Post In Which You MUST COMMENT

So I may have mentioned somewhere in my late night ramblings that I am considering a change of career direction. I'm still applying for jobs and not ever hearing back but now I am thinking about selling my photos at craft fairs.

Craft fairs? you say. Yes, craft fairs. Where I live there are craft fairs EVERY. SINGLE. weekend. All summer long. Now I certainly won't go to all of them and I will start locally.

I am fairly certain I will be sitting alone not selling a thing. BUT, I feel like I've been training my whole life for this. And I would actually USE my degree. Ok, not really but photography is what I got my degree in. Thinking about it now I realize I will use one of my last experiences of college life in this new endeavor. (No, not the fact that drinking 1/2 a bottle of champagne and many shots of Jagermeister will make you vomit repeatedly and green for graduation day. The experience before that.)

The experience of living through a gallery show. Watching people look at your work and comment about how it is not "art" and why is it in a gallery. All the while alternating between shrinking into the background and acting like a visitor - not the creator of the work they are dissing.

Unfortunately, doing this has some pretty big start up costs. Printing. Mats. Some framing. Space fees. And I probably have to apply for some sort of license. Look - I don't even KNOW if I have to do that. This is probably SUCH a bad idea.

But my mother is trying to convince me that people really will pay for photos to hang on their walls. That they wouldn't rather just get out their camera and take them themselves. That if I make the handmade note cards like I plan that people will probably buy them and I won't be sending them out for the next 10 years trying to use them all up.

If I do this I should really apply for a grant. I know they're out there but it would probably be too late for this year. That and I should really take a grant writing course. I don't even know what it is that they teach at these things. I guess how to give the grant people what they want to ensure you get the grant. What do I know?

I do know if I am going to do this I should probably start getting my act together NOW. While I'm still interested in doing it. While it seems like not quite such a bad idea. Before I realize that I can not possibly do it because I will have to sit there while people look at my photos and then walk away empty handed with looks of pity for me. Looks that say I am delusional if I think someone would actually PAY me for my photos.

What do you all think? For real. No being nice. Please. It would be much better to hear the big, bad truth now then to sit in the sun being humiliated in front of the whole community. After I spend all this money.