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Post 1/28  29/11

I am pleased as punch to report that I made a rather large sale the other day; however, this is where experience separates itself from just plain old dumb luck. Realize now, that I still am a fairly relative newby with less than three years art show experience under my tent.  So, when a wonderful patron asked me, “And how much is shipping to New Hampshire?”  I played coy and said I’d have to check my book and get them a quote.  Hell, I’ve shipped paintings to Germany!  How difficult could it be to ship a piece to Keene, NH?

Well.

I checked my little book, and recited the quote for the USPS for a piece 36” X 24” and up to 25 lbs to NY for $85.00.  Hey, how much more could a piece 52” X 24” be? A few bucks?  Oh no no no no.  At a certain dimension, the USPS turns its back on you.  At a certain weight, UPS and FedEx just hand you Vaseline and tell you to bend over.  There is a netherworld out there in shipping, where the actual size of a package is eclipsed by its estimated weight category.  This is the best way I have to describe it, and it’s better this way, because my tequila report is interwoven with it.  Apparently, according to one private shipping company (which may be the issue) dimensions and weight cease to matter and become a nebulous area where the length x width x girth is estimated to fall within an estimated weight range, and if your package doesn’t fall within these specifications, they hand you the extra large bottle of Vaseline.  Uh huh. 

“Three hundred thirty dollars.  Plus one hundred twenty nine to build the crate.”

“Two hundred sixty five dollars, and that’s only a thousand dollars insurance.”

“Well, air will insure any amount, if you can prove its value, but ground will only insure up to a thousand.”

Hang on.  I’m getting to the tequila report.

So, after a few hours of feeling like I bit off both ends of my burrito, so to speak, I began to ask other artists which shipper they use.

“Shipper?” many of them inquired with a politely raised eyebrow. “Why would I want to use one of those?”

For the first few days of the show, my booth was peppered with fliers from private shippers advertising “free packing”, “will pick up from show”, “insurance included”.  I began to feel like a college student shopping for car insurance.  I didn’t even know there was a difference between packing and crating.

“You make your own box.”  Upon viewing my completely obtuse expression, my peeps began to explain.

“You go to Home Depot.  You grab a refrigerator box.  They’re always throwing them out, they’re free and they’re heavy duty.  You cutta the box to size.  Now, if you gotta canvas, you gotta getchaself summa masonite and putta thata on the face of it...you builda your owna box...”

Ok, so maybe I’m overdoing the Godfather bit, but it was about as big a mystery to me as say, oh, cannoli cream, cappozella, and Casa Nostra.  So, taking me under their wings, these obliging artists initiated me into Packing Your Own Artwork 101.  “Screw the shippers,” went the first commandment, “they overcharge.”

As Framer Dude is collaterally involved with this adventure, he was adamant that I buy a box from someone: “I am NOT dumpster diving for cardboard!  We’ll go to the shippers and buy a box!”

So, we went to various packers.

“I can order that size for you, it’ll be here Wednesday.”

“A 65” x 30” x 6” is $70.  Yeah, just the cardboard box, lady.  We gotta pay to freight it here.”

“You need a crate for that size.  Mine are $129.”

Uh huh.  When a shipper charges more for a box than I paid for a painting to go to Gemany, I start to get the idea that maybe I’m being played and taken for the rube I am.   I don’t like that feeling.  I retreated into my wounded manic artist persona in the truck home, feeling about as stable as nitroglycerin.  Seriously, one decent sale and I shoot myself in the foot and eat my profits with the shipping? There’s got to be a better way.  Maybe I don’t have all the money in the world, but if I bought a painting for say, 2 grand and then was told I’d have to pay 500 in shipping, I’d balk on principle and rent my own damn uhaul and driver for less!

Framer Dude suddenly changed his tune when another boothbuddy pointed out all our frigging tools.

“Can he build a crate?  I mean, it’s kinda like building a frame...I got a painting I have to ship next week, and I’d pay you to make it rather than one of these vulture shippers.”

 MacGuyver Dude pipes up.

“I can build a crate.”  

Today I saw the covert looks towards him with visual vocalizations of “Crates” along with fingers pointing.  He may be leaving hot dog heaven soon.

So, having been deflowered by the packing and shipping companies, one of the veteran artists who has taken me under his wing, gently tugged at my sleeve at Happy Hour yesterday and offered me a consolation/congratulation: homemade tequila by a compadre of his from Mexico.  A bit of law and trivia (are the two even mutually exclusive?): if you make your own tequila in Sonoran County, you are not allowed to call it ‘tequila’; this was called Baccanora, or something like that.  I took French and Latin in high school, what was I thinking?

“You’ll get the hang of it,” he assured me as he expertly daubed finishing touches on a commissioned painting.  What, the shipping?   “...don’t take it like a shot, just sip it.” Oh. Oops.

Sippin’ tequila.  This stuff had a smoky cactusy burn to it, complex and oaky and flowery, that would have made it a venal sin to mix it with anything.  Well, after a water glass of this pure cactus heaven, I stumbled back to my RV, only to find Framer Dude and another peep engaging in another consciousness-altering substance.

Feeling suitably invincible now, I acquiesced to this peep’s generous offer as well.  Which is why this blog post was not published last night, as originally intended.  Beware of artists bearing gifts.

I first met Ernie (and his wife Cynthia, whom I wrote about yesterday) on the first day of setup, and was immediately in love with his hand crafted leather-and-embroidery furniture.  That’s too simplistic.  Let’s just say, I utterly regretted my Rooms to Go leather couch and loveseat purchase and am still trying to wrap my mind around a way to return them so I can have a set of Ernie’s craftsmanship.  

The most amazingly butter soft leather, in grape purple.  Totally cool, totally wow.

I never knew furniture could be so creative.  This is the first piece that captured me:

and its detail, in copper and turquoise, and yes, real python:

Check out his other creations at nwnative.com, here's another and Ernie himself, who I have to give a shout out to for his advice to me on shipping!

I also love the painting of him and Cynthia behind him, done by a friend of his.

I've decided that I'm going to post one artist a day while here at the Fine Art Expo here in Scottsdale.  My photography is lousy, my writing is amateur, but I'd like to honor all my peeps who devote ten weeks of their lives to exhibit at this wonderful show, and have extended a helping hand to me with my endless questions.  Today, for my first victim, I chose Cynthia Downs-Apodaca, who was the first artist I met here last Monday during setup.  She is the first woman I have ever met who is more of a rock geek than I am, and once you see her jewelry, you can see why.  What first caught my eye were the opals, since opals are my favorite gemstone and I can spot one at a hundred yards across an art show.  The silver wire braiding that she does is so intricate, I don't think my photos can even come close to doing it justice:

She also has these fabulous pieces she calls Tidal Pools, and in this one, the bottom stone- an Australian boulder opal- actually has a teeny beach scene in it!  Talk about the intricacy in nature! 

I'm also impressed whenever I see a woman firing up an acetylene torch and power tools, as she was hard at work one evening, after the show had closed.  Look for her wearable minerals at cynthiadowns.com. 

Cynthia, sans goggles and mask:

I can truly say she rocks!

Lori, an oil painter like myself, lives here in the Phoenix area, and the first work of hers to catch my eye was one of Kaibab Path at the Grand Canyon, a dramatic scene of this winding path that descends to the floor of the canyon.  This really captures the claustrophobia of a narrow mountain pass contrasted against the vertigo of a sheer canyon drop: 

And because the glare was so bad, here's a detail:

I also really liked her handling of the architecture and the light shining through in this piece,

The first thought that struck my mind was that her scenes remind me of the Mediterranean, with her use of color and play of light; as it turns out, there is no need to go abroad to capture beautiful light: many of her scenes are of California and the Southwest, and her scenes are well known to locals.  Her work feels warm and inviting, like a Southern California summer day.

See more of Lori’s work at www.lorimyers.com.

A big congratulations to Carroll Swayze, newly confirmed as a board member of the NAIA. Many of you know Carroll began doing street shows at the age of 14 and never turned back. Her 40+ years experience and broad knowledge of the arts, as both an artist, instructor and show director will be a great asset to the group. She has very solid ideas and isn't afraid to stand by them. What a great day for ethics in the arts. (bells and whistle noises)

Way to go Carroll!!

The 15th Annual Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival is now in full swing in beautiful Alpena, Michigan. It is being held at the Thunder Bay Recreational Center October 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, 2010. There will be artists, photographer, music, helicopter rides, plane rides and boat rides to Middle Island. Visit the Great Lakes Lighthouse Museum and the wonderful lighthouses of the Sunrise Side of the state.

I am doing my first show PLUS I'm the Official Photographer for the Festival so not only to I mind my booth, I'll be running around taking pictures. Tonight was the welcome dinner and silent auction, which was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. I'll let you know how I do when the show is over.

Terri at the Drake's Nest in Ossineke, Michigan

Sept. 26-27,2010

Hamilton, OH

Booth Fee: $100.00

Jury Fee: $25.00

I loved the location of this show, the artists weren't cramped, we had tree lined "streets"- (they were golf cart streets). Plenty of trees and permenant sculptures behind and around the exhibitor spaces which made for a beautiful setting. Parking was close and people were there to shop. Set up was completely painless since there was room to bring your car right up to your space and get back out on Friday all day so noone was there all at the same time.

My sales were close to the 10x's the booth fee, so that rule of thumb worked for me. Sales were about the same on Sunday as Saturday so don't panic if Saturday doesn't do as well as you think it should. Another jewelry artists did better on Sunday than Saturday. If you do metal sculpture, you will do well at this show! People were walking all over the place with those things. (they were cool!) The photographer next to me did well and I think she would consider coming back, forgot to ask her. The water colorist on my other side did great work but didn't seem too happy with his sales. His stuff was great so that was unfortunate. I think the biggest thing with shows in this climate is to make sure you have a lot of options for people to look at. If they feel you don't have a big enough selection, they will go to the next booth. I found that demonstations work fantastic at shows, especially for a jeweler. Men don't always like to get stuck in our booths, especially if the show is heavy on jewlery (which is most of them), but guys like to see how things are made and will stop to look at least for a minute which is a minute more than you would have gotten. I'll be back to this show next year.

What happens when you gamble big can be a huge loss that makes you want to cry, as was the case for me. I had my worst sales in 5 years at an art festival. I am not going to bash Bill Kinney as I did see some positive things. I did see a fair amount of advertising (saw signs, saw full page ads in several newspapers, and even a tourist TV station ad.) Also I talked to people who heard about it on the radio. There was plenty of parking for patrons and parking for artists was only about 400 yards away. Setup and tear down went fairly smoothly with prior day setup available. Also pizza during setup was appreciated.

The weather was okay overall. Saturday was beautiful; Sunday was very humid in the morning and then threatened rain in the late afternoon. The show was officially closed an hour early to allow us to pack up before the storm hit. It was a good call, as there really weren't many people there at the time anyhow.


Despite the apparent advertising just not many people turned out, I'd estimate about 4,000 to 8,000 people with most attending on Saturday. Maybe the low turnout had to due with the fact not enough people live in the area. I thought this show was going to bring people from New York City and Philadelphia but I don't think that happened. Maybe that was a pipe dream. Atmosphere of show was rather dull; it was just in a big field near an elementary school. No art festival program either was provided. The quality of art was varied from quality high end work to questionable. There were way too many photographers and jewelers, making up about 40% of the 140 artists at the show! There was not enough space provided for storage. Most spaces were exactly 10’x12’ with the 12 feet being on the side (not the back). There was plenty of room on the field, why not lay it out to give artists more room? Of course the worst aspect of the show was sales. I did only $250. Of fellow photographers I had talked with their numbers were 0, $200 and $800. Some photographers might have done better, but this was just a sampling from three that gave me their numbers. I talked to a few painters with sales of 0, $1800 and $3200. I talked to one sculpture artist that did about $3000. Of the dozen other artists I talked to but didn't give numbers about half did "horrible" and the other half did "okay".

Why the low turnout? I think part of the problem may be not enough people live in the area.
Long Beach Island only has a population of 3,500 people and the mainland across the bridge of Stafford Township only has 22,500 people. They need to draw people from places further out and don't think it did.

Would I do this show again? No. Would I give any of Bill Kinney's other shows a try? Perhaps I would but not likely. I think he is aiming his shows in locations and markets that might not work for me. I generally need to do shows with more people attending and with people that can visualize my whimsical work on their walls in their homes. This show provided neither for me. I am not sure I can put my finger on what sells best here, but those that sell well in Boca Raton, Florida might have a chance here. As for me it was one of my gambles gone horribly bad. I’m over crying about it now and will soon be back at the craps table. We all gamble when we do shows, some gambles are bigger than others. Some pay out; some take all your money. All we can do is make our best judgments, based on the information we have available and throw the dice. May the dice be kind to us all.

Hi,

I just jumped into this forum and there is a load of info here!

I will be doing Crested Butte this year and it will be my first real outdoor show of the summer.

What are the experiences there? I paint abstracts (all originals) on canvas and planned to take some large show pieces and lots of small to medium work. What price range is typical buyer in CB looking for?

I'll be doing just a few festivals this year and I'm trying to get into decent ones. I sell pretty good locally, in my galleries and from my website and blog. I run a graphics business full time and wife is a professional so I don't have to sell tons to support my art habit just yet.

I'm wondering if I'm nuts to start going to festivals, but a couple of small ones have given me the bug.

Thanks!

Mark

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