Friday, November 23, 2007

Black Friday (From an artist's perspective)

I've always wondered why the day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday." So, I decided to venture out to the local stores and see what that deal was. Mad chaos! I went into the local Michael's Store ( I know, artist snobs. It's not exactly an "art" store. But give me a break, I live in Tampa, Fla.).
The store was packed with middle-aged white women fighting for things like knitting balls, plastic jewelry and glue sticks. I made my way through the jungle of chaos to finally find the art supply aisle. I grabbed my usual pad of Bristol paper and headed straight for the check out aisle where I found long aisles of people with coupons in hand. This wasn't a pretty sight, folk. I'm impatient by nature (you should see me driving). Anyways, I made it out alive.
I suddenly remembered how good I had it in New York. Actual art supply stores were just a subway trip away. Utrecht (on W. 23rd st.) and Pearl Paint (on Canal St.) were my usual stores of choice. Maybe someday Tampa will become a mecca for artists. Maybe we'll have more than 3 actual art supply stores in the Tampa Bay area. In the meantime, I'll just keep fighting the blue-haired ladies at the local Michael's Crafts Store.

1 comment:

The Word Wrangler said...

Consider yourself lucky. I have to do most of my art supply shopping online. Even the nearest Michael's is an hour away.