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Well I had a pretty cool day yesterday. I am just about a week away from my first anniversary of starting Lemon Drops Art. My FB page reached 2 thousand likes and I created my first ever 'tutorial' (I'm still uploading said tutorial...this part takes forever apparently but I will post a link when its all finished....that is, if I haven't slipped into a coma waiting for this thing to upload. In which case please send coffee!)

I wanted to share with you guys my "Thank You" post from my fb page. Here we go:

Yay...!!! Today Lemon Drops Art hit 2000 LIKES!! You guys are just amazing and I LOVE you! This comes just 5 days from the first anniversary of Lemon Drops Art! How cool is that? (It's cool right? I'm not just being weird like 'OMG OMG 2K OMG!' ) So... I have been trying to think of what to say to all of you in a way that expresses my gratitude for you and your support in my first year on this way cool adventure.

I could say I am humbled by your support, I could say I never thought I'd be looking back on the past year and realize just how far the LDA has come. I could mention that the friends I've made and the talent I've met on our art forums are absolutely top notch and I can't wait to see what the next year holds, but what I really think I want to say is thank-you.

Thank you for bearing with me on my first few fumbled online auctions. Thank you for graciously answering all of my relentless questions throughout the year. Thank you for allowing me to blow up your walls with 500 pictures of the same art piece 'just because' I wanted to be sure I got the best angle/light/color & the planets were aligned properly. After all, I work for like, ever on it and I want to show it off damnit!

Thank you for being you. I couldn't be here without you... Well, ok... I 'could' but it would be very lonely... and I would have waaaay too many little creatures in all of the nooks and crannies of my house, which would probably lead to my husband wanting a divorce because he couldn't cope with so many little 'eyes' watching him from every where in the house, and that would cause me to be destitute seeing as I spent ALL my monies on art supplies! Which might lead to my daughter dropping out of high school to get a job to help mom pay the bills and turn to a life of stripping because it was easy money and the next thing you know I have grand babies before I turn 39! *YIKES* So thank you for not making me a 38 year old destitute divorced grandma! Ya'll are the best!!

Whats the BEST part of a 2K Likes day???? DUH! FREE-STUFF!!!!! Every person who likes/ comments on this post between now and Friday at 7pm EST Will be entered into my 2K drawing for this little Unicorn! She is super-sweet =)  I haven't given her a name yet, so if you're bored (not sure how you can possibly be considering this post is a MILE long) leave a comment with name ideas. If I chose the name you post, I will also send you a 'free-beeeee' unless you win the unicorn, then I will send you the unicorn  XoXo~ Alicia 

Every show we have at least a half a dozen people ask us for 'buy sell' kinds of jewelry pieces.  This week my favorite question was:  My mother went to Israel 30 years ago and bought me this star  with the word chai (life on it).  She got the large one, I got the medium one and my cousin got the small one.,    I lost it and I always go to these art shows hoping I will find this exact piece of jewelry.  Do you have it?

Kick me before sarcasm rolls off my tongue.  I politely said that the person who designed those pieces 30 years ago would not be happy to know that I, or someone else, had copied that design.  So, no, we don't have that design but we have 15 other designs that you may like.

No, she said, I've looked 30 years for this design and this is the design I want.

Or, last week the lady said:  My x-boyfriend gave me a star with a horseshoe on it.  When I broke up 25 years ago, I gave him back the pendant.  I always loved that pendant.  Do you have it?

We don't have it - perhaps you might cookie horseshoe, star and pendant and find it that way.  No, she said - she would keep on looking.  When we got to the room that night, I googled horseshoe, star, pendant and up popped a piece.  i don't know if this is 'the one' but it was easy to find.

We're not gong to have 'plain stars' that can be purchased on the internet.  Pieces are designed by me.  I want people to 'step out of the box' and look beyond that plain star ... alas, those who say - cute, interesting, nice, very interesting, very nice, different ... just don't get it.  

On the other hand, a blog was written about a new piece - Tikva - Star of Hope..

http://sherylaronson.blogspot.com/2012/06/hope.html

Welcome to the Cooper studio, where we've predetermined to talk again about the summer art fair. 

 Aaaah, sunny days, the green grass of the park scattered with cute little white tents, happy artists selling their fine art....

Oh wait.  How much of that line is fiction?  Imaginary?  Delusional? A sham?

I've spent quite a bit of research time lately on the topic of the "fine art fair".  Some of them have a heck of a history.

Every time I looked up one of the grandaddy art fairs, and was able to find their mission statement, they all seemed to have something in common.  Some examples for you to peruse:

---Wanting to create an event where local artists could showcase their work to the community, Womer established the first 57th Street Art Fair in 1948

---The Annual Edmonds Arts Festival began in 1957.  The mission then as now, was to celebrate and promote the arts with a lively and pleasurable presentation of local and national work.

---It all began one hot Chicago summer in the early 80's when four neighborhood artists (Bob Smeltzer, Joe Kotzman, Tony Cachapero and Rodney Patterson) decided to have an art fair--a picnic in the park.  Rodney suggested that it might be a good opportunity for local artists to show and share their work to each other and to their neighbors. 

Did you catch the commonality?  They are all working to showcase the art, to friends, neighbors, community.  To "celebrate and promote the arts".  So how did we get from that, to this:

---Art Fair has become both tired and tiresome.  It's held in the absolute hottest part of the summer.  The prices are ridiculous and most of the so-called art is schlock.  How many times can you mill through the crowds viewing the same old fare every year?

--Taken from a news article about parking garage revenue during the AnnArbor Art Fair, but certainly not a unique thought amongst art fair patrons.

What jumps out at you from that comment?   Maybe the SO-CALLED ART IS SCHLOCK?

Shortly before reading the comment, I read another--this one a discussion at ArtFairInsiders regarding (of course) lackluster art fair sales, and various artists comments about if they would be exhibiting at art fairs next year.  One artist said even with poor sales, she was not quitting.  She would "cobble together" something that would sell. 

What happened to celebrating the arts?  Showing our work to the community?  If the purpose of an art fair is to showcase our work to the community, shouldn't we be showing our best? 

(here comes the politically incorrect part)  Are you an artist, or not?  Are you being delusional in calling what you exhibit at an art fair ART? Ouch.  I suggest if you are cobbling something together that you think will sell, adding to the patron impression that the "so-called art is schlock", then maybe it's time to re-think your game plan. 

There's always a discussion out there somewhere about "what art is" and there are a bazillion different answers.  I suggest that "schlock" is not one of them.  I also suggest that if you are cobbling together something to coax a twenty dollar bill out of some art fair patron's pocket, that something is not art either.  The summer art fair is not dead, but it has been seriously injured.  Injured by artists who have put grabbing a buck, in front of creating their art.  Yes, we all have to make a living, but we'll do it best by keeping our priorities straight.  Art fairs were created to showcase and celebrate art, not schlock.

If you are an artist planning on exhibiting at an art fair next summer, I'm asking you to bring your art.  Bring your BEST art.

Later, Cooper