she talked about herself, her schooling and why she was here. She even paused to thank a prior customer again as he was leaving. Both her and her mother had firm handshakes and looked you in the eye. This was a young lady who was poised for more great things in her life.

This young lady thought that what she was doing wasn’t that much but she’s wrong, she is doing what she can to help the situation; she isn’t thinking it is someone else’s problem or shying away from a first time experience involving the public. In fact she mentioned that she was planning on medical school and art will be her continued hobby.

Here is a site with one of the pictures - https://curriculum.bsd405.org/C7/Visual%20Arts/Document%20Library/BSD%20Student%20Gallery/High_S_Gallery/2009_Onda_M_Behm_Winners/index.htm 

Best of lucky Mary,

TomL LCSKid