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Ellen and I live in a historic, almost century house, in Ybor City which is a historic district on the east side of downtown Tampa.

First a little history lesson, then we will get to the reason for “Reefer Madness.

Martinez Ybor was a Cuban  who brought the cigar industry from Key West to Tampa in the late 1890s.

Thus the area w live in is a historic district. It is a mix or retail, lots of bars and a lot of old historic homes and new condos.  Lots of young people live here.

My wife, Ellen Marshall, bought the house we live in back in the early 1990s.  She was only the third owner of this house.

Originally, It was built in the 1920s for a Mr. Licata who had two successful barbershops in downtown Tampa.

Mr. Licata wanted to build a new house for his family in the Hyde Park area of Tampa, which is in the heart of downtown Tampa. But the powers that be said, “We ain’t letting no Italians live in Hyde Park.”

Mr. Licata said, “I will build a prestigious home in Ybor City.

The house is four bedrooms with a central hallway then the usual living room to bathroom layout on the other side.  It has 12 foot high ceilings, beaded woodwork, hardwood floors, also a big front porch and a driveway (we have the only driveway for two blocks around, it is a big plus). There is a great back yard with a great enclosed fence.Six feral cats live here in utter luxury.

Ellen bought this house for under $25000 at the time.  She was the only white women living there at that time. We just sold it for mucho dinero more.

OK back to Mr. Licata and Reefer Madness.

Mr. Licata had a big family with two sons and a daughter. One of his sons was not right.  He should have been institutionalized but the family would not do that.

So, one day in the mid 1930s, the said son, high on copious amounts of Jack Daniels, beers and little Reefer, bludgeoned to death his whole family in our house.

Newspapers at the time described neighbors saying they knew something was wrong when the family did not show up for Sunday church.  They also noticed blood seeping under the front door.

The federal government seized upon this incident, citing marijuana, as the main reason for his murderous intent.  The Senate then passed a law making marijuana illegal all because of this incident.

Anybody who has ever toked knows this is total BS, because when you are high you are not in a murderous state.  You are usually looking for chocolate.

Anyways, our house is the reason for Reefer Madness.

Time to Time, we have people show up on our porch and inquire about the incident.I can say there are no bad vibes here, just mellow feral cats.

Just thought you might like hearing an interesting story.

This is a two day show (last weekend) with a Friday setup.Everybody has ample rear storage room.

The booths are setup in a rambling pattern with no definite pattern for crowd flow.

Booths down by the river are kind of cut off from the main flow, and a lot of the crowd never makes it there.

Bonita Springs is just north of Naples and slightly south of Estero on the Gulf  Coast.

It is an affluent area with lots of golf course communities.  The crowd tends to be 60 years and up.  Not a lot of young ones to sell to.

But, you have lots of newcomers-retirees, many from the Midwest, who want to decorate their new homes in a Florida-style motif.  So there is a market here to sell to.

They tend to be very conservative.  They do not think outside the box.  They love the birds, flora and fauna, and lots of beach imagery.

They like blown glass here.  Almost every glass artist I talked to, killed here.  My neighbor, Doug Sigwarth had a killer show. The Slades ruled as usual.

Overall, I saw a few big 2-D pieces go by each day, but they were few and far between.

This is a tightly juried show, with little if any buysell present.  The staff is out and about and takes care of any problems pronto.

They do a nice artist breakfest every day and have boothsitters.  Teardown is very mellow, just like the setup.

Personally, I did about the same as last year, not great, but I made a profit.

On this date you have the choice of doing a mostly craft show up by Homosassa Springs, a big ugly crafty-buy sell show at Cape Coral, or a Bill Kinney Paragon show in Sarasota. Oh, I just remembered, there is also Beaux Arts, down by Miami, good luck with that.

Personally, I will probably stick with Bonita Springs.

January is always a tough month to make money in. You take what you can get and hope to make the most out of it.

I have this weekend off, then the last weekend of the month I have Images in New Smyrna Beach, my old hometown in the 1980s.

Ironically, Ellen and I are selling our historic Ybor home to our neighbor, and, our next place to live—New Smyrna Beach. This is a very mellow beach town and you can still drive your car on the beach.

We are both very excited to going there, will keep you posted.

Later Gators—In a while, crocodile.

It's January. For most of us in this business we are not in Florida or Arizona, happily greeting customers and showing off our work. I hope you're taking advantage of this lull. So far I've posted two useful things you can do for yourself during these days. 

Here is #3, something to do for your fellow artists:

It was good and I made money.

it was colder than you know what. Setting up in the low forties while handling cold metal parts sucks.

Naples Art League runs this annual show on the first weekend after New Years.

Setup is early Saturday morn with 300 artists jockeying for Position, it sucks too.

But that is what you tolerate in order to make mucho moola here.

They charge $450 for the booth fee and you have to park your van miles away and take a shuttle back.

January in Naples is never cheap. Hotels are $150 plus per nite, drinks are high($15 for a Makers Mark Manhatten, on the rocks, at Chops).

The artists who make serious money at this show are the ones selling high end items.

People who rely on quantity sales at low price points do not do well here. There are not enough customers within the surging crowds to do that. On the average, you are lucky if you get one out of forty to come in your booth.  They are too busy petting their prize dogs.

These are mostly well-coiffed midwesterners.  They look great, but most of them do not give a serious rats ass about art.

The ones who buy go for expensive pieces of jewelry, think $2K and up.  They love big gaudy metal wall pieces.  They love big Florida-Drek photography, they never met an alligator or palm tree they would not buy. Big, in ceramics or anything sells here.

If you are relying on $30-$75 sales here, forget about it, not enough customers .Also the show is about six long city blocks in length with booths setup in quads. Everybody gets an open side with about two feet of rear storage.

That said, the layout does not encourage bebacks.  You get one shot, make it memorable.

Last year inclement weather sunk the show.  I barely sold $1200, this year I did seven times booth fee. Not bad, but not great.

That was the general consensus I got when I talked to fellow artists.

I think this could be a great year for big sales. But I am a little worried about our middle class patrons, they seem stuck in a cycle going nowhere forward.

Well, I will keep you all posted on my goings and on this year. I am almost 73 years old and in my 43rd year of doing shows. I never lost my love for them, I still get excited about them.  I keep coming up with new work and love selling the hell out of them.

Later gators, Bonita Springs is calling me this weekend.

I hate this part of the process...deciding on art shows so many months in advance. So, I've done Jekyll Island Shrimp and Grits for a couple of years. Average show, but I love the location. Last year was hurricane, so they refunded booth fee, but notice this year their verbage clearly states...NO REFUNDS FOR INCLEMENT WEATHER OR ACTS OF GOD. It's scaring me off! Only other possibilities in September for me are Delray Beach or Punta Gorda,both many more miles, and both Howard Alan. Now, I know he does refund or replace booth fees for things out of an artist's control, so I'm tempted, especially with the weather weirdness here lately.

Have any other artists done the Delray, or Punta Gorda shows?

New to the business? Tired of getting rejected? What images should I use for my application? What are the jurors looking for?

2 chances to find the answers: 

1. January 20, Saint Louis, MO

ZAPP and the Saint Louis Art Fair are offering artists an opportunity to have their images critiqued through a Mock Jury workshop. If you are interested in this option (your work part of the critique) the deadline to submit was January 2. However this workshop is open to anyone that would like to attend and learn. 

What we'll cover: 

•  Learn how to make your application more competitive.
•  Looking for help to improve your jury submissions?
•  See how your images look enlarged and projected on a screen. 
•  Are you testing the waters with a new body of work?  This is a great way to get some feedback. 

Here’s how it works:

• The Mock Jury will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2018 at Grey Eagle Distributors - 2340 Millpark Drive, Maryland Heights, MO 63043.
• We will begin promptly at 9am.
• Jurors will speak openly about submitted artist images.
• Everyone is welcome to join us in person to experience the mock jury. 

For more details: Laura Miller, lmiller@saintlouisartfair.com, phone: 314.863.0278

2. February 10 & 11, Columbus, OH

The Columbus Arts Festival jury will choose the Festival artists at a two-day public meeting in February at the Westin Columbus located at 310 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215. Jury panelists will review more than 1,000 artist applications from across the country to determine the approximately 300 who will be invited to participate in the 2018 Columbus Arts Festival.

Artists will be chosen in the following categories:  2D Mixed Media, 3D Mixed Media, Ceramics, Digital Art, Drawing & Pastels, Fiber, Glass, Jewelry, Leather, Metal, Painting, Photography, Printmaking & Graphics, Sculpture, Wood, and Emerging Artists. A jury panel selected by the GCAC staff conducts a blind jury process, where jurors review the artists’ images and technical statements without seeing any personal information. The top scores, allowing for a balanced show across mediums, are invited to participate in the Festival.

2018 Columbus Arts Festival Jurors

April Sunami (Painting); Eva Kwong (Ceramics); Tyler Cann (Associate Curator, Columbus Museum of Art); David Butler (Painting); Sherrie Hawk (Gallery Owner)

2018 Columbus Arts Festival Jury

Westin Columbus located at 310 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215
February 10-11, 2018 8:30a-5pm

Feel free to Contact Festival Director Sean Kessler at 614-221-8625 with any questions.

June 15 & 16

• large spacious booths; booth sitters
• B&B program where local community members open their homes for complimentary lodging to interested artists
• artist hospitality room; complimentary artists' buffet on Friday evening and even a complimentary sack lunch for the road when the show is over. 
• In addition, there are five $500 Awards of Excellence, a $250 People's Choice Award; and a $750 Founders Award. 

May 11-13
Saint Louis, Missouri
Laumeier Sculpture Park
150 Artists
Deadline: January 16

Application fee $55; Booth Fee: $350-$600

June 8, 9 & 10
Columbus, Ohio
produced by the Greater Columbus Arts Council
300 Artists

Application fee: $40; Booth fee: $595 

• Artists hospitality area with beverages and snacks
• Contact information and booth number in Guidebook
• Text based information system provided by our radio partner CD 102.5
• Name and image listed on website with live link to artist website
• 24 hour site security provided by Columbus PD
• Free parking space with each booth

June 16 & 17
Wheaton, Illinois
Art in Bloom, Cantigny Fine Art Festival
Deadline: January 1
Learn more: www.emevents.com
Apply: https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=6096

Sitting around waiting for the shows to start? I know, not really, but how about spending some time on your "artist's retirement plan", aka your website and email lists?

1. Buy a better domain name for your site that isn't just your name. Something that will make it easier for buyers and search engines to find. Not alexandrajohnson.com but maybe handblownglass.com, or Iowalandscapes.com, fibertowear.com, handmadepotstolove.com.
   
   Do a search for an available one at GoDaddy.com. They have wonderful tools to help you decide what your URL should be. Use a word that describes your art/craft, that identifies what you do that makes your work special and see what you can find.
   
   
2. Update your show schedule now and continue throughout the year. Make it easy for yourself so each time you are accepted to a show you go in and add the show. While you're there link to the show's website and let the show know you did so they link back to you.
   
   
3. Get serious about collecting emails. Add an email sign up box so you can build that list while you are sleeping. See this sign up box on all of my websites, upper right hand corner. It brings new subscribers daily. No work for me and it has led to nearly 60,000 subscribers. Granted, I've been gathering them for over 10 years.
   
   
4. Instead of the "contact me" form on your site, add a link to "contact me" so they can contact you NOW that sends you an email. Don't let the prospect lose interest. Its the Internet, they want to reach you while they are thinking about it. Don't make them call you. They want the ease of email.
   
   
5. Make sure that Contact Me is highly visible on your website, upper right hand corner.
   
6. Change the copyright date at on your site or remove it permanently. Don't let it say 2013 ... 
   
   
7. Update your headshot. I know you've got a smiling photo of yourself on the home page. People buy from us not only because the work is wonderful but because you are wonderful.
   
   
8. Add images of your new work.
   
   
9. Update your "About Me".
   
   
10. Check out some other artists websites for inspiration if you get stuck.