Posted by TRACY KEHR on January 13, 2014 at 2:15pm
We just love to travel to Florida in the winter to show our work. We love all the traveling in fact. One of the reasons we quit a real job in Pharmaceutical Sales in 2010 to be artists... Travel & Iive before the word 'retirement'. We home school (online school) the kids and throw the dog in too. Leaving just after Christmas and staying until mid-March. Travel trailer packed & walmart parking lots for 9 days we go! We stay by Sanibel for the season. The kids get so much school done that they advance another grade by the time we head home. No rest! Kayak time exists.We have done some TERRIBLE shows. Really only in Florida. We live in Michigan. You think your awesome? Come on down here and do your thing! We actually are the opposite. We think we need to learn SO much! This is why we come here. All the artists around us send us to a 3-month class on life. The artists teach my kids without speaking to them. Most do however and actually invite the kids in to tell them everything they know. So cool for them both! Other artists teach us how to show the art with their phenemenonal displays. If you get to do a Howard Alan show & Debbie tells you what to do to have a better display - you better do it. I have had art instructors and business professors but she taught me more in 5 minutes then those other fellas. I thank her for that.We swallow any pride we have. We shut our mouths and we listen. Cape Coral was no exception. We did it last year to Debbie Alan standards and made $1,000. Cape Coral doesn't want that. It's a place to try new things - PLAY! Make smaller or something like a 'rough art draft' and see what you get. If you are still into evolving and like to step out of the comfort zone. We did that this year and doubled our sales from last year. I can appreciate that crowd. I am that crowd. It's a show I could go to and buy us gals some cool stuff! The food is expensive. Beer guts abound but they're perimeter hanger-outers. They stay to the side so it's easier to drink! Its a crowded show so that helps traffic flow! It was absolutely fantastic to see happy people & finally happy artists! Everyone around me was very happy with sales. The yogurt shop behind us were let our kids hang out all day. Free wifi for them and samples. Have us a couple VIP cards too... The clothing boutique was playing Street music...It's a vibe and it can be contagious... We sold our mosaics average price of $100. That was a comfortable high price for art buyers in our booth. A woman we talked to last year came back, no intention of buying spent $475. Mike gave her $25 off & walked it to her convertible.I also made sun catchers. $20 each or 2/$30. Almost sold out on this sunny weekend! This show is definitely not Bonita Springs with Barry. That's a nice crowd too. Had repeat sales. We did that last year - An artist next to me sold a $17,000 painting. Estero last weekend was so wet. So many sad artists faces that my 9 year old asked me 'why was that a bad show? What did those artists mean when they say that? What's a good show?If we can survive down here and play with the big dogs - we will make the most of it! We thank all the brave artists who show us how it's done!
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