Live Drawing at an Argentine Tango Festival in Helsingborg: Back to business!
One of my alter egos is drawing at milongas (think of them as tango discos). If you're not part of the tango world, I don't even know where to begin explaining it.
Once, Bro was telling us all about dog shows. My husband listened in complete bewilderment, and later that evening tried to retell the conversation to our friend Igor. Halfway through he gave up and said, "Imagine trying to explain chess tournaments to someone whose entire knowledge of chess is that people play chess there."
"Ooooh..." Igor sighed.
So I'm not even going to try explaining milongas, tango marathons, or tango festivals. Instead, I'll just tell you that about ten years ago I got into the habit of doing more than just dancing at them—I also started drawing, and occasionally selling my artwork.
Word of mouth worked its magic, and before long people were inviting me specifically as the artist.
Then COVID happened. Then Maj was born. I completely dropped out, lost my momentum... and eventually stopped altogether.
And then, almost on a whim, I packed my dance shoes, dresses, paints, and sketchbooks into a little suitcase, kissed my kids goodbye, and headed off to Helsingborg for the weekend to dance and draw at the Midsummer Tango Festivalito.
Incidentally, this was the very first night in Majka's entire life without me. (Spoiler: she screamed for an hour and a half between 2:00 and 3:30 a.m. The rest of the night she slept peacefully. Sasha survived.)
Out of my 28 hours in Helsingborg, I:
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slept for about four hours;
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spent two hours getting a massage (I told you, it's not all dancing and chess);
-
ate a little;
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walked around Helsingborg for about half an hour.
The rest of the time I danced, sketched, chatted, and casually sold paintings in between. It's impossible to separate those activities because they all flowed naturally into one another, but if we reduce it to numbers, here's what remains:
• about ten absolutely wonderful tandas (that's 3–4 dances with the same partner),
• a couple dozen simply good ones,
• several lovely conversations,
• thirty-four drawings, five of which I genuinely enjoy looking at myself.
Expenses: 2,260 SEK for travel, food, massage and the festival.
Income from old and new paintings:
• 2,000 SEK via various payment systems,
• 15 SEK in cash (I'd almost forgotten what coins look like),
• €50,
• 50 Polish złoty.
There was also an opportunity to earn some Danish kroner because a few buyers didn't have Swedish payment apps. Yet people of Malmö and Copenhagen usually have both Swedish and Danish payment systems and are happy to play international money-transfer service.
I'm not entirely sure I'll still be in profit after I pay taxes on all this (next May, of course). On the other hand, I'll file it as a business trip, which means tax deductions for travel and per diem expenses. VAT, however... that's going to hurt. I'm sure you're all eagerly awaiting the Monday when I tell you about my accountant alter ego.
In the meantime—invite me! Invite me to festivals, tango marathons, milongas... invite me again. What would you like to know about this strange little world? I'd be delighted to tell you all about it.
#DrawingAtMilongas #ArgentineTango #TangoMarathon #TangoFestival #TangoArt #Watercolor #IllustratorLife #ArtistOnTheRoad
Also check this video of the process!
