The Dinner Market met all my expectations and more. I was so shocked and thrilled by the enormous turn out of attendees. All my friends of course were there and some of my family, but truly 800 other folks showed up with baskets in hand holding all their plates and utensils. The 100 foot long table flanked with 160 chairs filled up before the market opened. People draped sweaters and jackets to save seats. Everyone seemed to be apart of a group and if they were not they quickly found friends and acquaintances that were welcoming. The wineries were pouring wine and selling bottles as quickly as they could manage. When the market opened at 6PM I was still moving at lighting speed, checking off the tasks in my head. Mark looked at me and said, “You look stressed, start having a good time.” He was right, and I did. I walked away from our booth that was manned by our daughter and friends and took a picture of each vendor in their own booths. Everyone looked fantastic. All the booths were wonderfully decorated and the food was stunning.

Then the crowd descended. I could not have imagined the number of people who were dreaming of this kind of event. The people of Santa Cruz have been longing to gather in a casual and comfortable setting like this on a summer evening and eat together.

I looked over at a group of my friends, they had no where to sit. I told them to grab all the tables from the courtyard. Together with their children they carried all the tables and chairs and set them up. People crowed around the tables, the Klezmer band arrived and got going. Music started pouring out over the crowd, people started dancing. The vendors were selling food as fast as their hands and arms could serve it up.

I feared that people would be unhappy with how crowded the event was, but every time I looked up people were smiling. As we were dishing out French fries, quiche and cupcakes, people were happy and complimentary. They were inquiring when we would do this again, even before they had their food. One friend asked if we would do it every weekend. I asked “Do you think people would come every weekend?”

He said, “I would.”

I loved The Dinner Market, I would love to do it again. People have been calling and emailing me all week with compliments and suggestions. I love that they want to be apart of it, part of the creative process.

The idea that I hatched one afternoon reading Gourmet Magazine while I ate my lunch turned out to be one of the most exciting art projects I have done in a long time. It is impossible to paint a painting twice and have it be the same. Next time it will be different, I don’t know exactly what it will be. I was thinking a Mexican theme Dinner Market ,with vendors selling tamales, pozole, tortilla soup and enchiladas. Or maybe a Breakfast Market, warm coffee with barbqued sausages,pancakes, frittata, mountains of cinnamon rolls and warm blueberry muffins, sound tempting?

^ Top

^ Top