This is almost like the ending in the Movie Western, "Shane."
At the end, young Brandon DeWilde yells out to the good guy, Alan Ladd, after he has disposed of the villain played by Jack Palance.
"Shane, Shane, come back! Do ya hear me? Shane, Shane...."
Instead oldster Nels Johnson, played only by himself,yells out to Barry Witt.
"Barry,Barry, pull back!"An echo is heard over the din of artists' load out.
"Howard, Howard, pull back!" Silence.
Well something has to give down there in over saturated Estero-Naples Wonderland. And, of course that puts Bonita Springs right in the middle.
You got 40 jillion shows going on down there now, and then you got these two directors going head-to-head.
Coconut Point (Howard Alan). The Promenade Art Show at Bonita Springs (Barry Witt).
I know, maybe I did not get the exact show names right, but you get the jist.
Oh, did I mention? They were both last weekend. Maybe five miles apart from each other.
I can see John Wayne riding in now on the windshield of an old 1986 Dodge Van.
"Now listen here Pilgrims. If you guys don't get this matter straightened out soon, I am going to take my herd of whales elsewhere."
A "Whale" in restaurant-talk is a big-spender who puts out a grand or better for a few good bottles of wine.
Well, I am co-opting the term "Whale" for our art biz.
Here, a Whale is a big spender who buys a single piece or a package of art for serious moola, again, a grand or better.
Well Bonita had sparse crowds, but their were some good Whales there.
Painter sold one for $4800. A 3-D Artist couple nailed a biggie for over $3K. Sculptor by me,sold a bunch. Made mucho moola.
Others, barely broke even and made expenses.
A number, me included, made a paycheck.
But, I have done the Bonita shows from their inception. Not every January one. But I have done many. For me, the numbers keeping going down at every show I do there. For some others too.
It is a very well run show. Barry Witt has a well-oiled machine that runs smoothly from setup to teardown.
Some will make serious money there. There are savvy buyers. They want to see unique work. They have the means to buy.
So, if you are new, you takes your chances. Some win, some lose.
BTW. From reports from several artists I know at Howard's show. The results were similar.
They had big crowds, much larger than Bonita, but sales were spotty.
Some were big winners, some were losers, and many made a paycheck.
I just wish the boys would work it out so they did not go head to head on the same weekend.
Maybe I have to send Clint Eastwood in to straighten things out.
You need to be a member of Art Fair Insiders to add comments!
Comments
Suzy, I tend to agree with you comments about changing with the times. We have changed our work over these last years and have had good results overall. 5 of our first 6 shows in 2013 were up over prior year and the 6th was still a good show, just not better than last year. I kind of like it when at a show you have done for years you get patrons walking in a saying you must be new here I come every year and don't remember seeing your work before. The work is fresh enough to create this impression. Many of our show going patrons are very savy about event schedules in the area, some choose to attend most all of them, so when you get that opportunity to engage one in conversation you best be on your "A" game to make a sale. That said a big part of selling your work these days is making that connection person to person with your potential customer. I was at the Downtown Sarasota Art Festival this past weekend and a patron came into my booth, looked at a piece of work and asked if she could touch it. I said of course she could, at which point she commented" your not going to yell at me or wipe the piece off in front of me". This had apparantly happened in another booth moments before and she told me she left pronto without making a purchase. Now I do understand that some work if touched creates issues with work, but there are ways to deal with it. Making the patron want to exit quickly is tough on sales. BTW she bought from us and we did our best to convince her that not all of us artists were grumpy people. So put your best smile on, be engaging and friendly, talk to your patrons, not at them and best of luck to one and all.
I have been away from the circuit since the late 1990's and am applying only locally this year (New England) to get back into it all. I'd like to offer my take on things. I actually find the overabundance of shows rather exciting. It shows to me that there are customers out there. We know all retail has changed since the economy tanked. Perhaps our customers are not the big money buyers of days gone by, and we need to adjust our sights to see what the buyers are looking for nowadays. Regarding Florida, for instance - where i used to live and earn my living as a sculptor - perhaps we have lost that crowd that had money to spend on their second homes with the big open walls and high ceilings who looked for the $5000 + painting to fill their space.
Perhaps instead we have more customers looking to spend only a few hundred dollars to buy themselves something they really just love. I know it's not what some artists are used to, but, maybe that is a reality we could live with.
Would a promoter put up a series of shows each year if it were not producing results for them? Perhaps we just need to look at the shows we do a little differently than before. I visited various Florida shows in January and while the crowds weren't big, they looked happy, and they were buying. One was a high end fine arts show, expensive work with a $385 booth fee and the other a midrange arts and crafts show but in a pretty upscale area, $185 booth fee. Perhaps entering different types of work in different types of shows might be one way to go.
As i've said, this will be my first year back on the circuit, so any feedback would be helpful, I'm sure.
thanks for the forum.
I live in Naples and walked both shows on Sunday as a art patron. I drug my sister in law along who knows nothing about art but wanted to do something with me. We started at the Coconut Point show early on Sunday around 10:30. There were already huge crowds and lots of energy going on. Most everyone I spoke to were 2D painters and none of them were doing well as of Sunday morning. The show seemed huge and she got tired and we ended up in Barnes and Noble taking a break from the heat and people at the show. We then went over to the Bonita show and easily found a parking spot at exactly noon. The first thing I noticed about the Bonita show were all the empty spaces near the front gate that we entered. There were several missing booths also throughout the show. The Bonita show had less energy and people than the Coconut Point show but I would have to say that there was higher quality art at Bonita and better booth presentations. Everyone I spoke to at the Bonita show also said their sales were low and were dissapointed in the turnout of patrons. One of my 2D Painter friends from Naples told me she made $500 selling her tent, she has had it with the shows. I did not do either of these shows as I cannot compete with the low pricing of the Howard Alan artists at Coconut Point. I walked both of these shows last year and this year and I really looked at pricing. Huge 4 x 6 foot paintings for $850???? I cannot compete with that and I live down here. I just ordered art supplies online last night and everything is going up in price. I cannot understand how and why these artists can sell these huge works for so cheap. My sister in law asked me when we were walking the last row of booths at Bonita, "Do these people really make a living doing this?" I had to laugh.
Nels,
History is history. Remember what happened in Ft Lauderdale, Naples and many other areas where nonprofits who served their communities originated high quality art festivals? Las Olas is a great example. The Naples National Art Festival (1993 thru 2001) is another. Who, then, ‘over saturated’ those markets? We started the first January BSNAF in 2000, added March in 2002. We added February in 2012, responding to requests from our high-end, quality buyers. The specific dates were selected to serve traveling artists who do Coconut Grove and then move on to Naples National.
To Barry Witt.
Maybe this should be a heads up. How about another date rather than going head-to-head at expense to many with low returns.
You run a great show. That is a given.
But, just like in golf, timing is everything.
Just a thought, Happy Valentine's, Nels.
Michael, I learned my lesson, I will not do the Feb. Bonita show again.
Nancy. Thoughtful insights. I was using all my limited talents as a writer to get you guys to read the post. It still was a showdown.
Geesh! Don't any of you guys remember Alan Ladd and Jack Palance.
I thought it was a nice intro into writing the blog.
Nancy. You could write a few blogs now. Fair is fair. Then maybe I could get to throw a few PLAYFUL darts your way.
I am glad you were reading, and commenting. Good luck on future shows.
Thanks!
Nice points, Michael.
You start a new paragraph by clicking on "return" on my Mac. It may be "enter" on a PC ;)
Also, if someone could tell me how to start a new paragraph here, I would appreciate it.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next