California State Fair

Opening Thursday, August 14th is the Fine Art Exhibition at the California State Fair in Sacramento. It was only by luck that I stumbled onto this competition and had no idea it even existed. I thought the state fair focused more on livestock, rodeos, entertainment and craft. Silly me. Dear friends live not far from the city center of Sacramento and I decided to enter something big thinking I would drive it up and stay with them, delivering the big mother of paintings, if by chance it was accepted.

Well, of the three I submitted the five foot square painting was the one accepted into the show. We were told that 1470 works were submitted to the jury pool and of those 191 pieces were selected. Can I tell you I feel honored? It's wonderful.

My husband and I began planning the trip north for delivery and realized the expense of driving it wouldn't be much less than shipping due to the current outrageous gas prices here in California. At the time of receiving my letter of congratulations, one gallon topped $4.75 (it has dropped now to $4.29 Oh boy). We decided it might be best to ship considering we may drive up for the reception or, at the very least, to pick up the painting if it doesn't sell during the show.

I will spare you all the details of figuring out who would take an item considered an "extraordinary object" and ship the crate for us. For me, it was a gut wrenching few days worrying over the piece getting there in time and in one piece.

Bill, the super hero, built an amazing crate for the beloved painting, Sentinel 02.


He spent a morning putting it together and making sure that it was snug and well protected in the box.

We used a 3/8" plywood for the front and back with a 1x4" piece to border the edges. I cut up some egg crate to put in the bottom to hold the painting in place.



I wrapped the painting in heavy plastic and made a sturdy cardboard cover for the front and corners of the painting.

We set the painting in the box and then used a foam pipe insulation tubing to surround the painting and keep it from slipping inside the box. I also put another large piece of egg crate down on top so that when the plywood cover was sealed the foam would add another cushion and prevent sliding.

Here it is being labeled and readied for pick up, all 151 pounds of it, 66"x 66"x 5" finished size. It's a biggun.

It had to be at the exhibition by July 11th for installation and judging. A gal pal, Teresa Zepeda, living in Sacramento, who is also in the show, assured me that it arrived safely (FedEx Express was so kind to deliver it) and looked great. Phew.

I truly am honored to be in the show but I think the relief of it being there safely in the hands of the exhibition committee is the stronger of my two emotions.

California State Fair
August 15th though September 1, 2008