Ill play the game and display a big percentage of originals if you require it, Mr promoter. But I dont like it. But Ill smile and pretend I do like it. But only if I sell a lot of prints. And if I dont sell a lot of prints, you will not see me next year at your show.
At any art show, I sell 99 % prints even when my originals are displayed. For an emerging artist like myself, the public does not want to spend the money required to buy high cost originals. They buy the much cheaper prints. God bless their hearts.
And please dont tell me I dont know.....I have been to lots of show with my originals and not sold very many. I have sold about 3 originals and 5000 prints at art shows over the last 5 years.
If I spend 70 hours painting a piece I will not sell it for $150. I do a lot of layering in mystyle of painting. Some of my painting are portraits. My style of painting takes a lot of time. So it is it is not productive when a member of the public comes and tries to buy an original for a low ball bid. When I get a low ball bid for one of my originals, I steer that potential customer to the print of that original.
When I first come to a show, I wonder if the promoter is going to enforce their stated percentage rule for originals.(i.e. 75% originals, 25 % prints) So I talk to the other painters and check out their displays. I actually try to do rough count of originals/prints. And since this is a rule that is seldom enforced, I and most of the other painters violate it royally. And many promoters know that the % rule is bogus, so they dont enforce it. Of course if they enforce it, I follow the rule. But you are in a kind of limbo.
Basically the originals get in the way of the prints I want to sell....and if the show requires 75 % originals.....I have to display a ton of originals to get my print count high enough.
Mr. Promoter, please read this and think about it. Maybe it is time to get more real with the percentage rule.....like maybe require 10% originals. Ask questions if you like. But remember, I will not sell my original art at give away prices. I am a businessman, just like you are, Mr. Promoter. And I love it when you buy a low cost print.
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Hi;
So, newbie here with less than a year's fairs under my belt. But I'm very good at drinking from an information firehose. A few observations?
1. David: I looked at your online portfolio and your original pricing seems entirely reasonable, given the level of detail and obvious time involved. Any lower and you'd be getting less than minimum wage for painting them.
It may be worthwhile to try and get a better understanding of why people buy your reproductions and not your originals - I don't believe it's a price versus quality issue. What does that image mean to them? Does it matter to them whether it's exclusive and "Arty" or is the image itself what they want? (Is it a decorative object? Exclusive art? A marker or signpost for a belief, affinity, or emotional event?) I suspect that if you can find answers to some of these questions, you'll also find more opportunities.
2. I'm in an area with a lot of smaller local shows. Some have been good, some have been outstanding, and some have seemed like a group of people met in a bar and decided to throw an art event.
When I read David's original post, I remembered some show nightmares. I've seen shows that have a lot of rules for artists,high fees, make a big deal out of jurying a rejecting good artists, and don't hold up their promotional end of the bargain. A Google search and look through the local media should bring up a bit more than the sound of crickets chirping, otherwise the chances of selling originals are slim (even with brisk foot traffic).
My favorite was an ad for an art fair fundraiser billing itself as a great opportunity for local artists: must be original paintings and drawings only, must be professionally framed, $30 entry/jurying fee, 30% commission, and please nothing over $300. So $300 - 30% commission = $210. $210 - professional framing = $110. $110 - entry fee = $80. $80 - materials costs, transportation/shipping etc. = $20 -$40 for the artist. And if $300 is the maximum price point, then the work that actually sells is probably $100 - $200. Ouch. This fundraiser group has set themselves up to only take hobby painters who don't sell as a rule.
So yes, I can understand some frustration with show organizers who want to only have very highbrow original items. I believe that organizers specifying highbrow, high end art items have an ethical obligation to provide an appropriate context for artists' work. If the organizers don't understand either the economics or the "buyer psychology" behind what they're offering and what they're requiring, the show won't thrive.
Sorry to dig up an old topic, but i'm new here and found it very interesting...
I do oil paintings and haven't been in a lot of festivals yet, but I have found the rules on most i've looked into, to be fair. Most say that reproductions are allowed, but must be identified as reproduction, and that they must not be hung in the booth. Reasonable, I think...
My average painting is three or four feet tall, and the giclees I have had done are on heavy paper, signed and numbered small editions, and are smaller in scale than the original painting. To me, that is enough differentiation that I am not "competing with myself" on product or price.
Maybe I am too new at this, but I have not found promoters to be unreasonable in their rules. I am just happy to have a venue in which people can see my art.
Michael.....really I dont even like it that promoters say I have to have originals at a show....people dont buy my originals...they are too expensive.....they do buy a lot of prints......and being required to have originals takes up a lot of space... and takes focus from my prints....I dont like the percentage rules....for example 75% originals......and 25% prints.
I want to be treated like the photographers.....who have all prints.....and dont bring any originals....
Really the promoters want to provide cheap originals.....and since my painting with acrylics is a layering style that takes a lot of time .....my originals are not cheap to produce and I will not sell them for cheap.....customes can buy prints of my stuff for cheap.....
David, if you can figure out a way to generate a physical "original" from a piece of film or a digital image on the computer without making a print, you let me know.
The mere presence of photographic and digital prints at a show does not preclude any other artist in any other medium from selling his/her work. People who go to shows with the intent to buy either like an artist's work and can afford it, or not.
How did you arrive at the conclusion that promoters want to provide cheap originals? When choosing artists for my shows, I'm concerned with quality of works, presentation, fit with the rest of the show and overall appeal to our demographic. I never choose an artist based on price points because I have found that this business is self-selecting. Those who adapt to the market sell and come back, those who do not, do not.
Barbara.....that is the point...why treat painters different from photographers based on the materials needed to produce either type of print.....us painters ask for the same treatment as photographers in regards to selling prints.....us painters not photographers have to bring originals to shows.....why, Barbara?......why do you require only painters to bring a percentage of originals at each show?..... just painters!.......why cant we just bring all prints?.......because you promoters make us!.....this is way more about art politics than producing good art.
Since many promoters , require a high percentage of originals, not prints, it is obvious that they dont like prints as well as originals.....why?.....because they want us to sell originals for low cost....I am not going to do this...if a customer wants low cost, he can buy a print.....we play the game.....the only way we adapt by bringing originals required by the promoters if we want to do a show.... we dont sell very much of our originals.....instead we sell cheaper prints.....I am not making this up.....I have talked to my painter friends at many shows here in Wisconsin......they tell me specifically that they sell mostly prints.....Barbara, if you dont realize this, you have not talked candidly to many painters.......or painters dont tell you what they know to be true....that the market is way, way more prints than originals.
When the rules state "no pottery made from molds," they mean molds that you would buy from one of those factories that produce them. You see those in "therapy" ceramic shops with cute names where you can go in and paint on the mold made pottery and they fire it for you. You've seen those people. They make something for their friends birthday and their friend tells them that they are great. "You should sell these!!" The next time we see them, they are wining awards at art fairs.
I know a few potters who make the pieces, make the molds from those pieces, and then make pieces from those molds. Usually, they make the decision to do that because the pieces are complex with lots of parts that can easily break off, when put together. It is a practical decision to make the pieces from a mold because when you pour the mold, the finished piece is, well, one piece and is sturdier. The molds don't last beyond a few pieces, so, it isn't like they are knocking off hundreds of pieces. They are controlling the whole process from beginning to end.
I'm not sure where to go for definitive definitions... I learned my printmaking and the ethics that go with it in terms of editioning and AP's at the University. Historically held standards. In the ensuing period since, museums and respected galleries started using the word "print" when they really meant reproduction or more accurately expensive poster. They have a vested interest in selling uneditioned reproductions of "the masters" for their revenue stream. Shame on them. It just further confuses the uneducated.
We do not have to accept the vernacular here, we know better.
Michael, precisely why I said Photographers have some work ahead in guiding where the medium will go in the next decade. Certainly what you do is different from downloading, tweeking and reproducing 250 of the same photo. What Barbara does is also different, as no original exists until the image is printed. In that respect it is similar to printmaking.
I appreciate that you have brought your "printmakers" sensibilities to your new work.
Question, I know the "rules"say no mold made pottery. I have always assumed they were talking about commercial molds. I would think if the potter made their own mold and cast the pieces themselves it would be permissible. Yes? No? Would such a mold need to have it's progeny editioned?
My buyers are not unsuspecting. They are well aware that what they are purchasing is a signed, numbered, limited edition print from an original digital file, printed with archival inks on acid-free drawing paper. A reproduction would be a 27" iMac with the image on the screen, an extremely pricey alternative to a print.
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