The Red Canyon Cafe is a lovely local cafe in downtown Eagle. Back when I first started selling prints and artwork my best friend who was always eager to keep an eye out for cool new opportunities saw that they had local artwork hanging on their wooden walls. She urged me to go introduce myself and try to get some of my artwork hung among its neighbors. I knew it would be a fun opportunity but a couple things held me back from immediately busting down the door. First, the cafe was located in Eagle, a whole half hour away from the pretty hills of my West Vail abode. The commute seemed to be far too much for the Vail bubble I was happily bubbling away on. Secondly, I was feeling extremely averse to the possibility of marching into a cafe with confidence and asking or even admitting that I would love to be able to learn more about their artist selection process. Not a single cell of my being was feeling attracted to the possibility of rejection. A non-chalant response of “I’ll check it out when I can” led to a neglected item of every to-do I took the time to carve out.
A year or so later another friend made her way to Red Canyon Cafe and once again was kind enough to think of me when she saw the local artists adorning those wooden walls. With a fresh find of confidence I found myself more seriously contemplating the possibility of taking the leap of faith and finding my way in through the cafe doors with my heart on my sleeve. Now, Red Canyon found itself a top position in my to do lists. This new found position did not seem to find a more pressing place in my actions. The calendar pages continue to flip themselves over for another 12 turns or so before the determination built its own sturdy fort inside my mind. During this time I made my way into Craft Coffee house and posted a win being able to bring in some of my prints to sell and display on their colorful shelves. I knew the time had come to put on my brave suit once again.
I wish I could say I immediately got in the car and made my way into Red Canyon Cafe asking for a shot to show my work. Though I did make my way behind the wheel a couple of times and rehearsed what I would ask and the exact question I would pose every time I found myself at the front of the line I found myself instead ordering a burrito and running out the door as fast as my legs could take me once the burrito found its way into my hand. After a couple of failed attempts I told myself it would be okay to chill out and not force my hand, it clearly was not working.
Finally, one day before heading out to climb we made a quick stop into Red Canyon to grab some breakfast burritos for the journey. I am not sure what was different about this particular morning or moment but when we found ourselves at the front ready to order I suddenly added — how does your artist program work? Now I felt like I posed this question with a lion’s roar, but apparently my recipient did not feel the same way and he had to ask me to repeat my question a second time. After a deep breath I asked once again about how the art program works. He smiled and called out for his co-worker who was in charge of the art wall. Before I knew it she gave me her number and we set up a month for me to create my very own gallery showcase.
I could not believe that I was able to create a gallery of my own for an entire month. I was so excited and immediately began planning a theme for the month of May that centered around my ski collection. I have continued to plan and score a couple of months to set up a gallery of my own.
Once again I felt so happy to find a place that is so supportive of local artist and in helping people pursue their dreams as they attempt to expand their reach in the community. I’m so thankful for the experience and gallery walls I have been able to display in Red Canyon Cafe and hope to continue my pop ups in the future!
As Always,
Keep it offbeat!
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