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St Armands Circle Art Festival is the last weekend of January.   There is another one I believe in November but this review is about the January show.   This was our first time at this show, first time in Sarasota and our first show of the year.    What a beautiful area.  The show is in the park at St Armands Circle.  This is a roundabout surrounded by boutiques and restaurants with the majority of the booths in the park in the middle of it all.  There is an inner circle in the park with booths on both sides of the sidewalk, some off shoots from the circle and an outer ring with booths.  Those of us in the park were on grass.  Finally there are booths on one of the streets.  About 200-250 artists I believe, an HA show.  For most of us we had storage in the back, lots of storage.  The quality of work from the artists were  top notch. 

Set up is on Friday all day except for the booths on the street.  They have a Saturday morning set up.  We were in the outer circle in the park.  We arrived around 1 pm and easily parked inside the park to unload.  Most of us can not drive up to our booths.  It was a short dolly to our booth.  If you do need to dolly it isn’t far for anyone.   Set up on Friday we are not allowed to park on the street, you must unload from inside the park.  There was plenty of staff to show us around.  As a newbie to this show it was a bit confusing at first and thankfully there were plenty of people to help direct us.  The weather was a little windy for set up but otherwise a beautiful day in Florida.  You unload, go park your  vehicle, come back and set up.   It was a very relaxing set up without being rushed and the artists for the most part worked together.    It was a great treat to have a Friday set up at an HA show. 

The show runs Saturday and Sunday 10-5.  You need to be open and ready to go by 9:30 am.  People were out shopping by 9:30am and sales were being made.  Actually sales started on Friday during set up.  The show was packed by 10:30am.  Saturday was a little breezy, it felt good, otherwise a beautiful day.  The patrons at this show have big places, money and wall space.  I don’t think one person told me their walls were already filled.  Noone tried to negotiate on price.  Everyone was qualified.  Since we were in the outer circle, which is right along the roundabout, we watched work walk out and load into  cars on a regular basis all day. 

Sunday called for rain for most of the day.  It held off until about 3:30pm.  The crowd was good from about 10-4.  Most of the people who came on Sunday were ready to buy.  Michael did his deliveries from Saturday Sunday morning and by the time he came back from the deliveries I had to reload him.  At 4 the rain pretty much ended the show and looked like it wasn’t going to stop.  Normally you need to break down before you can get your vehicle.  I love an HA show.  They do a lot of shows and so do most of their artists.  They know what we need.  At 4 they closed the show and told us to get our vehicles.  We were able to get our vehicle and park it next to our booth on the roundabout around 4:15.  I can’t imagine being able to get out of this show anyother way with all the rain.  It was a very wet break down.  My rain poncho and rain boots were no match for the rain and I was soaked all the way through.  But the art stayed dry. everything else not so much.  We only had to deal with rain, wind wasn’t an issue.  Earlier in the day HA put out cones in the street to start saving parking spaces for the artists.  This helped tremendously.  We were able to work together with other artists to make sure we could get our vehicles in and take turns.  It was a wet load out but went as smooth as possible.  I can only remember one other load out this wet and it was total chaos.  Thankyou HA for knowing what we as artists need to do in a bad situation.  The whole staff was there right along with us.

We drove out by 5:15.  We stopped at a Longhorn looking like Euro Railers luggage in hand so we could change out of our wet clothes into dry ones.  Glamorous life as artists.   A hot meal and a cocktail made everything better.  We were ready for the drive to our Florida home that night.  I have to say I have never been more happy to have a Florida place.  Monday we were able to spread EVERYTHING along the fence, driveway, boat, golfcart, vehicles, you name it if we could find a place to dry things out we hung it.  I am sure our neighbors weren’t happy but screw them.  We weren’t at a hotel or Airbnb.  The good thing about this is we had to go through everything and reorganize.   I need a force of nature to make me reorganize I think.   Also the tent is really clean now, well not really clean but clean for us.  No art was damaged and we had a great show. 

Some advice if  you do this show.  There are only two hotels on Lido Key.  They are expensive and not that close to the show.  All other hotels are across the bridge.  Between the lights and traffic 2-3 miles is time consuming.  We found an Airbnb, right at artists parking, a few blocks from the show for $100 a night.   Sarasota is an expensive place to be in January so book early.  There are no gas stations or stores on the key.  Bring everything you need with you.  Normally I like to cook a few meals when we do a show, hence the Airbnb.  I didn’t get it together before the show but was so glad I didn’t.  There are a ton of amazing restaurants and we wanted to try as many as possible.  Finally if you can, add an extra night so you can enjoy the area.  We were one block from the beach and I never made it to the beach to even see it.  There are some great museums as well.  If we get into the show again we will definitely add at least one maybe two nights. 

First off, after Images, I am 30% ahead of sales in 2017.

And 2017 was a killer year for me.

Let us just say “Nels-ism” is purring along.

Second.  Ellen and me are moving to NSB in October.

NSB stands for New Smyrna Beach, perched on the Atlantic just below Daytona.

Images Art Show is there.

I can hear the crying and wailing already, “OMG!, They are leaving Ybor.”

Yep.

Our neighbor made us an offer we could not turn down. And, how many fricking pirate beads do you have to collect?

Enough, we are ought of here. The fricking chickens can ruin somebody else’s yard.  No more beer cans sitting in our bushes on the weekends from party-goers wanting to avoid a DUI.

OK, back to a review of Images.

The locals now refer to their town as NSB rather then its Christian name.

I lived there 1980-1987. We called it Smyrna-burner land.  Do not ask why, we just did.

I have always done this show since 1980.

It has never been a killer show.  I have never grossed more than 3K here, yet.  This year included.

But it has always been a mellow show to do.  You get to set up on a cool beach town with your booths facing the inter coastal. The people are gracious, well behaved, but also very conservative in what they buy.

Florida Drek rules here.  Out of the box art shrivels away.  Just the way it is.

It is a three day show with setup on Friday, early on, because the show opens at 1pm.

In the 80-s the show was entirely in the Park by the inter coastal. Then in the late 90-s they started putting it on the street.

Now, the show is all on Riverside Drive (facing the water) and on Canal Street where all 

the shops and restaurants are. About 250 artists.  A very strong Patrons purchase program. Big award money, and everybody has storage behind their booths.

A little aside here.

This has always been a mellow beach town with yen to the surfing culture.

You can drive your car on the beach here. Right on the Atlantic Ocean.

There are only four places in Florida you can do that.

In the 80-s when I lived here, my favorite pastime was to drive my van onto the beach.

I would cruise on down, find a spot with Tony and Joes Restaurant behind, cocktails and food there later.

Then I would pull the KD canopy out and set her up. I would plunk down a couple of recliner chairs on a woven mat.  Haul out a cooler fully stocked. Then I would roll a big hooter and take a puff.

I would wonder what the rich people were doing because I was having extreme Simple Pleasures.

Next, I would troll out to the waves and bodysurf a number of them, then I would come back in for a libation from the cooler. Maybe I would chill and read a book or just have a mellow snooze.

At day’s end I packed it up and went home pleasantly recharged ready for whatever tomorrow would present.

Well, guess what? I am almost 73 and I am looking forward to doing it all over again, I cannot wait.

OK, back to the show.

The weather forecast for the weekend was edgy.

It was going to be cool every day with a high percentage of rain on Sunday.

Friday setup was mellow.

It was very cloudy and cool. People were out early on.  Trouble was, most of them were retirees.

The Florida State species, bobcats and gators move over.

The money people work on Friday. So we put up with lots of praise and watched them parade their yelping

dogs. If you made $500 you were lucky, and some did.  Lucky guys, and girls.

Me, I made $247 and blew most of that on sushi at Sasaki out on the beach.

Another Little aside about NSB.

When I lived here in the 80s there were about four restaurants to choose from.  Me and the Napolies were the only artists on the circuit living here.  Sorry, no sushi, no Thai no eclectic fusion bistros.

Today they got it all.  NSB made a big lunge into the future just like St. Petersburg. Also, there are more than a dozen circuit artists living here.

Sasaki is this cool little sushi restaurant out off Flagler Avenue beachside.

The bar sits six and there’s are about four tables, get there early or be prepared to wait.

Head chef Jimmy makes the best Uzuzukuri I have had (this is thinly sliced pieces of Yellowtail, think as thin as rose petals which he then piles on fish roe and dots the plate with fish eggs and ponzu, for $12, it is a steal and very yummy) and they offer a simple and inexpensive menu of many delights.

I will be eating here three times a week,

OK, Nels will you please tells us about how the rest of the show went.

Thought you would never ask.

Saturday was warmer but you still needed a vest.

Crowds were out early on the Canal Street but not so where I was,

I did not see many large 2-D packages go by me, but most people were selling small things.

I love Bill Sargent’s Definition of small purchases, “Precious little pieces of paper.”

It was a very boring, slow day for me.  These people did not appreciate my humerous images, they did not even look at my architectural.  The only thing that sold were my potty shots.

At day’s end I was up to a whopping $750 total for two days.

So I had dinner with a good buddy from Saugatuck and inbibed delicious Knob Creek Manhattens

 Chilled up, not shaken.

I left my van in Position A on Saturday, prepared to teardown early on Sunday if the proposed forecast

proved true.

Reports said it would start raining by 11am and get really nasty by 2pm.

Thank God this never happened. We tore down at 4pm and it never rained til 7pm.

So Sunday ended up being the primo day for me and lots of others.

Their are serious amounts of awards here. Two booths down from me were two artists, who are serious award winners, whose booths suddenly disappeared from the show. I guess they got blanked on the judging and took their toys home early.  Hmmmm, I wonder if us mere mortals could get away doing that.

OK. Sunday. It was a real art show, finally.

I trebled my sales from the previous two days.

Also, I saw numerous big packages go by me all day.  Thank the Lord!

At teardown I was out in a hour flat, something to be said for Position A.

Back to Ybor.

Our neighbor is buying our almost century-old historic home.

They gave us a very generous offer for buying the house as is. Plus the closing is at March 1 and they are going to let us live in it til we go north for the summer, around May 8.

Both of us are excited about coming back from Saugatuck and moving to NSB, I can already hear the gentle humming of the ocean waves lulling me to wonderful sleep.

Later Gators.

This weekend I do Fort Myers. Will give ya a good report.

Call for artists: Residency program in Budapest, Hungary in 2018

We are pleased to announce Open Call for Artists: Hungarian Multicultural Center AIR-HMC residency program in Budapest, Hungary.

Subject: “Environmental Project”& ‘BookArt”

Extended Deadline: March 1, 2018

Session 1: Tuesday, May 15 - Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Session 2: Tuesday, June 12 - Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Session 3: Tuesday, July 10 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Session 4: Tuesday, August 7 - Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Session 5: Wednesday, December 26 - Friday, January 11, 2019

HMC International Artist Residency Program, a not-for-profit arts organization based in Dallas, TX / Budapest, Hungary - provides national and international artists to produce new work while engaging with the arts community in Budapest, Hungary. 

For more info and application form write to: Beata Szechy

bszechy@yahoo.com

http://www.hungarian-multicultural-center.com/id105.html

July 14 & 15
St. Joseph, Michigan
Presented by the Krasl Art Center
200 Artists

Application fee: $45    Booth fee: $375-$475

This nationally-recognized event is a mainstay of summer in southwest Michigan, the community's largest celebration of the arts. 200 artists will bring their fine art and fine craft for approximately 50,000 attendees to admire and purchase.

The Krasl Art Fair is an outdoor event located in St Joseph, Michigan along the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. St. Joseph is 1 1/2 hour drive from Chicago and Grand Rapids. This established art fair attracts fine art and fine craft artists from all over the US and Canada.

Artists are invited to observe the jury process. 5 jurors from different art related fields. The jurors change every year. Jury date is February 21, 2018. 

I've done this wonderful show in the past and was really happy to have received my invitation for this year.  In the past I've stayed at County Clare Inn & Pub because of its close proximity to the show and also, very importantly, because of the restaurant within. It's a great place to stay, but pricey.

Because I'm doing very few shows at this time (rotator cuff surgery upcoming later this year) I thought I'd ask around for less expensive lodging suggestions from people who've exhibited at Lakefront in the past.

I'd still like something fairly close to the show with good beds and having a food source available (a nearby restaurant with both morning and later evening hours) is critical.  

Thanks for any suggestions.

I've been thinking of applying to AB & E this year, but I'm hesitant for a couple of reasons. None of my art show friends do this one, and there are some fairly bad reviews from 2009-2011. I'm wondering if anyone can give an updated review? Someone who has done this show in the last couple of years perhaps? Or you can send me a pm. Thanks!

I wonder everyday about one subject matter the economy and how it affect the art shows. 

It seems at first that is going well and strong but still I dod not see any improving where it matters. So far I feel we still stop in the same boat or little worst and do not take my word for it. There are plenty articles that will tell you the same and how people are concern about the pending inflation. Also the how people purchase change 10 years ago when we hit the recession. 

Art show artist keep thinking that best approach is produce expensive art work or very cheap, basically nothing in middle. That concept alone is wrong in so many way because it show the evolution of our social class. We basically telling ourselves that soon it will poor, lower middle class, high middle class and high class or 2%. 

Here are somethings as 2d artist I consider: my customer are between 30 to 50 married couple with empty wall space. Anyone with empty nest is looking to down side and no matter how much 401k and IRA accounts are doing it wont matter because they are not my customer. Lets eliminate the poor or basically earning less than 25,000 per year they are not buying. If I move the next bracket where people have some spare money to go out but still live check to check it is not my customer or the will buy something in low end. I think that person may earn around the 50 to 60K. The customer that I am looking really is the people earning close to 100k or higher. This customer income may be different between state to state but you want the person that can purchase something with wondering if they can cover the bills. This is not a 2% this what I consider upper middle class or lower high class.  So the question I ask how many of those people are walking the shows.

I am feeling that Florida market is much older but I am looking for the person with a second home and recently retire at worst. Midwest is more my couple type customer. For my work I looking for the tractional area and conservative area. Having the 45 in WH is good for my business since this folks feel better about the direction of our country regardless of my beliefs. 

The only thing I hope is that government chaos do not affect my sales as it did last year (my personal experience).

My first month had not finish I can tell you it already double my number from last year. The main reason I choose Cape Coral or Beaux Arts and willing to drive to Florida and back to Chicago to take care of my install customers. I am feeling encourage because after dealing with scam I find myself believing again. More important I believe that I putting my best effort, keep creating and moving forward. Not let the noise influence my spirit when it comes to my income. Maybe the biggest thing is that I trusting my choices regardless what my friend my think or do. The reality we all have different path to arrive to same place.

i have the opportunity to show at either Austin Art Alliance or Art In Bloom, in McKinney, TX. Having never participated in either, I don't know which to choose. Can anyone weigh in on this to help break the tie?