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  LaTrece Coombs March 8, 2010 at 10:52am

  I think the article and the comments here thus far illustrate some of the differences in the "art fair artist"; a title born by many but very different all the same, pass some very basic similarities.
  
  Each art fair artist is a small business person just as those outside of this realm with their specific differences and each design the when, the what, the where, the how much and the process of their endeavors in much different ways.
  
  I cannot dispute the cost nor the sales in the article because throughout my career as an art fair artist assistant (35 yrs.), I know for a fact that we experienced both highs and lows in both these categories depending on where we placed ourselves for an event and how much was expended on such an event to obtain the best results - from the beginning to the end of the process.
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  Nels Johnson March 7, 2010 at 3:10pm

  $3,000 per day expenses, I don't think so--that is a hell of a lot of top shelf margaritas. The article illustrates the tensions of being at a big show and how some sell and some don't. But one, it focused on some bigtime seller sculptures who travel in a cavalcade with tractor trailers. That does not come close to representing the average working artist out there. Furthermore it never got into the decisions of booking hotels, the road-meals and the tensions of showing up at a show and finding out you got a really bad spot--like what happened to a great number of artists this past weekend at Gasparilla. The article gave a very tiny glimpse into life on the circuit for a privileged few.
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  Douglas Farrar March 6, 2010 at 3:52pm

  Nice article but so untrue. He only spoke of the big sales. he spoke about one artist who sold 20 paintings at $1,500 a piece and then one who sold 2 that range from $5,000 to $10,000. What he didn't tell about is the artist who sells average items of $30 who has to sell 100 to make $3,000. He didn't tell about the artist who didn't even make booth rent, let alone travel and lodging expenses. There are far more of them than the big sellers. I love it when a show says that they had average sales of $15,000 yet forget to say that one or two artists may have skewered the results. Thats like saying that there were 150,000 people at a show and they are only guessing by what the police think were there or a show that draws lots of kids in buses from the schools making it an outing for them and of course they don't have money to buy.