Journals and Friends
We’ve been friends since around 2010.
We moved from the southern Oregon coast to Escalante, Utah and moved our tourist-based retail establishment there as well. Harriet and her husband, Phillip, owned the only retail gift/2nd hand store there at the time. They were not excited about having us move in on their market.
But it turned out there was ample market to share, and we both did well because travelers had choices and spent more time in town. And becoming friends, we sent customers to each others' store when we didn't carry what the customer wanted.
How did we know?
I kept journals of that adventure, moving to Escalante, and the time it took to get settled, the building remodeled and the store open was about 9 months. It wasn’t completely done, but good enough to get an occupancy permit and get some sales to offset some of the expenses.
We started with a concept of a photo gallery and teaching others to use Photoshop on their images. He had 4 work stations and a wide-format printer. That was all fine and dandy, but the photographers didn’t come to the Grand Staircase to learn to use Photoshop, they came to photograph.
We added other images by local artists and some gift shop items. And over the next 8 years the store product mix changed. It now included some great artwork by Lynn Griffin, Valerie Orleman, and Harriet. My Journal included a list of all the paintings and other artworks we handled during those years. And it included Harriet's store inventory categories so I could send customers there if needed.
Here we are, 11 years later and Harriet has refined her watercolors and even painted acrylics on vases. These were recently displayed in the Cedar City Library In The Park. You should see a report in the Iron County Today before long. Corey came and interviewed her and photographed some of her work.
I invited Harriet to have lunch with me the day her framed watercolors were hung on the library exhibit wall and was able to photograph her body of work.
I hope you'll visit the Library and see these wonderful limages. They will be there until late May. Enjoy!