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At long last, I'm back in the saddle after a bad back forced me to scuttle a scheduled show in Bethany Beach a month ago and then kept the kayak in the garage during a planned 2.5-week "staycation" back in Ft. Myers.   I used the time to reload four shows' worth of inventory and ship it all to my rental home in Cape May County, then hopped a non-stop flight on Spirit Airlines, ready to sell 'em all...or at least a lot of 'em...while I photographed the fall bird migration along my beloved South Jersey Coastline.

Well, not so fast, cowboy.  My first stop, The Wheaton Festival of Fine Craft,  is as well-organized as any show you'll find, with friendly volunteers, well-orchestrated load-in/out, a beautiful 65-acre, tree-lined setting on the grounds of the WheatonArts Center, and a solid following among arts lovers. The site is home to  the Museum of American Glass, the Creative Glass Center of America International Fellowship Program, the largest folklife center in New Jersey, a hot glass studio, several traditional craft studios, five museum stores, a 13,000 sq. ft. Event Center and a beautiful pond-side picnic grove.  The center bills itself as "the soul of American craft and art." And their marketing program and mail list is top-notch.

So what could go wrong? 

Well, in what seems to be a recurrent theme this season, it was the weather.  A beautiful, summer-like Saturday with steady crowds was scuttled by the cold front that whipped through Saturday night to drop a half-inch of rain and chill the temperatures by 25 degrees.  So Sunday turned out to be a fireplace-and-football kinda day for Philadelphia area residents, leaving artists to (mostly) talk amongst themselves. The 40 or so artists who displayed in one of the indoor venues, or under the ultra-long canopy outside, fared somewhat better, but even those crowds were way off from Saturday.

I wound up selling only slightly more than I sold at the previous weekend's "Margate Fun Fest", which was a popular community event for the family and kiddos, but makes no pretense of being a serious art show.

So Wheaton wound up 'way below my sales expectations, and it can't all be explained away by the weather.  (I sold nearly as much on Sunday as Saturday.)  So wha' happened? 

First off, the quality of work was excellent, but as the show name suggests, it's heavily skewed toward fine CRAFT, not fine art (of the 2-D variety).  Of the 125 artists, the show's beautifully designed, full color program listed only three fine artists and seven photographers, compared with 16 clay artists, 16 fiber artists, nine artists working in glass, 15 woodworkers, and 10 clothing designers.  Jewelry (29) was the most heavily represented, by far--but nearly all that I saw was beautifully made.  I had lots of time, unfortunately, to walk the show on Sunday, and I saw very little work that didn't belong at a high-end festival.  But, many of the folks who strolled the grounds on Saturday were carrying crafts, not 2-D work.  "If you're a 2-D artist, you'll build a following here over time," a ten-year veteran of the show told me. 

There were plenty of savvy buyers who came in to meet me on Saturday, but they were making bee-lines for the browse bins of 16x20s and 11x14s, not my wall canvases.  Another wildlife photographer friend who sells only canvases and notecards (no matted prints at all) said that his sales came almost entirely from ultra-small (8x10, 11x14) canvases, not his larger ones.  One of the fine artists next to me had a "working display tent" set up next to her usual gallery tent, and she cleverly carved out a survivor's take by selling her demo 8x10 prints for $10-20. But she didn't sell any larger works, which were sized and priced similarly to mine.

(Photo, right: Saturday crowds)

The jewelers I talked with did OK "considering it was pretty much a one-day show", as one put it. 

All in all, this is clearly an event run by folks who know what they're doing, and they obviously enjoy a lot of community support.  Bottom line, I can't hold the weather against them.  If you're a fine craftsperson within a day's drive of this show, I'd put this one on your list for 2013.  If you're a 2-D artist, I'd consider it, too...but come prepared with smaller, less expensive work and plan your first year as a "seed investment" for the future. 

(Photo, left: Late morning on Sunday)

This business keeps you humble.

Coming off two strong weekends in Rehoboth Beach, I was eagerly awaiting this past weekend's Seawall Art Show in Portsmouth, VA.  Rarely have I seen more positive "buzz" among artists for a show's pre-event communications, ease of setup and parking, and the immense respect artists are accorded during the event. 
And the weather forecast, viewed three days out, looked fantastic: clear skies, temps around 80.  I had every reason to think this would be a solid show, one that would help me gauge the suitability of the Tidewater area for my bird photography.

And the show delivered on all the aforementioned amenities, from being welcomed at check-in like I'd done the show for twenty years, to the high quality of art surrounding me on all sides, to the tasty artists' Saturday-night dinner under the oaks at the art league headquarters, and a solid awards program (up to $5,000 for best in show). Pro-active, helpful volunteers everywhere you turned. Friendly, accessible show director (Earlene Lampman, perhaps the friendliest, warmest person I've ever met on the circuit).  A pretty setting, right along Portsmouth's historic waterfront.  From that perspective, the show was a complete home run.

And then, there was the weather.

Hurricane Irene caused the show to be cancelled entirely in 2011 (and, in keeping with its reputation for treating artists well, the show refunded $100 of the booth fee). Nothing like that this year, but I couldn't help but wonder if TS Isaac, which was churning things up 1000 miles to the south, might have had something to do with the revised forecast, which began heading downhill on Thursday morning.  Each successive update pumped up the possibility of rain another notch.  By Friday night setup, the next-day forecast called for a 70% chance of rain Saturday, and 40% Sunday. 

Skies were only overcast during early Saturday morning prep, but minutes before the show opened the squalls started rolling in from the south.  Then, thunder.  As I was rolling up the front flap for the third time within 45 minutes, a volunteer came by to announce the entire area was under a tornado warning, and everyone should seek cover in the parking garage. 

Well, the twisters never materialized, but the roiling skies sure were a buzz-killer.  Hardly anyone came on Saturday, even though the clouds began clearing around 1:30 and the day ended in sunshine.  Shoshana Matthews (AFI member and Sunshine Artist reviewer)  told me early Sunday morning that the area surrounding the show had experienced even heavier rains and flooding than what we got, and people had difficulty getting out and around even after the storms had passed.

Sunday wasn't much better, unfortunately.  Although it only spritzed occasionally during show hours, there were again squally showers and occasional rumbles of thunder all around us, and the hoped-for Sunday buying crowd never materialized.  Those that came out weren't spending money, and not just with me.  The long-time veterans of the show (and there were many) with whom I spoke reported that sales were off two-thirds or more from their usual take. 

Because crowds were so sparse and the weather so rough, it's difficult for me to draw a conclusion about the show demographics.  Perhaps people would have bought more had they not had to carry artwork in the rain; perhaps not.  But if you strolled about the historic downtown area, it was hard to miss the number of shuttered businesses and restaurants.

I had two sales all weekend--one medium-sized canvas and an 11x14 print on Saturday; I zeroed on Sunday.  And
 as a final flip-o'-the-finger from the weather gods, a half-hour rainstorm rolled in as we all broke down (an hour early) around 4 PM, giving us all the immense pleasure of a wet load-out.  Yech.

The saving grace for the weekend was that I won the show's Morris Award for mastery of my medium and a  nice check during the Saturday-night awards dinner.  And, of course, forging a few new friendships among the artists and the local arts community--which, judging by the quality of work I saw during the weekend, is thriving if not exactly blessed by the weather gods.

I'll post the entire awards list when I get it.

Show link: www.seawallartshow.org

To quote Billy Joel: Sometimes, I've found that just surviving is a noble fight.

That sure was the case at Kipona, a three-day festival along the east shore of the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's (bankrupt) capital city. 

I'd chosen this show for the three-day weekend over potentially more lucrative shows on Long Island and New England because of a chance for a free stay in nearby Carlisle, my college hometown, and visits with friends.  A relaxing respite in a long road trip, I thought. 

But fate had other plans. On Wednesday evening, my 1997 Dodge Caravan spewed its last drops of oil all over a dirt road in the aptly-named Great Dismal Swamp somewhere along the Virginia-North Carolina border.  An emergency case of Quaker State got me and my cameras back to an Enterprise car rental place near my hotel, where I rented and loaded an Econoline, drove it to the Harrisburg area on Friday morning, dropped the van at an Enterprise sales store, and paid cash for a 2011 Ford Transit XL. 

Another weary load transfer later, I arrived at Friday setup and managed to get the tent and walls up before sunset.   I can't say I've ever worked so hard just to get to a show. 

Was it worth it?  Barely. Although the show is sponsored by the Greater Harrisburg Arts Council, and there are plenty of fine artists and craftspersons plying their trade in central Pennsylvania, the crowd just didn't have deep pockets, and the $5-for-the-weekend admission probably pared it even further (though I'm not sure it thinned actual buyers, given the show's location along a popular recreation trail).   The humid,overcast, showery weather Harrisburg is known for paid a prolonged visit, which didn't help.  During most of Saturday, the crowd was surprisingly light, but my eagle photographs sold briskly in this hunting-and-wildlife-savvy area, giving me a modest $600 gross for the long (10 am to 7 pm) day.  (Note to organizers:  What's the point of staying open past 5?  There weren't 200 visitors to the show after 5 pm).

A brisk spell right after the show opened on Sunday (at noon) saved the show for me, but the late-day visitors were browsers, not buyers, and I wound up doing only a few hundred dollars better. Monday, like Mondays at most 3-day shows I've done, was barely worth raising the tent flaps for: I sold only a few prints, tallying around $200.

I didn't walk the entire show, which runs nearly half a mile along the river bike path.  But my count of 60 booths closest to me tallied 30% jewelers, 25% photographers, only a few painters and mixed-media artists, and a smattering of furniture makers and "country craft."  The quality was decent but, according to those I spoke with, not on a par with the region's better-known shows in Longs Park and Mt. Gretna. And among the dozen or more artists and fine craftspersons I surveyed, only one, a hard-working, customer-focused potter, had a gangbusters show.  Several jewelers with low price points said they did OK; a high-end jeweler I spoke with, not so well.  The others reported mediocre sales at best. 

There are some good aspects to the show:  A friendly volunteer staff, very good security, ease of pulling in right behind your booth for load-in and breakdown, free parking on the nearby streets, and some decent food vendors at the show where you could use a $5 voucher provided by the show.  And of course, a pretty tree-lined setting. 

The show gets marked down for spotty booth-sitting service (promised, scheduled, but often not delivered); and booth spaces put in locations that were potentially muddy when the rains come, as they always do, or in spots that were unworkable because of tree branches extending six feet off the ground (see picture #2, below). I'm not a big fan of the irregular hours (Sat 10-7, Sun 12-7, Mon 10-5) either.

Bottom line:  If you are a regional Pennsylvania artist with lower-to-middle price points, and especially if you do functional art and country craft, you could find a market here.  If you are a 2-D artist, I'd skip it, and maybe consider the Longs Park festival in nearby Lancaster, which takes place on the same weekend. 

As for me, if I didn't have so many friends in the area (and free lodging, always a nice break in the middle of a four-week road trip) this show wouldn't be on the schedule. Next year, I'll try Long's Park myself. 

Above: Kind of a pretty location for a show, though muddy at times.
The fact that this pic was taken on mid-afternoon Saturday should give
you an idea of attendance.
Below:  Booth #112, right next to mine.  Might have had a bit of trouble
raising your roof on this location.

2:40 PM Saturday

Well, I made a public commitment to return to Long Beach Island Center for the Arts & Sciences in my  2011 review of this show, when it was 104 degrees on Saturday and no one in their right mind ventured out to an art show on white hot sandy gravel. So here I was again, hoping that the nearly perfect show weather this year would bring out the buying crowds.  And sadly, they did not.  Attendance was very light at this show Saturday, under perfect show weather: cool, overcast, just a bit breezy, and low humidity.  Sunday was sunnier but still pleasant, and most of the folks flocked to the beach, not to the show.

Setup was scheduled for Friday 5-8 PM, and (if you needed it) 7-10 AM on Saturday.  Like most exhibitors I planned to do so on Friday, but a nasty storm with high winds and heavy rain developed offshore on Thursday night and stalled there, putting nearly all artists into Saturday-morning-setup mode. 

Which is a problem at this show.  It's a small venue with a twisting show layout and limited access.  (Those of you who have done shows on Sanibel know exactly the kind of layout I'm talking about.)  So the dance-with-chaos began not long after sunrise.  Luckily, nearly everyone at this show has lots of experience under their belts.  Some dollied from the street or from their closest available spot in the traffic queue; some waited patiently, opting to unload later than planned.  Most observed the show directive to unload first, then park.  As for me, with a 7 AM arrival I am usually unloading in front of my spot no later than 7:20; with this show it was nearly 8:30 before I snapped the first poles on my Trimline into place.  I made quick introductions to my neighbors (both of whom were great) and let them know that I'd be in "catchup mode" and not chatty until I got back on schedule.  Somehow I got ready on time, ready for customers that were slow to materialize. 

Promoters Nancy and Barbara Boroff of Renaissance Craftables don't stick to the usual 10-5 show script--the show hours were 10-6 Sat./9-4 Sunday-- but I can't say there was any advantage gained. The place was nearly vacant by 4 PM on Saturday, and despite the exhortation in the show literature to "show up on time, people come early" on Sunday, there were few folks browsing the show before 11:30. 

Last year, despite the light turnout, I sold my more expensive images--canvas Gallery Wraps--to nearly everyone, giving me my highest revenue-per-customer tallies outside of Naples.  This year, the odds evened out: I sold only two smaller, slightly damaged ones at a significant discount.  A few matted 16x20s went out the door, along with a smattering of 11x14s.  But although I had a crowded booth for two fleeting occasions late in the day on Sunday and no less than five folks had extended conversations about my wall canvases, none walked out with a package under their arm.  All I had to show for the late-day rally were several oh-so-sincere promises that I'd hear back this week after they'd measured their walls. 

Ummm...We'll see.  I know only that, at the end of a disappointing three-show swing up along the Jersey shore and a raft of hotel bills to pay, I had perhaps a bit too much focus on helping them buy what I had on display, rather than helping them order something larger, later.  My bad. It happens.  But for now, I'm back in Florida for two weeks, trying to figure out how, and if, I'll tweak the product mix for my two-month swing to Delaware and Virginia that starts next month.

As for this show, I'm not certain if I'll return.  A couple of things disturbed me besides the light turnout.

*  Worried about a recurrence of hot weather this year, I had contacted Marcy Boroff before I left Florida to double-check on their policy about using a generator (with which I can power two large fans or even a portable A/C unit).  No, she told me politely, but she said she was working on being able to offer me free electricity as long as I had a 100-foot extension cord.  To her credit, she followed up next day to let me know that electricity would be available.  So I left the generator home.

Imagine my surprise when one of the other exhibitors ran a generator all day on Sunday, without anything being said.

* The show has a policy that you have to show up by a certain time on Saturday for setup, or lose your spot.  And you must promise to exhibit all hours of the show.  So imagine my surprise, again, when an exhibitor across from me not only showed up just before noon on Saturday, but actually was accompanied by two of the show volunteers, hauling in her merchandise and tent on their golf cart.  "Wow, I didn't know valet service was available," my neighbor Glenn commented to me.

On Sunday morning, she didn't arrive until about 11:15, claiming to her neighbors that she didn't get much sleep, and "you wouldn't want me to be cranky."  So far as I and my neighbors know, nothing was ever said.  

I have two Big Suggestions for show directors:

* Don't have more rules than are absolutely necessary

* Having communicated the one that ARE necessary, enforce 'em!  

I've only done this show for two years, but judging from comments I heard from long-time exhibitors, it has slipped badly in recent years: more and more buy/sell, fewer fine artists, over-representation of low-end jewelry, clothing, bracelets, and photography.  I like the Boroffs, but I wish they'd resist the temptation to look the other way when the rules aren't followed and the standards slip.  Artists notice these things, and so does the buying public.

I reviewed the Haddonfield Crafts and Fine Arts show, put on by Marcy & Barbara Boroff of Renaissance Craftables,last year.  Rarely have I done a show two years running with such carbon-copy result. The show is held along two streets (Kings Highway and Tanner Ave.) that comprise the bulk of Haddonfield's business district. Haddonfield is a lovely, well-kept, history-rich Jersey-side suburb of Philadelphia. 

Early Saturday setup featured a moderately steady rain that we would have been grateful for at the time, had we realized it was going to rain even harder and more steadily once the show opened.  You aren't allowed to just come in and set up, though: You first stack your stuff along the sidewalk anytime between 5:30 am and 7 and head for the parking lots.  The cops and the barricades keep other traffic off the two main streets of the festival while you unload and stack.  Then, once all vehicles are off the streets, you set up your tent in the middle of the street, facing the sidewalks.  In a sense, this unusual procedure helped us stay a bit drier in the rain, since some of us could stack stuff under the doorways and eaves of the little shops and restaurants that line the streets, instead of having everything exposed to the elements.

The Boroffs remind you frequently in the pre-show literature that if you arrive after 7 am you are out of luck and will have to dolly from the artist parking lots, but every year I've done this show someone thinks they are exempt.  Marcy did a really good job being firm about this with one artist near me who stomped his foot repeatedly while the rest of us, well into our setup, shrugged our collective shoulders.

The rain caused a bit of a delay because it washed the chalk marks from the street, so it took a bit of work for staff to remark them, then abandon that plan entirely when the rains hit again.  I am not sure why the Boroffs don't just use tape or (like Cape Coral FA in Florida) get some wire numbered signs made.  In any event there was plenty of time, since the show doesn't open until 11 on Saturday morning. (It doesn't wrap up until 7 pm on Saturday.)  No generators are allowed and no electricity is available, so good battery-operated fans are a must.

Despite the rain, a fair number of folks browsed the show on Saturday, but sales were light.  Things for me picked up somewhat when the rain stopped in mid-afternoon.  But the extra sales hours didn't help much; I didn't make a single sale after about 5:15. 

Sunday was rain-free but still humid and quite a bit warmer.  And the show didn't officially open until noon (perhaps because of the abundance of churches along the show site) but many artists opened up between 10 and 11 and reported lots of traffic and brisk sales. That continued past the opening bell, so to speak, and throughout most of the day.  In contrast to Saturday's browse mode, folks on Sunday, as they did last year, came ready to buy.  I had an OK, but not super, sales day, which sure beat the Saturday doldrums.  Overall it was a profitable show and a paycheck, but not quite up to the $2K-plus mark I'd been hoping for. 

I didn't have much time to leave the booth, but several AFI'ers and a few friends from Sunshine Artist came by to chat and report in.  No one reported gangbuster results, but only two of about a dozen artists said their sales were poor (both were on Tanner St., where traffic was light compared with Kings Highway). 

All in all, this show gets solid community support, and many of the artists and crafters have cultivated regular followings. The "mix" is a bit heavy on jewelry and photography, and definitely skews to crafts over 2-D art, with a surprising number of wood carvers and hand-made furniture.  Although I probably wouldn't do Haddonfield as a stand-alone show unless I lived within an hour's drive, it's a nice show to have in the middle of my annual July swing through the Jersey shore resorts. 

June 16 & 17 
South Bend, Indiana
45th Annual Leeper Park Art Fair
Sponsored by the St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society
120 spaces

Art fair fever grabbed me and made me head to South Bend on Saturday morning to get my fix. It was a lovely morning although it really heated up in the afternoon. The booths are set in a circle in a shaded park. There are no auxiliary activities and only a small food court. The show is visible from the main street. If you're driving through town on the Dixie Highway you can't miss it.

The parking lot was filling when I arrived at 10 am and at the first booth I saw a sale being made. This is an old-fashioned show that is about only one thing - selling art and I can't fault it except for one thing, although booth #'s were prominently displayed there were no names. I had to really hunt for any name signs. Luckily there was a program but it was in alpha order, not numerical and I did a bit of hunting. Friends, please if a show doesn't give you a sign with your name on it, please have one of your own.

There were plenty of people in the park and some booths were full like this pottery booth with work by Jeremy Keller and Mary Ennis.

I'm always on the lookout for creative booth displays. This is the booth of Skeeter Aschinger. I had a heck of a time getting a good shot because of the people who were interested in the work, miniature face sculptures with hand beaded accents. She told me a prior career had been designing displays and it was obvious by her attractive booth that clearly complements her work.

I'm not only looking for good displays, there is always the thrill of seeing artwork that stops you in your tracks. Best of show in my mind should go to Martha Nahrwold whose one of a kind paintings and collage are carefully controlled marbling on paper, floating acrylic paints to create dreamy landscapes. It was the art that drew me in and then I took a look at her booth (isn't that the way it should be?).

This was a great story. Martha started participating in art fairs about 15 years ago and her husband was busy doing his own activities so she devised a set up she could handle herself. The panels are construction styrofoam covered with ultrasuede slipcovers, suspended from handmade hangers. She says she can stack them up and be gone in no time. Plus, let me assure you, it was the work that first drew me to the booth. The display was simple and clearly showcased the work. Isn't that we are all looking for?

It was great seeing old friends and meeting AFI-ers that I've only met online. I loved Robert Wallis' photos with their sensitive use of light and shadow.

Vinnie Sutherland has no peers in her media, she takes a very old technique and presents it in a fresh contemporary way. She works with tin and uses repousse techniques to create the relief in the pieces.

My old friend Johnny Lung with his masterful Chinese paintings - this is not a good shot, visit his website.

Frequent contributor to AFI, John Leben, had a big writeup in the South Bend Tribune. Hope it paid off for you John.

More good old friends from Florida summering in the North, Loretta Fehling

and watercolor painter Michael Weber caught in the act again of making a sale.

My apologies to Joan Tweedell who I also spoke with, I was so pleased to see her that I forgot to take her photo. Love your new etchings, Joan, and it's great to see people moving into a new medium. Congratulations.

A lot of us girls watching the clothes going by - here is my vote for best dressed at the fair.

I hope everyone had a good show this weekend!

This is the first time I've done this relatively new (4th-year) Howard Alan show on Hilton Head Island, SC, which I booked because:
1) AFI member Lori Kay raved about it;

2) The Florida alternatives for the weekend looked impoverishing;

3) I've never been to swank Hilton Head, thinking that a 15-year-old minivan might be turned away at the bridge.

When I first considered this show, South Carolina seemed like too far a drive for a one-off show.  But when I checked Google Maps I was surprised to find that Hilton Head was only 2.5 hours from St. Augustine and a manageable 490 miles (8-hour drive) from Fort Myers.  So I booked the show, then booked a hotel in rustic Hardeeville, about 25 miles west of the show locale, lured by a $29.95 a night room rate I found on Priceline.

I checked in late in the day on Thursday, and spent Friday morning at nearby Savannah Wildlife Refuge, then drove to Hilton Head to set up.  The show is held in a parking lot of a secluded upscale shopping complex just off rt. 278, which connects the island to the mainland.  Setup started at 10 AM Friday, and it was easy to find your booth location and get busy. 

It's a small show--about 80 artists and 20 crafters (who were clustered together on the northern end of the layout).  I was fortunate to have a spot directly under one of many tall shade trees on the site; not everyone was quite so lucky.  But the temperatures weren't the story--tropical storm Beryl was.

Beryl started churning off the east coast of Florida late in the week, and began advancing on the Florida-Georgia border on Friday.  The forecast called for the storm to bring rain, 20 to 35 mph breezes, and possible thunderstorms beginning early Sunday morning, and those of us with smart phones were checking the Weather Channel frequently on Saturday.  

We had more time to do so than I had expected.  Crowds were steady, if not jam-packed, on Saturday morning but tapered off quickly as the temperatures rose into the high 80s, and although the pre-storm breezes cooled things off a bit, the humidity was  high.  I tallied less than $600 in sales on the day, and as I headed back to Hardeeville, I glumly figured that Sunday would be scrubbed by the storm and I'd be underwater in more ways than one. 

And then, we dodged a meteorological bullet.  The storm tracked a bit further south than expected on Sunday.  Although clouds rolled in as the show opened and a squally shower hit briefly around 11:15, it stopped within 10 minutes and the skies cleared for the rest of the day. Crowds were light, but the buying energy picked up in the middle of the afternoon and I ended up writing about $1400 on the weekend--about half what I expected to do in such  an upscale venue, but at least I was going home with about $500 profit after expenses.  On a sales scale of zero-to-10 (where zero means I'm selling the van to get home, and 10 means I'm skipping all the way back to Fort Myers), this show rated about a 4.5.  Most of the folks around me rated it about the same; a couple lucky folks rated it 7 to 8, and (with a few exceptions) said they sold more on Sunday than on day one.

In terms of quality, too, this one's a mixed bag.  There were a lot of jewelers, although most of it was mid- to high-end in price and quality.  A wonderful painter of colorful, large-scale, mostly Western, landscapes across from me made a few small sales, but no big works that I noticed.  Another nearby artist who fashioned stunning sculpture from aluminum, sold a couple of large works at price points in the high hundreds.  There were a few beginning artists, and the aforementioned craft/buy-sell section, suggesting that not many artists applied for this show.

Hilton Head may not ever be a heavily attended show, at least not on Memorial Day weekend.  Although it seems like a great idea to capture returning seasonal residents who may have home improvement on their minds, it's also the first weekend of high season, and folks may still be unpacking.  Signage for brick-and-mortar retail, let alone art shows, is heavily restricted by the town.  Nary a McDonald's arch, billboard, or high-rise sign dots the landscape, and all the shopping centers are set back a bit from the main road and concealed by trees and shrubbery.  I saw only two "Art Festival" banners at each end of the show.  And although I'm sure Howard did his usual thorough job promoting the show in local media, first-day arrivals may not have been in town long enough to get the message.   My gut feel is that artists with high-quality work who exhibit here year after year will eventually build a profitable following.  And while I had expected to make lots more moolah at this show, there's enough potential--and enough really wonderful places to photograph wildlife--that I'll pencil this one in for next year.  For Florida artists who are heading north for the summer, or who live in the central and northern parts of the Sunshine State, this isn't a hard show to get to. 

****

One quick note about the high winds we experienced at times, and a valuable lesson I learned.  Although we didn't get rained on, and the sun was out all afternoon on Sunday, the winds did get really gusty at times.  I had elected to leave my canvas sides on,  zipped down, and tied to the tent poles, even after the threat of rain went to zero.  That was nearly a serious mistake--a gust of wind blew right into the space between the side display wall and the canvas sides...and because I'd left the back canvas zipped up, the wind had nowhere to go.  The sides and back puffed up like a balloon, and the left side of the tent lifted off the ground a foot (thankfully, all the bungee cords held fast) and was wrenched clockwise about two feet.  No work was damaged, but as soon as my heartbeat got back to normal I removed the side walls so it wouldn't happen again.  The lesson:  If you're going to leave your side walls down, always make sure to unzip the zippers on the down-wind side of the tent, so that wind has a place to go!

Last quick note: Thanks to landscape photographer Steve Vaughn for taking me to a couple of great venues at Pinckney Wildlife Refuge on Saturday night, and lending me his camera to make a few images.  Much appreciated, and Steve was one of MANY great neighbors at this show.

Well, Naples National was certainly the big dog this past weekend, and even I looked forward to hearing how everyone made out (feel your pain, Jon; good work on your sales and post, Nels).

Not everyone could take a ride at the Naples merry-go-round, of course.  And for some of us, that meant taking the ride up I-95 to Stuart, for Howard Alan's 22nd installment of the Stuart Art Festival.

This is a quintessential old-style Alan show.  Street setup starting at 5 AM Saturday, with tents facing each other on narrow Osceola Street, which passes for the main drag in downtown Stuart--which, by the way,  has more narrow streets, blind alleys, and high-risk, death-defying traffic circles than anywhere I've ever traveled. 

Making sense of the weekend's sales was no less confusing:  I talked to probably 20 artists, and it was a mixed bag. One large-scale mixed-media artist from Delaware, with price points over $2K and a minimal number of small reproductions, and fresh off a Best in 2-D award from Barry Witt's February Bonita Springs show,  gathered lots of compliments but zeroed on the weekend.  But another large-scale 2-D artist made two huge sales on Saturday alone, making it his best show of his season.  "Pelican Steve," who like me had a prime spot just inside the show entrance, put it to good advantage and nearly sold out his wood sculptures.  Most folks I spoke with who had done this show frequently said their sales were at, slightly above, or slightly below, their take from the last two years.  So it seems like if you do this show consistently, you'll build a following, but that it won't necessarily make you rich.  Compared with Naples, for sure it was a smaller pie to share.

There was a LOT of photography at the show (I didn't count the artist list, but I'm betting shooters outnumbered jewelers at this one.)  Lots of wildlife and landscape photographers, including the estimable Mr. Steve Vaughn and Tim Kiusalass, who creates awe-inspiring large-scale, beautifully-framed landscapes and displays them in a beautifully designed booth.  Steve and Tim joined me for a great dinner on Saturday night where we swapped lies and neatly solved every burning issue in the art show business (email Steve for details on the forthcoming book). 

I had only nine sales all weekend, with a total take of about $1600, and I felt lucky indeed to eke that out.  Three sales were pretty big 'uns, including a custom order for a large canvas that accounted for half the weekend's take.  But the rest were all single-item $30 sales.

The show was well organized and ably run by the HAE staff.  And the crowds did come, as they usually do at an Alan show.  But it didn't seem like there was a lot of buying energy around.

The Treasure Coast area (which includes Hobe Sound and Jupiter) is pretty well saturated with shows, and it might be the time of year when buyer's fatigue is setting in. There are some beautiful, high income golf course and gated communities not far away from the show venue.  But I'm not sure they attended this show: Many of the locals I talked to over my three-day stay told me that they avoid downtown congestion and parking hassles. And many of the very nice folks who came through my booth were elderly retirees who'd lived in Stuart many years, not new-to-the-area homebuyers.  (My two largest sales, tellingly, were to seasonal snowbirds.)  

In addition, there was a discernible mixed vibe from the downtown merchants. Although the show definitely puts feet on the street, some merchants are unconvinced that they make their way from show to storefronts.  Alan mitigates this by having frequent breaks in the rows of tents to allow access to the shops and restaurants, but in an already-touchy downtown economy, some merchants fret about their regulars losing parking to the show patrons, having their signage blocked by tents and the sidewalk blocked by artist storage.  Accordingly, the show layout moved the tents forward into the street a couple of feet, so that artist storage is on the street-side of the curb, not on the sidewalks. That solves one problem, but creates another, making the already-narrow streets a bit tougher to navigate.  (It also makes it a good idea for artists to make sure they store their work off the ground in case it rains.  Which, during Saturday morning setup, it did--but luckily, not for long.) 

This show isn't nearly as expensive as a Coconut Grove (hotel rooms could be had for $75 a night), and the booth fee is at the lower end of Alan's shows.  But as gas rises toward $4 a gallon, the nearly 400-mile round trip blew the budget I'd laid out only two months earlier, when a gallon of gas was "only" $3.30.  All told I spent about $750 on the weekend, plus massive but futile tips to cute waitresses. So although Stuart definitely served as a "paycheck show," on the whole I'd rather have been in Naples, only 30 minutes' drive from my home.  

 I've got one more shot in Stuart: I'll be returning on March 24-25 for Stuart ArtsFest.  Sponsored by the Martin County Arts Council, it's located only a quarter-mile or so east of this week's affair.  It will be interesting to see how the two shows compare. 

Can't wrap up this post without sharing a pretty funny Saturday-morning slice o'life:   I had just finished up with a customer when I heard three women arguing behind me.  Wondering if they were upset with my neighbor, or with me,  I stepped back to see what the commotion was about.  Two women who ran the restaurant were berating the owner of the shop next door, gesturing and pointing at the wooden signboard the shop owner had placed in the street, complaining that it blocked access to their restaurant.  The shop owner's explanations weren't calming the situation, and the women continued yelling at her to move it.

Then, the lady saw a man walking past the sidewalk sign.  "Sir! Sir!," she said, and he stopped, startled.  "Did you have any trouble walking past this sign just now?" 

Nonplussed, he said, "Well, no, I didn't. "

The shop owner threw up her hands in triumph.  "Hah!!" she said.  "Didn't think so! THANK you, sir!"

The man, bewildered, stepped away and into the front door of the restaurant for breakfast.

She looked at the two restaurant owners, who were still barking at her, and gave them a tight-lipped smile.  "I'm just going to let you two shout among yourselves," she said, quietly.  "The sign stays!" 

And so it did. 

High winds hit Howard Alan's Venice show hard overnight, as reported elsewhere by Barry Bernstein and Nels Johnson (with great contributions from others).   It didn't stop the show in Venice, though it made Sunday morning startup a bit complicated for some. 

The show was quite well attended both days (very warm and humid on Saturday). This town supports the heck out of this show in all weather--the "vibe" is more like a Rotary show than a big art festival. Although the pockets aren't deep, for the most part, if you have $30-40 items you can sell plenty of them. I haven't done this show in several years, and I was quite surprised to get visits from customers who bought from me not only here, but at a small, low-key show at the Venice Airport that I did in 2009 and 2010. It is one friendly crowd, for sure.

The weather front moved through just before dawn on Sunday morning.  I was unable to walk the show but show manager Helayne Stallings said that several tents were damaged.  One artist near me was trying to put the roof back on his tent as I arrived; high winds later on Sunday knocked over one sculpture right off the pedestal, shattering it all over Venice Avenue.  For the most part, damage was reported as minor. 

We probably caught a break, in that the winds were 20-30 mph from the NW, and the show is set up east-west, so the buildings helped to block them. There was a rumor circulating on Sunday that Helayne had authorized artists to leave if they wanted, so I tracked her down to check. 

It wasn't true, she explained, and told me about the only show she'd ever cancelled (I believe in Bloomington Hills, MI) about 15 years ago.  The weather cleared up after the call had been made, and she caught quite a bit of flak.

So the on-site show managers give a full report to Howard himself, and he  alone makes the call whether or not to cancel the show, she said. 

At any rate, the crowds continued to come (attendance and sales were even better on Sunday for most of the artists I spoke with at show's end-- quite surprisingly to me).

This show doesn't fly high on the radar screen, and my sales aren't what I get at Coconut Point and Naples by a long shot.  But it's a reliable paycheck, the 70-mile commute to my home is easy Interstate 75 driving, and I've always appreciated the warm welcome I get here. 
Nearly everyone I spoke with was happy or at least satisfied with their sales.  Or maybe, like me, they were just counting their blessings that they survived to show another weekend.  

 (Note: Haven't heard from anyone about Naples Mercato, which was cancelled on Day 2.  Anyone?)

Three shows that I know of this weekend just in Florida: Hot Works' Boca Raton show, and Howard Alan's shows in Indiatlantic and Delray Beach.

Anyone want to get the ball rolling with a writeup on their show?  Make it brief if you must; others will fill in the gaps. 

As I sat down for my early Saturday morning coffee and morning paper, I couldn't miss the sticker slapped on the masthead of Saturday's Fort Myers News-Press: "THIS IS THE BIG ONE...COCONUT POINT ART FESTIVAL." 

"We'll see," I said, hopefully, as I quaffed the dregs of my Starbucks.  For the first time in its six-year history, this top-shelf Howard Alan show faced stiff competition from a neighborhood bully--Barry Witt's new February installment of the Bonita Springs Art Festival, happening a scant 4 miles' drive down US 41. 

I couldn't help but be apprehensive:  A SW Florida local, I've done Coconut Point ever since I got into the business in 2008, and it's consistently been my high-water mark for sales during snowbird season.  Would the Big Show down the highway scuttle attendance and sales?  Or would I, and the other 200-plus artists lining the south end of Coconut Point mall, be scuttled by the Saturday-morning cold front blowing through the region?

The faint stirrings of an economic recovery might not withstand this kind of double-whammy, I thought. And there was also the thought that Alan had a show at this venue only six weeks earlier, on New Year's Weekend.  But not to worry:  The rain showers were long gone by 10 AM Saturday. The temps were chilly but the crowds poured in as the skies parted around noontime, and the Bonita Springs festival, as they say on the sports pages, was Not a Factor.  I had my best sales weekend ever at this festival, and (with a few exceptions) most of my neighbors did OK-to-good, too.  What's more, I won a Costco Gift Card at a pre-show raffle (more evidence of Howard Alan Events' push toward providing more artist amenities) and even scored a couple of bagels at the artist breakfast tent. 

I've talked about this area's sterling demographics and show logistics before; you can read about that in detail  here.  Suffice it to say that the Friday, all-day setup is a snap, and the tear-down, though complicated by heavy Sunday-evening mall traffic, is easy too, as long as you're patient.  The crowds are knowledgeable and (near as I could tell) willing to spend, but (as is the case nearly anywhere in SW Florida) heavy on the 55-and-up demographic.  I had a good market for my fine-art avian photography canvases, sales of which made up about 75% of my weekend's take.  The browse bins (11x14 and 16x20 mat sizes) got lighter activity, as has mostly been the case since New Year's.  (Note: I used to call my work "bird photography" but decided I could charge more if I called it "avian fine art" instead.  Marketing is all....)

Is a recovery at hand?  Well, I'm reading a lot about that in the local papers, where real estate prices are starting to rebound, developers are once again starting to take out color ads in the Sunday supplements, and unemployment is dipping.  And I'm getting about five customers/prospects every show who tell me they're here because they recently bought a home...and another few who (perhaps feeling a bit more flush) have decided to finally decorate the home they bought two years ago.  I'm guessing that's three times as often as what I've been hearing in the last four years. 

So, it's on to ArtiGras (my first time ever) and Stuart, the week after that, to see if I can spot the same trend on Florida's east coast.  Hope so: my 2012 Spring Fling up north is looming, and I'm needing a second tent and a new lens or two (not to mention airline tickets).  Onward! 

(I didn't have time to scour the neighborhood for sales results.  How'd you guys make out?  And let's hear from Bonita!!)

In their advertising, Howard Alan Events billed this show as "The first and best art festival of 2012."  One could be snarky and say, "Well, sure...so far!"  But for many of the 200-plus artists who exhibited,  it was a solid weekend, with brisk crowds, packages aplenty, and enough sales in the till to leave hope that maybe, just maybe, the economy has turned the page as well as the calendar. 

Alan has been holding events at this fine upscale mall, halfway between Naples and Fort Myers, for six years or so. The last few years have featured an early-season show in November as well as the long-running one around Valentine's Day weekend.  But this year Alan moved the fall show to New Year's weekend--a savvy move since other Florida promoters are staying shuttered until Jan. 7. (The second show will be held six weeks hence, as always.)

The show's location within the mall was shifted slightly this year, closer to the property's SW corner, which seemed to make access a bit easier for artists and patrons alike.  Setup was all day Friday, 10 to 5.  Most artists took advantage of that; those that didn't could arrive early Saturday morning.  (There's lots of lodging within 5 miles of the show, as any Priceline search will prove out.  Alan also arranged a special at the Hyatt on site.  I didn't use either option, since I live 20 minutes north on US 41.)  

Layout was back-to-back in three columns, with enough space behind the booths for inventory and supplies, and just enough space between booths to squeeze through and get them if, like me, you didn't have a back door.  Parking was off-site this year instead of behind the movie theatre--a last-minute change that was well communicated by email--and shuttle buses ran before and after the show for those who needed it.  Alan arranged with Costco to provide an "artist's breakfast" booth with muffins and pastries and bottled water, but alas, no coffee.  It was a minor inconvenience, given that a Starbucks and Panera Bread are adjacent to the show, but it would be a nice addition next time.  

Weather was Chamber of Commerce-perfect: cloudless blue skies and temperatures that reached the low 80s both days.  Crowds were steady enough on Saturday, but patrons were definitely in "browse mode".  Sunday amped up both attendance and sales.  Interestingly, too, several artists mentioned to me that they thought the crowd skewed a bit younger than a lot of the Florida shows they do.  Maybe it reflects vacationers, as opposed to residents and snowbirds...or maybe Facebook and social media advertising is starting to have an impact (but that's a subject for a later post.)

I out-did my Day One results by better than 3 to 1 and reached my sales mark from the February 2011 show at 3 PM Sunday--a happy event since this show marked a new product mix for me, with fewer but larger canvases and no more 8x10 mat sales or notecards. It also helped that I'd mailed Christmas cards to all my large-ticket patrons, with a hand-written message and my show schedule printed on the back.  Over a half-dozen came to say hello, and several made new purchases. 

I made a point of walking the show twice, and I thought the quality and category mix were excellent. But why take my word for it? More convincing proof were the three times I heard women calling their friends to tell them about the event, all with essentially the same message: "You've got to come down here and see this...it's a beautiful show!" I can count on one hand the number of times I've witnessed that.

Like any show, there were folks who didn't fare so well.  Jewelers (which Alan held at 20% of exhibitors) seemed to fare a bit better than 2-D artists, generally.  Several photographer friends were disappointed, and a nearby painter who had sold several large pieces at last year's event wasn't so fortunate this time around.  But on the whole, folks were chalking it up as a solid start to the New Year. 

How 'bout some of you other AFI'ers out there?  What did you think?

Tequila or no tequila, I'm writing a review of St. Pete's ArtScape affair last weekend, as Nels Johnson--blogger extraordinaire and publicity arm of the famed husband-and-wife prizewinning pair--promised I would do. (No pressure--gulp!--here).  And what an adventurous experience this turned out to be. 

This first year show had a foundation more solid than most of its ilk.  The plan: Introduce a fine art show that will leverage the success of the four-year-old Florida Craftsmen’s CraftArt show, which runs on adjacent blocks of Central Avenue in St. Pete's downtown arts district (home of the Salvador Dali Museum and a number of galleries both tony and funky).  Solid corporate backing, strong local sponsorship, a full staff of volunteers, and a hefty $20,000 in artist awards to be handed out at a Saturday night artist dinner...what could go wrong? 

Pre-show communication was top-notch.  Organizer David Frutko of Events St. Pete delivered timely and regular communication through Zapp mail to all the artists; the show specifics, directions, and map were clear and concise.  Setup began at roughly 3 PM on Friday; the St. Pete police cordoned off the streets in a timely fashion, I heard reports of some logjams among the early arrivals (who, no doubt, wished they could have started sooner since the sun goes down at 6:40 these days). But by the time I landed at the well-marked registration booth around 5 PM things were running smoothly.  A quick hello, explanation of the well-stuffed artist's packet, a cheerful run-through of the food menu in case I wanted to pre-order boxed lunches to be delivered to my booth, the ritual donning of the name badge, and I was parked a street-width from my booth site in less than 5 minutes.  Wow, I thought.  This is artist treatment worthy of a Top 10 show, let alone a first-year event. I began feeling special.

Folks could stay late to set up if they wished, but I hate hanging my photo canvases by miner's lamp, so I erected the tent and trappings, stashed the gear, and came back early Saturday morning.  Light breeze, high overcast, a lovely day for a festival. A nice surprise to find that one of my neighbors was Ellen Marshall (lovely and charming wife of the aforementioned Nels, who--as we say at the sports bar--definitely out-kicked his coverage in the marriage department.) Saunter down to the artist's café for some fresh-brewed java and sumptious sweet potato muffins, greet a few friends old and new, and back at the booth just in time to welcome the throngs of show-goers. 

At which point, there arose the first inkling that things may not be what they seem.  No throng.  A bit more than a trickle, perhaps, but my dog-eared Thesaurus is out for re-binding so you'll have to extrapolate.  However many they were, they sure weren't early buyers.  My neighbors--Ellen on one side, Dick on the other--were largely chairbound all morning, while I--fueled equally by coffee jitters and an impending mortage payment--chatted up all comers, to little avail.

Luckily, fortunes turned--for me, at least--in early afternoon.  First, large prints began to move out of the browse bins.  By mid-afternoon, a couple of canvases were off the walls, and my new, uber-large canvas--payment for which was responsible for the angst I was feeling about the mortgage payment--was attracting lots of attention.  And yet, most of the folks in my vicinity weren't moving much artwork, and I didn't see a lot of bags.  As shadows fell, I was happy with my nearly four-figure day, but, as one artist commented, "there weren't a lot of success stories."  Weary from long hours of telling nature stories to my customers--or maybe it was just caffeine crash--I headed to my hotel room on St. Pete Beach, forgetting entirely about the dinner at which the roughly $20,000 in artist's awards (per the pre-show publicity) in seven categories would be handed out.   

Or...not.  Because as it turned out (and this, dear readers, is where the tale turns ugly), the judge kinda forgot about the artists, too.  At least, those of us unfortunate enough to carry cameras around our necks, or make art that is in any way--dare I say it?--digital.  For the judge, playing her "Judge's Discretion" card, chose not to award prize money in the photography and digital art categories.

I do not know how this all went down at the dinner itself.  I know only that I hadn't walked 20 yards past the entry gate on Sunday when I was hailed by one photographer after another--some of whom, it should be noted, who have won national and international awards--filling me in on the slight.  Opinions were spouted; options weighed.  Does a judge have a right to withhold a category award?  Or is she (or he) ethically bound to award them, regardless of her (or his) personal standards and biases?  And what would become of the unawarded prize money? 

Who was the judge, anyway, we wondered, and what were her qualifications, particularly in the two categories she'd snubbed? I had not seen her, nor had anyone else I asked.  These questions, and more, were pointedly and repeatedly posed to the show director as Day 2 commenced.  I had the kind of unfairly-treated, kicked-in-the-gut feeling that I hadn't experienced since, as a seventh-grader, I got aced out the lead in the class play when my brief audition was interrupted by the 3:30 school bell.  But mom's not waiting at home with milk and cookies this time, I reasoned, and I've got customers to see. So I unzipped the tent and got to it, awaiting developments.  I didn't have a hunch they'd be positive ones. 

And then, a few minor miracles ensued.  The half-marathon event that, perplexingly, ran right across the show until 10:30 AM on Sunday wrapped up, and the barricades parted.  Neighbor Ellen, wife of Nels, was the winner of the Drawing category, garnering a $2,000 check, which brightened my mood a little.  My other neighbor Dick had three nice buyers for the artwork he was selling, putting him solidly in the black.  And darned if the large canvas hanging on the center back of my booth didn't come off the wall, and two more besides--neatly paying this month's mortgage and next month's, too. 

Those were preludes to a bigger miracle, at least in my eyes.  David Frutko, show director, did the right thing.  Unbeknownst to many of us--heck, perhaps, all of us--he sent around another judge, who (however belatedly) made good on the missing category awards: Nels picked up a $2,000 check for his photography, and an artist in the digital category did the same.  Frutko also personally hand-delivered a letter in which he stood by the original judge's credentials and decisions, but apologized for the upset those may have caused and for several lessons learned--among them, not having a show committee member escort the judge around, and (a minor point, in my eyes) for not making sure she was introduced to each artist during the judging process.

So, lots to digest in this post, and some questions still hanging in the wind: Does a judge have a right to withhold a category award?  And if so, should that decision be based upon his/her personal standards, or upon broader "commonly accepted standards" within the art community?  My take: If the category is announced, it should be awarded unless there are compelling circumstances that make it inappropriate (i.e., a winner is found to not have made the winning art).  And if I'd been in Mr. Frutko's shoes, I'd have said: "If you awarded only five-sevenths of the awards, you'll get only five-sevenths of your paycheck.  Go finish your job." 

I'm speaking only for myself in another opinion, too, and perhaps here I'm being overly charitable. But when I step back and look at Mr. Frutko's "body of work" as a director of a first-year show, I see a lot to admire in the communication and the overall show organization.  The judging brouhaha was an egregious misstep, to be sure, and no doubt the torrent of criticism he received was justified.  As a gallery owner who, I understand, is new to the outdoor art festival scene, he probably didn't see it coming.  But he didn't disappear, and he did what he could to rectify the situation as quickly as humanly possible, and I'll give him a boatload of credit for that. 

What's the bottom line?   Among the 15 or so artists I spoke with Sunday afternoon, most weren't happy with their sales, though a few did well, and some (mostly local) were happy to have covered  expenses.  The crowd volume never got to "brisk" (there, my Thesaurus must be back from repair!) but at least the flow, especially on Sunday afternoon, was a little steadier. The city powers-that-be certainly seemed to support the show. And everyone seemed to appreciate the amenities. 

But overall, the show reminds me of the old joke that ends with "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"  Some long-running shows have been dealt severe, and sometimes fatal, body blows because of mishaps around prize money awards. Many artists use prize money as a major determining factor in assessing whether or not to apply for a show or not.  And for the artists talented enough to win them, it may mean the difference between a show that's profitable and one that's not.  So in many respects, prize monies represent the ultimate test of ethics and trust between artist and promoter. Despite the corrective actions, it remains to be seen if the reputation of a first-year show can rebound from this. 

What do you think? Did the judge fulfill her obligation to the show and the artists? Were the promoter's efforts to make amends sufficient?   Does St. Petersburg ArtScape deserve a Year Two? And if so, what must they do to ensure they get it?

The Atlanta Arts Festival is held in Midtown's Piedmont Park, the same site as the Spring Dogwood Festival. The last time I was in this park we were participating in the Dogwood and vowed never to return. The main sponsor was (I think) Purina Dog Chow and they were holding the frisbee dog championships in the middle of the park. I think there was maybe one dog to every two people. So you can imagine how pleased I was to see these signs!

The festival is set up in a very large circle on the grass. It is very pedestrian friendly and most artists do have shade. The set up requires (I am told) a very regimented procession of vehicles in order for everyone to get in and out. The executive director is Julie Tepp who used to work with the Dogwood Festival. Several years ago she vowed to return the much loved Atlanta Arts Festival which went by the boards in a recession many years ago. She has a lovely park, an affluent neighborhood, great artist coordinator (so sorry I can't remember Nancy's last name), a cadre of volunteers and all the bells and whistles of a good event (kids activities, a cooking stage, entertainment, family art activities and artist demonstrations).

I saw and met a bunch of members of this community including: Michele Levett, Hyacinth Manning, Matthew & Bea Hatala, Michelle Babcock, Diane French, Michael Stephens and Robert Jones. I loved seeing old friends like, Amos Amit, Ronnie Phillips, Mikel Robinson, Scott Wilson, Holly Foss, Sandy Atkins-Moran, Harry Roa, William Cowherd, Jack Brumbaugh and Michael Bryant. There are approximately 200 artists.

The weather was perfect. When I was there on Sunday afternoon there was a good crowd and a lot of people visiting the booths and interacting with the artists. I did see some packages but can't give a good report on sales. Perhaps some of the members listed above can add some details.

I don't know, Nels, is there enough "meat" in this?

Sales were being made --

The treat of the day though was seeing an old friend still exhibiting his fine paintings: Scott Wilson. We did a lot of reminiscing. Great to see you Scott! I wish you  many more fine art fairs and a continued fine life!

I don't have a full review of this show, for reasons that will be clear in a paragraph or two.  But I wanted to get the conversation started among artists who attended this Howard Alan show, held in Sarasota, FL's St. Armand's Key.

St. Armand's Circle is a shopping district well-known for its upscale shops and fine dining establishments, including the not-to-be-missed Columbia Restaurant, which features the best Cuban-American fare this side of Miami.  Artists' booths are located throughout the shady interior of the traffic circle.  Additional booths run along a block or two of one of the "spokes" leading away from the circle.  Artists within the circle could set up all day Friday; the "streeters" (including yours truly) needed to wait until Saturday morning. 

I've done this show twice in years past (2008 and 2009), when it was held in October.  These shows featured sweltering heat and humidity; the monsoonal rains that hit during load-out in 2009 dumped about 5 inches of rain in three hours and taught me never to stack work along a curb if I ever wanted to see it again.  Anyway, this unfortunate spate of late rainy-season luck prompted a move to November.  And despite my two mediocre sales experiences here, I was anxious to see if both meteorological and sales gods would be smiling on me in 2011.

Well, one of the two delivered.  We couldn't have asked for better weather this year: two days of cloudless blue skies by day, with cool temps at dawn to make setup a comfortable, shall we say, "drip-free" experience.

But the sales...aggh, the sales!  I had  browse bins full of old and new work, boxfuls of 2012 calendars, a new 2.5x3 foot canvas that I shot on Tuesday and printed Wednesday, and high expectations.  But sadly, an early flurry of browse-bin sales in the first 90 minutes died out, never to return.  I sold enough to pay booth fee and make expenses (largely because I opted to commute from Ft. Myers, 85 miles to the south, instead of taking a hotel room).  When your biggest sellers are your $20 calendars and 3-for-ten-buck notecards, you're in for a long weekend.  Sunday was no better, until I knocked some of my $75 16x20s down to $50 to stir up a trickle of buying interest. 

So, here's my problem from a show-review standpoint:  I have insufficient evidence to know if this show was a winning sales experience for others, or not.  I had enough traffic coming by all weekend that I couldn't leave the booth for an extended walk through the show.  What I can report from my neighbors:

* One, who sold interesting, kinda avant-garde long stem flowers fashioned of glass at $100-300 price points, had a killer Saturday and a long, slow Sunday. 

* A husband and wife team with adjacent booths of functional ceramic art both zeroed on the weekend (but had unbelievably great attitudes in the face of no results). 

* A well-known and talented photographer of Italian doorways and street scenes, whose subjects hit the "sweet spot" with buyers seeking to decorate their predominantly Mediterranean style homes, seemed to do his usual gangbuster business.

* A young Florida landscape and wildlife photographer had about the same results I did. 

* A well-known abstract painter, fresh off a strong show in Estero, just covered his expenses.

So, lots of unanswered questions: Was  customer traffic heavier in the center of the circle than among us "streeters"?  Were there lots of buyers carrying packages around?  Were folks there to buy, or were they strolling the show while visiting all the shops and restaurants nearby? My answers are, respectively: "No idea," "Without a clue, " and "Beats heck outta me." 

Some help, eh?  If there's a Pulitzer for blogging, I've blown it with this entry.

So I need you folks who did the show, particularly if you were in the central area, to chime in with comments below and fill out this picture.  As for me, I consider this to be a "Geoff problem, " not a show problem, so you'll hear no whining from me.  I've done five shows in Sarasota now (three with Alan, two with other promoters) and I'm still looking for a strong sales result.  If my bird and wildlife images don't get Sarasota's collective pulse racing but sell strongly in Venice, only 15 miles to the south, well, that's good information to know.

So: How 'bout the rest of you out there?  Chime in, please!

I've reviewed this show several times before, so I'll keep this one short.  (You can read earlier reviews, including details on the area demographics and show logistics here.)

If you like to take your art without side orders of carnival and kettle corn, the Estero Fine Art show is a good way to go.  Run by Patty Narozny's HotWorks LLC, this is the fall installment of her biannual shows at Miromar Outlets in Estero, FL (about 15 miles north of Naples).  Over the last four years, the event has developed a nice following among fine artists and local show-goers.  It's not a big event (only 75 artists this year), but it's high quality, with a good mix of local and international artists, a wide variety of media, special programs for youth and disabled artists, and solid awards programs ($1500 in artist awards, plus several purchase awards). There's a lemonade stand, but no food hawkers (and they're not needed, with a plethora of mall restaurants within easy walking distance.) The music is pleasant but mellow. And the artists are well cared for, with ice water and booth sitters available throughout both days.

Patty puts her marketing savvy to good use in promoting the show, with good airplay of a 30-second TV spot, good media placement, and nicely designed glossy postcards, 

And it seems to pay off.  We've all done shows in shopping malls and seen "patrons" strolling the show with armfuls of bags from mall retailers, but none from artists. But as the show unfolded this weekend, I noted that although attendance was moderate, a large percentage of visitors were actually stopping in to browse, converse, and (sometimes) buy.  Saturday sales were more than respectable for me, under brilliant blue skies and coolish (for SW Fla) temperatures.  Sunday was unseasonably hot and a bit more humid, and a bit uncomfortable in my tent for this time of year.  Buyers enough, but more small purchases, making for a lower sales volume.  I was down about $350 from the previous day, but given that my home is only 15 minutes' drive from the show, I can still chalk this one up in the "Win" column.

Most of the artists I spoke with were satisfied with their sales totals.  A husband-and-wife mixed media team reported that sales were up 40% over last year's more-than-acceptable take. One well-known local painter sold two of his large (roughly 4x5 foot) acrylics on Saturday;   Several high-end jewelers said they were happy enough with their totals.
Two photographers, new to the show circuit, made enough sales to be encouraged. "Decent, but not gangbusters," said one jeweler, and that seemed to be the prevailing sentiment.  With the economy in SW Florida still lagging and the seasonal Green-bucked Snowbirds just beginning to arrive, that's not a bad commentary.

Upsides:

* Patty and her staff stroll the show frequently.  And she goes out of her way to find out how artists are faring, sales-wise, and is generous with her suggestions on how to improve booth appearance and saleability of one's art.  In my view, this makes her shows particularly desirable for emerging artists who are talented enough to be juried in, but eager to improve their quality and marketability.  

Downsides:

* As in years past, some patrons were heard complaining about how hard it was to find a parking space near the show.  (Some of that blame can be laid on artists who chose to ignore the artist parking, about five minutes' walk from the show venue, and park close in to the tents.) 

* Despite fewer artists this year, the show had a tighter layout: Booth space was reduced from its previous 12x12 foot dimensions to 11x11, which made for one tight setup.  There was sufficient space behind your booth for your inventory,  but unless you were on a corner space or had a back door in your booth it was difficult, if not impossible, to squeeze between tents and get to it.  I'm already looking forward to the January 2012 installment of this fine show, but I, and especially my sore back, hope that it will mark a return to the 12x12 layout.

(Postscript: In a post-show thank you email, Patty explained that the tighter space was due to her desire to avoid a repeat of 2010's "split show" layout (which was a concession made necessary by the owners' redesign of the area in which the show was held). "Therefore, we have a smaller area to use, because we want to remain on the front part of the mall with high visibility from the roads," she noted.)

July 9 I was in St. Joseph, MI, to do the "street jurying" for the Krasl Art Fair. The jurying was for awards and for reinvitations for the 2012 show. Their policy for that year is to reinvite the top 40% of exhibitors. We scored from 1 to 7 and then handed in the score sheets. I have no idea how the other jurors (there were five) scored. The report:

1. Sara Shambarger (Krasl Art Fair Director) is a rock star. I've been in this business since 1978, attended innumerable art fairs, met lots of art fair personnel and coordinated a few events also. No one could pay anyone enough to do everything she does to make this art fair a success for the Art Center, for artists and for tourism in St. Joe, MI.
   
   I can have a critical eye, as I've participated in some of the best and some of the worst, but no artist can complain that this show's staff doesn't try to deliver everything they can. This is as "artist-friendly" as they come. Fair booth fee, easy parking, in and out, food, beautiful setting, hordes of volunteers, and attendees for whom this is one of the high points of the season. They even had a staff person who visited every booth to insure compliance of their rules.
   
   
2. Judging an art fair is not for the weak of heart or body. I was a judge for the show. OMG - Sara asked that we introduce ourselves to each artist. I did my best, but some people were just too busy with customers and I had to keep moving but I believe I spoke with 95% of the artists. I had my friend, Barb Burkhardt, with me as my assistant and we started out at 9:45 am and turned in our jury sheets at 5:45 pm. 220 or so booths, two minutes or so apiece, 90 degree heat, led to utter exhaustion at the end of the day, and I'm no weenie.
   
   
3. Artists all have their own methods for selling their work, but I believe this group really takes it seriously. Very, very few were sitting in the back of their booths. They were up and talking and taking advantage of the situation. I got a few sales spiels even from friends who explained their processes even though I knew them well! Suddenly I wasn't Connie, but the judge! Amusing.
   
   
4. I was pleased to meet AFIers for the first time: Brian and Leslie Jensen, Bo Mackison, Bill Sargent, Judy Zeddies, Christine Reichow, Kara Aubin, Tres Taylor, Kathy Frey, Christina Smith, David Curles, Merri Pattinian, Patricia McCleery, Faith Wickey, Leo Charette and Judy Zeddies. Please excuse me if I didn't include everyone. I did learn that our community is pretty well known throughout the business. Of course, spent time with some of my old friends Mike and Carol Weber, Carol Swayze, Barry Bernstein, Chip Bingham, Paula and Charlie Shoulders, Lisa Vetter, Mary Cody, Diane Aronoff, John Gibb, Laurie Fowler, Michael Stipek, Clair and Dennis Thompson, Joy Wallace, Mike and Nancy Strailey, Larry Smith, John Leben, Kendra Krumpe, Holly Foss, Gary Seidel, Barbara Swift, Beth Crowder, Wendy Hill, Ellen Marshall, Dawn Adams, Jon Route, and Nels Johnson.
   
   
5. Saturday night we celebrated potter Tim Smith's birthday. Thanks to Diane French, Robin Renee Hix, Beth Crowder, Holly Foss and Barry Bernstein for inviting Barb and me to join them.
   
   
6. This show reinvites a large percentage of the participants and I can see it pays off for the returnees who can build an audience and for the fair goers who can find their favorites. This makes it hard to jury in, but does make a cohesive show with an almost family atmosphere for the participants.
   
7. The setting is lovely, high on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan with lots of shade. It is a very attractive place for patrons to spend the day.
   

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Off to Ann Arbor last week in the 100 degree heat, but we're tough, aren't we? We know how to dress and be prepared for all kinds of weather. I visited all of Main Street and Liberty up to State after arriving at 5 pm. Met friends for dinner, got lots of cold water bottles handed to me (many thanks to Nels Johnson, my first rescuer), met many of the members here (hello to Ray Mosteller), passed out Red Dots, gathered "yesses" from artists doing Arts, Beats & Eats on our promotion program.

Jody Depew McLeane with her pastel drawings in the Street Art Fair

Next year I'll bring a little camcorder and do some videos. The show closed and I was still going strong so went out to the Old Town Bar with old friends Jim Reinert, Mike and Karen Baum, Don and Dawn Shurlow and Jerry Davis.

Up early on Thursday and at the show before opening. Passed out postcards for ABE to Nancy Strailey (thanks to Mike Strailey for the cappucino), Jean-Claude Louis, Mary Cody and Xavier Nuez. Did lots of visiting on North University, all around Ingalls Mall in the Street Fair (a pleasure to meet you Michael Wommack) and visit with Patricia McCleery. Then down State Street to see Jim Parker, Jon Hecker, Bonnie Blandford and many others, members on this site. 

So many great visits with old friends including Larry Oliverson, Jim and Kathy Eaton, David Bigelow, Scott Coleman (who we met at our very first art fair in 1978!). Said a very tearful goodbye to Rick Preston and Barbara Bate. Rick is a fine photographer leaving the business after 40 years. They will really be missed in their swing through the Midwest every year. Best wishes to you both.

A friend, who will remain nameless, said that the sales were "pokey." The rules were being enforced in the Street Fair. Mo Riley, Street Art Fair Director, removed a person with reproductions, no repros allowed in that show.

I encountered Mo last Thursday as she was trying to get a bottle of water from the non-profit booth run by the Boy Scouts in her area of the show. They turned her down, having to idea who she was. We had a good laugh over this. It's pretty funny when the show director can't get a bottle of water in her own art fair.

Vintage photo: Ann Arbor on Main Street - 2005

Want some extensive reviews with art fair patrons and artists?This is an excellent link for some videos. Also, listen to an interview Mo Riley. http://americajr.com/entertainment/artfairs/2011/annarborreview0727.html

Ready for a good laugh? I found this online "Art Fair Rage Syndrome." Hey, a  new diagnosis?

http://markmaynard.com/?p=14782

This is a huge event. People love it and they hate it. Artists make big piles of money and they make none. It is crowded and it is sparse. It is overrated and it is underrated (well, not too sure about that one). My take is that it really is too large. All those booths sprawling around the State Street area are really dead zones for artists.  State Street Merchants I beg of you to go back to your original plan: Liberty, North U., Maynard and around the corner on William. Those additional booths on Maynard past William and the booths south of Maynard, plus the Thompson booths are really not fair selling spaces.  I know it will really hurt your pocketbook but it may be the salvation of the whole event.

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So far in my summer northeast swing, I've dodged a few meteorological bullets, and this week was no exception.  As was the case at Ocean City MD a few weeks ago, Friday's weather was brutal--about 2 inches of rain fell from Friday afternoon through midnight, but skies began clearing by the time artists arrived to begin setup.  This caused chalk-marking of the booth spaces to be delayed from Friday to early Sat. a.m., but promoter Marcy Boroff (of Renaissance Craftables) communicated this in a Friday-evening email, so there were no big surprises. 

It's tough for me to comment on all aspects of this show, so I'm hoping that others will fill in the blanks.  The reason: I applied to this long-running show  after the deadline (but immediately after several artists I had asked, raved about it).  I was initially wait-listed, with the explanation that construction on one of the streets that hosted the show was causing a scramble for additional spaces, and if they became available I'd be offered one.  Two weeks later, they were, and I was in. 

Setup, at least for the artists on the "extension", was a breeze.  Our booths were  the sidewalk, facing the buildings, not the street.  So although there was automobile traffic behind our booths all day, it also made streetside parking available, so we could unload and park right behind our booths. And as temperatures rose toward 90 degrees under clear skies, we were happy that tall shade trees and buildings cooled things off.  Folks in the main festival area, set up in the street without benefit of maple trees, were pretty much parboiled by 3 PM. 

The downside was that although the new spaces were along the same road (Kings Highway) as the main show, show goers had to cross a busy intersection to get to us, and there were no "More Art This Way!" type of signs to alert them to our existence.  So our group of 20 or so artists--who called ourselves "The Orphans"--had pretty light traffic on Saturday.

The show has unusual hours:  11-7 on Saturday, and noon to 5 on Sunday (although many artists opened as early as 10 AM on Day 2).  As the title of the show implies, this show is geared more toward crafters, and less toward fine artists, And although I saw some really nice work as I strolled about on  Sunday morning, overall the show quality was middle-of-the-road. 

On Sunday crowds picked up festival wide, and the good news is, they came prepared to buy.  Most of the folks with whom I spoke come to this show year after year.  One Sunday-night TV report cited a police estimate of 100,000 attendees, though I'll bet that one came from the Chamber of Commerce.  Nonetheless, crowds were definitely heavy; I tripled my sales from the previous day and wound up with sales well into four figures.  Marcy came by to introduce herself on Saturday and good-naturedly chided me to "get my app in on time next year."  Based on good results in the face of the layout challenges, I don't see any reason to book anywhere else.  I'd like to see what I could do on the "main drag" of this popular show. 

So, as I said: If you did the show on the main drag, your results may vary.  Let's hear some comments!

This is not a show for everyone.  First of all, it lasts 6 days, from Tuesday thru Sunday.  Day 1 goes from 7:30 AM until 9PM.  The next 4 days the hours are 11AM until 9PM.  Sunday goes until 6PM.  Secondly, this is their fund raiser and they take a 20% commission. Thirdly, they handle all the sales and then send you a direct deposit into your account, which they try to do within 7 days, but, 14-17 days is the reality.  So, you have to pay all your expenses for the show before you see any cash flow.  Fourth, this show never closes early, so, if it is snowing and 32 degrees, you have to be at your booth even though there are no customers.

Loading in and loading out is really hassle free and easy. We can drive right up to our space and we get all day on Monday to unload and set up.  The show provides 36 16' x 16' tents.  Each tent is divided into 4 sections, so, each exhibitor gets a 16' front. The show lasts until 9PM so you need lights.  Most people brought their own lights, but, they had lights if you needed them.  And, they provided ladders, so, you could attach the lights to the top of the booth.  I got there an hour early and they let me right in.  That was cool.  What wasn't cool was that they eliminated a couple of tents right in the middle of the street that had the best location for traffic flow.  Unfortunately, I was in one of those tents.  They ended up cramming those tents on the left side against the curb and facing away from the main traffic flow.  In addition,  I was facing some trees that had really annoying birds crackling loudly throughout the show. And, they ended up perched on the electric wire right next to my space, pooping along the curb.  I was supposed to be facing the afternoon sun, but, I was mostly in the cold and dark. I went from having one of the best spaces in the show to one of the worst.  Because of a numbers mix up, other people were not in the spaces they thought they were in and I heard that some people complained.  The committee was apologetic, but couldn't really do anything about it, this year.  Having said that, the booths for the most part were arranged well and spaced so a customer could get to every booth.  There wasn't really a bad location in the show, except that nobody would trade spaces with me.

There were no awards for best of show, etc. but there were plenty of purchase awards.  There was a pretty good dinner for the artists and a pretty good breakfast one day.  A donut shop that has been in existence for 80 years(I'm guessing at the age) donated donuts in the morning and cookies in the afternoon. They provided very good coffee, soda, and water. Unfortunately, the donut booth was right near my space and I gained back all that weight I lost eating really well in Florida.  This show has an excellent helper system and instead of just booth baby sitting, they would run and get us anything we wanted.  Someone actually went to a restaurant to get my lunch for me.  The artists also had access to a couple of really good clean bathrooms that were close by.

The artwork ran the gamut from really good to "what is that doing here?"  I thought that this show had some of the best painters I had ever seen at an art fair.  Much of it had a Southwest look which was refreshing to me because I usually stay in the East and Mid-East.  There were a lot of California and New Mexico, etc. exhibitors there.  Something I found shocking was that there was a booth with watches that got in as jewelry.  The person in the booth called himself a rep and he talked about the fact that they had 6 "designers" who designed the work.  I don't know where the watches were made but they weren't made by the rep in the booth or the so called designers.  I heard that the jewelers all got together and complained about this booth.  I, also, had a conversation with a committee member who said they would kick them out of the show if it could be determined that the people manning the booth didn't make the pieces. However, nothing was done. There was some other so called "art" like a booth with clocks that appeared devoid of any human qualities, but, most of the booths had really excellent work.

Most of the exhibitors I talked to, in the end, had a really good show. They invite back 2/3rds or so, of the top selling exhibitors.  Since this is basically a 2-D show and a jewelry show, most of these people are jewelers and 2-D people.  This show also tends to be a low end show, to some degree, so, if you had work below $60 you could have done really well.  Consequently, functional pottery tends to do really well.  Doug Becker did an excellent business with his glass selling ornaments and paperweights.  He calls them "birds and balls." The show could be divided into 2 parts--the first part is Tuesday thru Friday afternoon and the second show starts Friday evening and lasts until Sunday at 6.  The show opens at 7:30 AM on Tuesday morning.  There is a heavily supported program where individuals and corporations pledge to spend at least $500 in purchase prizes.  The early opening allows the corporate execs to come through before work on Tuesday to get first crack at the work.  I've been told that at one time, the streets would be full of people Tuesday morning and every artist would have a number of purchase prize cards in their booth.  I've done this show twice and both times there were hardly any early buyers on Tuesday morning.  They could easily eliminate this part of the show.  It's really taxing on the exhibitors to be out there for a 14 hour day when there are no buyers in sight.  The rest of the Tuesday-Friday part of the show had people checking out the show for later purchases and a lot of low end buyers.  By Friday afternoon there were a lot of people complaining about extremely poor sales.  To be fair though, there were a few people that I talked to who had really good early sales with their high end work.  Then came Saturday.  The weather was excellent on Saturday and people started showing up early.  It was definitely a different crowd.  People came to buy.  I sold steadily all day long and I believe the majority of exhibitors had the same experience. In the end, I had 2 purchase awards and a pretty good show.  Almost, everyone I talked to was happy.  I did talk to a couple of people with really excellent work who had bad shows but I think this was the exception. 

The weather had a lot to do with how well sales went.  There was only 2 excellent days out of the 6.  Two days were extremely cold.  I figured the high was 50 degrees.  Friday had extremely high winds gusting to 40 mph.  This was stressful for anyone facing the wind.  There was some breakage.  I think this was the reason why sales were no existent on a couple of the days.  Two years ago the temperature was in the low 90's every day and no rain.  I sold at least one big piece every day.  This year I really only had 2 days of decent sales--Friday, the high wind day and Saturday, when the temps were around 80 degrees and sunny.  The worst day of the show for sales and weather wise was Sunday.  The temperature was in the 50's and it rained most of the day.  There was even hail for a few minutes.  Hardly any customers showed up.  It was too bad because I'm sure Sunday would have been as good as Saturday, but, no one with any sense was out on Sunday.  Except us, of course.  The committee should have had more concern for the exhibitors and canceled the show on Sunday which every other show I do would have done.  Every exhibitor I talked to would have packed up and left.  The top picture has me standing in front of my booth on Sunday with 2 sweaters on, my winter coat, a silly plastic bag over my shoulders, and my wool hat. AND, I was still cold.

Would I do this show again?  I would.  Unfortunately, I probably wasn't in the top sales that get invited back so I have to apply again.  Decorative ceramics doesn't sell as well as paintings or jewelry.  Personally, I think they should take that in consideration and invite me back. lol.