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I wake up this morning thinking of 2014 and reflecting on 2013. I did some progress in life as an artist and person. I realized what my regular job means and bring to the table. I came to terms that my art is what makes me wake up each morning.

I learned the conflict of both my art and corporate world. I saw and experienced the bad side of be an artist. The bad side is not how much money we make as an artist is how fellow artist treat other artist. Experience how corporate people treat you do well at art world. Even worst when artist and some talkers treat you when they found out that you also held a regular job.

The reality is very hard to do well and keep up with both. One thing you learned that you really work more 80 hours to keep up both worlds going. Soon you realize the need to work three times harder to create your own path.

The one thing that I know nobody will gave me anything for nothing. I work for everything and take risk to reach my goals. There still a lot of ground to cover. I look forward to the hard work, to proof wrong the doubters and haters. I look forward to keep improving my life as an artist and person.

As another comes to a end and new one start I wish you all Happy New Year.

I am trying to prepare my Zapplication.  I understand the Booth Photo.  I am a photographer and don't know if photographers submit images of their digital files or if they have to take pictures of there prints in frames?  I have seen the images of pottery, jewelry, etc. Please help.  Thanks. 

Hello, All:

I just received an application to this event and see that they have indoor spaces (with air conditioning!).   Does anyone have any comments about this show?  High end?  Low end?  Attendance?  Worth it?

Thanks in advance - and Happy New Year!  

WHAT:  Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff, one of the nation's top fine art fine craft art fairs. Krasl Art Fair is ranked:

• #7 on the Art Fair Calendar's new Best Art Fairs list (from their 2013 survey) 
• #12 in Sunshine Artist Magazine's 200 Best For 2013 
• #32 in Art Fair Source Book's top 100 shows 

WHERE: Beautiful downtown St. Joseph, MI overlooking Lake Michigan. A resort community with stellar beaches, a charming downtown, a Jack Nicklaus Golf Course and many more outstanding attractions, restaurants and shopping.

WHEN: Saturday and Sunday - July 12-13

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS:
Deadline: Thursday, January 9 - 12pm EST

APPLY:  www.zapplication.org

Jury Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 (artists and public invited to observe)

NOTEWORTHY:

• One-half century of artistic and sales excellence. 
• Limited to 216 artists.
• 30% of artists re-invited from 2013
• Over 151 openings for 2014
• Average sales (2013): Sunshine Magazine reported two revenue camps, half in the$2,000 to $5,000 range and the rest doing $5,000 to $10,000.  
• Art Fair Source Book reported average sales of $3773.  
• Krasl Art Fair artist survey of the 106 responding artists reported average sales at$3,600
• Application/Jury Fees ($30/$275 or $300/Booth, depending on space size: 15x15 or 20x20). Many booths offer exposure to the public on two sides of the tent. Benefit, very reasonable booth fees!
• Estimated attendance: Approximately 70,000, drawn from the Midwest.
• Friday set-up; drive to space for load-in and load-out.
• Best of Category Awards: $100 cash; Krasl Board Choice Award (automatic invitation to following year and booth fee waived); Shore Magazine "Best Booth Award" (includes ribbon, plaque and $100).
• Artist-in-Residence program; residents host artists in their homes.
• Excellent artist amenities, including artist-only parking, Saturday gourmet breakfast, booth sitters, electricity available to many booths, artists' hospitality room and much more.
• Friday Night Kick Off Party with gourmet food, wine tasting and live music.
• Round table artists' discussion with committee and staff.
• Jury session open to artists and public to observe.

For more details about the show, click HERE

The artists speak:      

"The location is beautiful, friendly patrons, great weather, and convenient parking. People were willing to spend money for art!"    

"Good sales, excellent amenities, there is no other show more welcoming to artists."   

"35 years of experience: you have one of the best July shows in the country!"    

"Krasl is the best art fair by far! Thank you! The attending audience was very responsive to the sculptures."    

"The Krasl Art Fair is one of the few shows that put the artist and quality of the show first."   

Email inquiries to: Sara Shambarger, Director of Art Fairs, sshambarger@krasl.org

You may also contact by telephone: 269.983.0271 

Anyone got any comments or ratings for the King Canopy Tuff Tent?  Scored on one from Amazon.com for 199$ and free shipping.. Looked to be better than the EZ-up Express II's I have been using...

Please no tent snobbery remarks. I cant afford 1200$ plus for a tent which takes two people and an hour plus of time to set up....

Hello everyone!  Token Aussie reporting in to wish you all Happy Holidays!  

I know I haven't been around much the last 6 months, far too much on and happening both with making jewellery, shows and the farm ... its upset my online routine!!   I do try and keep a vague notion of what's been going on here though :)    

I haven't even posted that I met the gorgeous Kathleen Clausen and her entertaining hubby, Mark, on their recent visit to Australia!   We spent the day together in Mudgee going around a gem show, that I'm sure was so tiny for them in comparison to US gem shows.

Here's a taste of our Aussie Christmas... hot, hot, hot and dry!   The kids spend a lot of time in the pool cooling down... these are my twin girls - they look like me don't you think LOL.

Wishing all of you all the best, and looking forward to participating more in 2014 <3

Embracing Our Differences invites art submissions for it's 10th annual outdoor art exhibit celebrating diversity.

• National and international submissions are encouraged.
• 39 artists will be selected for the exhibit.
• The exhibit will be displayed April and May 2014 at Island Park along Sarasota, Florida's beautiful bayfront.
• Since 2004, the exhibit has been viewed by more than 1,600,000 visitors.
• The exhibit will contain 38 billboard-sized (16 feet wide by 12 1/2 feet high) images of the selected artworks.

941-404-5710

One look at Ron Roland’s art and it becomes obvious that he not only likes trees and color, but he likes perfectly shaped trees and beautiful, rich color.

The Florida painter describes his work as contemporary landscapes in acrylic impasto style on birch panels, noting that he has a “love affair with color and movement...I want my paintings to evoke participation. I want the viewer to be plunged into the scene by the simple act of viewing.”

Ron Roland is similarly caught up in his surroundings. In the Florida Panhandle he saw Hurricane Ivan first hand. Watching the fury of the storm descend and viewing the aftermath, so that now his landscapes have become a way to show our sometimes conflicted and ambivalent love affair with nature, the prevailing trees and water which the storm did not destroy.

“I paint larger than life treescapes using a bold palette with high contrast. My style uses an altered form of impasto painting. That is, I use a brush and not a palette knife to build up the paint to create texture. He paints wet-on-wet and the board is both the substrate and the palette, as he mixes colors as he paints directly on it.

After a long career in the arts that included being a graphic designer he is now participating in art fairs full time because of the opportunities to show his work to the large numbers of people who attend the shows. 

See more of this exciting work: RonRolandart.com

Well, 'tis the season for applying to shows in 2014. Waiting and wondering if I will get in. I still create images every week and some of them are popular in the waiting months. But I don't see any art fairs for me until late April. That is a four (or more) months stretch with no income from my art. Maybe an occasional sale from my Etsy shop but from the past few years, no sales have been made from January through May.

So, this is the hibernation part of the year. Yes, I will create more pieces for 2014 but none of them will sell until late April or possibly May or June. I am not at a point in my art career to do Florida or Arizona shows. So, unless something changes, I will be lurking on these posts but I probably don't have much to offer. 

For us northerners, do you just sit tight until spring or do you go travelling?

Okay, so maybe I didn't rush to post this but the shows over anyway! I've done this show three previous times and you can see my last comprehensive report at: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/2011-tempe-fall-festival-of-the-arts

What was different this time around? After reading my own previous posting not much has changed!

Buying energy: Way below previous years. Friday was mostly lookers for me but not so for the guy next to me. Remember Shields and Yarnell? They had a TV show in the late 70's with many other appearances in popular TV at the time. Long story short, Robert Shields is an artist who does many Arizona shows and he was selling some on Friday. I was as close to zero as I could get without actually being there ($25 sale for the day).

Saturday is typically the best selling day of this show. As expected it turned out to be a decent (not great) selling day. Robert was busy most of the day while I had fits and starts.

Sunday, fah-ged-a-boud-it, no buying energy at all. I could have worn balloons on my head, done a really bad mime act and still done better! Robert is a really nice guy he might have given me a few pointers if I asked!

What else may have effected sales? Well, ASU made it to the PAC 12 championship against Stanford and the game ended up on that weekend! Although there were lots of people on the street on Saturday not many were looking for art to take with them to the bleachers. In addition to that, someone reported that the local news was actually discouraging people from going to downtown Tempe because of the game! That didn't seem to quell the crowd but who knows?...

Weather: I was hoping that we'd at least break into the 60's, not so. All weekend long it stayed in the mid 50's. Not bad if you had a sunny spot but anything on Mill Avenue (runs north/south) gets limited sun as it makes its way across the sky. The weather last year was the exception and in 2011 the weather was pretty much the same as this year.

Most of the artists I spoke with reported sales that were off about 50% for them from previous shows here. I did about the same as last year but well above 2011, which, by-the-way, the weather was just as bad.

Anyone considering this show with a long drive? I'd suggest passing unless you've done it before and it works well for you.

What else was different? Usually this show has had control of a parking lot to the west of the show for artists and they only charged $25 for the weekend. This year it was reported that the City of Tempe took control of the lot and were charging $10 per day which is a little less than the going rate at other lots around the venue. The lot closest to my location was $12 a day.

Quality/Range of art: Seemed to be a little below the level of last fall's show. The range was very wide with consequent quality on either end of that range represented. There seemed to be a lot of stuff in the middle of the range.

Load-In/Out: It has usually gone fairly smoothly and on time. This year there seemed to be some mysterious hold up and the 9 o'clock vehicles didn't start to load in till 9:30 which pushed all the other time slots back quite a bit. Good news was, again for some unexplained reason, there was none of the usual frenetic rush and throng of vehicles coming in to set up at the same time. Things seemed to be calm and well organized and there was a lot of street space during set-up.

Oh, I almost forgot. Saturday night they hosted a wine/beer and h'orderves reception for the artists after the show! Apparently they've done it before but this is the first time they had it when I attended the show. They handed out tickets for redemption for bebidos and you queued for the food which they were pretty restrictive with. The fact that they controlled the handing out of food didn't bother me as I got enough to eat its just that they ended up with a lot left over at the end of the shindig and they had restricted the number of artists that they let in through an email reservation sent out early on. Perhaps they could have let a few more artists in to finish off the treats!

Congratulations to this fine pair of writers (and it seems dancers) for winning post of the month for November.

Larry Berman's post (The New Definition of Owning Art) was the kickoff of a thoughtful discussion on owning art and Geoff Coe did a solid overview of his Northeast show season (Sandy and the Sequester take their toll).

Thanks, guys!

One of a Kind Show - Merchandise Mart - Dec. 5-8

Chicagoans love their art fairs and flock to attend in big numbers. The first big one is 57th Street Fair in the Hyde Park neighborhood (think U. of Chicago and Obama home) and finishes off with a bang the first weekend of December. If you live in this area you will have a long withdrawal period between December and June.

December 5-8 heralds the best overall shopping weekend for the city. The One of a Kind Show draws huge crowds of shoppers. There are over 600 spaces full of interesting gifts, including sculpture, large paintings and designer cheeses and everything in between, all price points represented. 

A large section of the show is the "Fashion District" that has an amazing array of beautifully designed clothing in fabrics from silk to recycled cashmeres. You know there was jewelry including everything from crocheted to gold and gems.

This event is "juried by check". If you as an artist have the wherewithal to spend a minimum of $2500 to be there then you can be in the show. What you get in exchange (besides a warm heated building, carpeted floors, good lighting and signage, coat checks, a 10 x 10 space, unlimited free passes for your customers, a professionally presented show, a great website that promotes you all year, amazing PR and news releases, etc.) is a crowd that is happy and excited to be there and ready to shop. 

Here's what we found:

When we arrived on Friday morning there were long lines waiting for the elevators to go to the 8th Floor. We took the stairs and upon arriving were caught in another long line that wrapped around the core of the 8th floor as people patiently waited to check their coats. My thanks to jewelers Robert Trisko and Ian Lieberman who stowed our coats behind their booth ... otherwise we'd still be in line.

I attended with my friend Sandy and within 10 minutes of our arriving she said, "let's come again next year." It has that kind of feeling that you are seeing and being part of something special and that the next booth will not disappoint but be even more interesting.

What is missing: any pretense that this is anything but a buying opportunity for the attendees. Do not expect children's activities, bands to entertain the young, or sponsors that are anything but classy (a nice Toyota booth near a bar was a nice touch.)

Besides artists we all know and respect (printmaker George Raab, glassblower Paul Willsea, doll maker Lucia Fredericy, photographer Mikel Robinson, painter Carla Bank, jeweler Christine Bartling, printmaker Marina Terauds, digital artist Chuck Wimmer, quilt maker Kelly Marshall, Mimi Damrauer, photographer Oscar Matos Linares, jeweler Robert Trisko and metals Elaine Unzicker) you will see artisanal baked goods, soup mixes, chocolates, pasta, salsa, etc.Booth with a view: Laurie Freivogel took advantage of the natural light with her glass and the show stopping view through her window of downtown Chicago.

Here is Jim McCollum's booth. Nice color for his work, isn't it? You get hard walls and then can have them painted any color you like. This is a union facility, so don't show up in your painting clothes.

Here are a few booth shots to give you an idea of the variety of the work.This booth in addition to the mobiles had a case of jewelry in the same designs, beautifully displayed (the crowds were too large I couldn't get a shot). That is another difference at this show, you are free to show work in different media within your booth.

Wood pieces by Angelica Montoya

Exhibitors were from across the country and  many had simple but dramatic booths, just a few props done in an unusual way, lit well, and they were ready.

We enjoyed meeting Angie Consalvo whose work was all a collage of recycled fabrics made into bags, wall pieces, jewelry and had a very cute booth whose background and flooring was all painters drop cloths that added that looked great with her work. She kindly posed for the camera ;)

We made a return trip on Sunday morning and the crowds were there again and the buzz was on and some booths were noticeably emptier of work, although I did speak with a friend who said, "I'm still in the red." My summary: great place to shop, a wonderful place to expose your work to people who understand the value of one of a kind handmade work, but you have got to know your market do all the preparation and roll the dice.

On the El platform going home:

Not only were we happy shoppers but the people on the other side of the tracks heading to the northern suburbs had obviously been there also.

Did I mention that it was 9 degrees in the city that Saturday and it got as high as maybe 15? On Sunday the snow started and we got out of town just in time.

We will return.

Here is a video from 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkilBI-UqHI

If you "search this site" you can learn a lot more, including a post from Steve Cebula and a lot more.

See Part II of this post about the Lambs Farm Craft Show right here: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/a-tale-of-two-shows-part-ii-lamb-s-farm-craft-show

I know, I have been quiet for quite a while.

Something about when you have over $3400 in booth fees due by December 15  and you have less than $1000 in your biz checking account, that scrambling for money becomes all-consuming, not a lot of time for blogging.

Well, that's over, I  have scrambled,dodged, diced and called in favors everywhere.  It was not easy, but I am surviving--barely.

The latter part of 2013 has been one of the worst years for me in eons.

Aside from Saint Louis in Clayton, there have not been a lot of highlights.

So, on with the show

OCTOBER SHOWS

Only did two, one was Louisville and the other a little seafood fest in the Carolinas.

Louisville was a flop, poor sales and lots of rain.  I find it hard to justify paying $550 booth fee for a show that is a pain in the ass to setup for, and teardown, runs one day too long and only brings in lowend sales.  There are too many booths competing for too few sales at that venue.

Enough said.

The seafood fest is just plain fun to do, and you get to eat lots of good hushpuppys and shrimp.

It is a closed little show, which does not take jewelers, so there is not a lot to discuss about it.

It pays the rent, or at least part of it.

Now on to Florida for November.

DUNEDIN ART HARVEST, Dunedin,Florida--first weekend of the month.

This show has been going on for a lot of time.  Easy Friday setup, show is the weekend.

Trouble is, they don't advertise it adequately enough, and it is too big--way too big.

But you know, they call it a fund-raiser.  Yada,Yada,Yada.  We all have been there, done that, and usually not liked the results.

Didn't help that it rained early, then looked miserable the rest of the day, and a slim crowd came.

It has way too many old people in attendance and not enough youth.  Sales are few and far in between.  Sunday, weather was gorgeous, crowds came, and sales were meager.  Some people zeroed for the show.

If you live within a day's ride it might be worth taking a chance on.

BTW.  Here is some meat.  Generous booth spaces with plenty of room behind and on the sides.

It is all on grass and you can stake down.  Nice prize money if you are one of the lucky few.  Most awards go to the tried and true.

Personally, if I didn't live in Ybor and be able to sleep in my own bed, I would never do the show.

NEXT, THE DISNEY SHOW IN ORLANDO--THE MOUSE-MISERS--OH NO, I MEAN THE "MASTERS."

I already blogged this show, just look back in the November blogs.  The show sucks royal canal-water for most of us.  Sorry folks, they come to see and buy from the Mouse, not decorate the house.

NEXT, GAINESVILLE FALL ART FESTIVAL

Very well run show, longtime pro director with a good support cast of helpers.

It is all on pavement with little room between booths but ample storage behind.

People come out in good numbers, too many with dogs, and usually sales are steady and good. This year it was not so good.  The show is still worth doing.

It seemed to me that 3-D did better than 2-D here.  Some people did very well, others only so-so.

I would do it again.

NOVEMBER'S END-SANIBEL ISLAND, THANKSGIVING WEEKEND.

This is a Richard Sullivan show.  You setup on Thanksgiving day and the show is Friday and Saturday til 4 pm.  Smart idea, no reason to stay til 5 pm--it gets fricking dark by then.

Richard has run this show here about four years.  It is small, only about 80 exhibitors.

There is ample room for storage behind all booths.  Setup is a piece of cake.  Teardown can be a little hairier since all 80 are trying to get out of a tight space at once.

The show is held on the grounds of the Sanibel Community Center, so it is right in the heart of the island on the main drag, Periwinkle Boulevard.

He does a good job of advertising and the crowds come early, by noon, it is slow-city for sales til closing.  It was that way both days for most of us.

Many exhibitors had a great show, both 2-D and 3-D. Local painter next to me cleaned up both days selling low and high end.  Well-known and loved glass artist kicked serious but.  Naples jeweler friends had their usual strong show.  My little Mississippi fireball and now a Fort Myers resident was a solid seller with her new work.  She is on a roll.

The only drawback to this show is that is still early in the season and not all the money is down here.  Granted, the island was packed with guests and residents, but that did not necessarily translate into big crowds.

Be prepared to ship, you sell to a lot of vacationers.  It is still a good show to do on that weekend, as opposed to dying in the fields of Saint Augustine or Cocoa Beach (same weekend shows).

THE LAST ONE-DECEMBER--ENGLEWOOD,FLORIDA

This one is always a sentimental favorite for me.

It is art show committee members run (by people who actually sell their work at outdoor shows).

It is laid back and is a distant reminder of why I started doing shows 38 years ago.

It is in a mellow little gulf coast town just past Venice.

Great little bars and restaurants to visit, world class beaches and easy-going populace.

Easy Friday night setup, then Saturday and Sunday til 4 pm.  Mostly lowend sales, people actually buying Christmas presents.  Artists with good loyal following always do well here.

I never make a lot of money at this one, but I would never give it up--it is one of my favorites every year--and I do 36 shows a year consistently.

Well, there is how I spent my fall in art shows.  Hope you enjoyed it, maybe gleaned a few pearls of wisdom from it, and maybe some of you newbies and lurkers will be motivated to do a blog once in a while.

In a while, I will do a year wrap-up and assessment of our industry for 2013, and my forecasts with hope and aspiration for 2014.

I am having breakfest with Elvis at Nickos Diner later in the week, here in Tampa.  I will get his insights too.  

It ought be an interesting finale.

Aloha, Nels.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this competition to win the scholarship to the Arts Business Institute's scholarships to their upcoming art business workshops in Philadelphia in January. Here are the results from the director of the institute, Carolyn Edlund:

$250 full tuition scholarship - Chris Ingram, sculptor from CA (see his work here https://www.etsy.com/listing/119406722/bronze-statue-of-hercules-by-chris)

 

$100 partial scholarship - Flora Carlile-Kovacs, fiber artist from WA state (see her work here http://floranemez.eu/)

 

Since you had so many artists apply, I was able to pool those applications with a couple of other scholarship opportunities we had available, including a SNAG scholarship, NICHE Magazine scholarship and Steve Rosen scholarship. Therefore, several other people who applied through AFI are being given awards to attend the workshop as well.

 

We have been flush with scholarship money this year, because of donations made after Steve’s death last July. Although Steve died tragically, I know he would be happy to know we have been able to help so many artists in his name.

(A little background: these scholarship funds came about as a bequest from the estate of Steve Rosen, husband of Wendy Rosen, founder of the Buyer's Market and the Arts Business Institute, who died in a fall in the summer of 2013.)

Congrats to the winners.

In conjunction with the 2014 Columbus Arts Festival, the Greater Columbus Arts Council will present the first Annual Health Fair for Artists. The Health Info Fair will provide free access to health related information and services for local and participating festival artists.  While planning is still underway, efforts are being made to include mobile units for general care, as well as health screenings and information booths about important health and well-being related topics, services and resources.  The Health Info Fair for Artists is free of charge and will take place on Friday June 6 from 9am-12pm on the grounds and indoors at COSI, Columbus' Center of Science and Industry located within the festival venue. 

Let's talk about money...

Totally stolen from Hugh MacLeod's blog along with his narrative:

Unless you’re Evan Williams or one of the other big Twitter stakeholders, you’re probably not a billionaire either, nor soon to be one.  Gasp indeed!  As if the key to happiness was nine zeros…

Will my art make me a billionaire?  Never.  Yet I’ve never been happier in my life, because every day I am doing what I love to do.  If your net worth is how you measure your worth you’re playing the game all wrong.

That doesn’t mean you can’t become a billionaire doing what you love.  Just make sure it’s the latter you’re after, not the former.

Along with this image:

And on that note could a white tent be an art incubator?

That's what the snotty GPS lady says whenever we veer off her predestined route. I say "snotty" because sometimes I swear she sighs in exasperation. She seems to want to say "make up your mind, twit, I have things to do". She has a point because I have already veered off my topic here.

I am rethinking my whole art biz thing here. I'm not talking about a slight deviation, I'm thinking of reinventing myself as a working artist.

About 15 years ago I decided to develop a profession outside of the government job I hated so that I could move on. I started as a papermaker which led to the book arts and I settled into a niche. I stopped making my own paper, concentrated on journals and various specialty books, along with some peripheral items that were paper related. For a while it was pretty lucrative. The inherent low materials cost with having a paper-based specialty allowed me to make less gross money with a healthier net. And I loved my books. Still do. But I think the journaling craze may be about over because my books are selling a lot less than before.

I tried making new items, using imported Italian text blocks for diaries and photo albums, etc. They sold but very slowly. When re-thinking product I always concentrated on functional because I had confidence in myself as an artisan but never called myself an artist. (unless I was asking where the artist parking was. Someone here said that once. so true.)

A couple of years ago I started playing with collage, using the scraps from my bookmaking. I never expected them to sell, I just needed to have a back wall and I have always been drawn to mixed media.  They started to sell. I experimented with making prints of them to bump up the bottom line. They sold very well. I made cards of them. Bingo.

So, holiday gifts shows are winding down and I have some hard choices before me. My journals used to sell like crazy as a gift item. Not this year. I just finished a three day show that earned me gas money and little else. Outside of stocking stuffer items, I sold more collage- - framed, prints and cards, than books.

Now I'm thinking that it might be smart to spend the next couple of months working on the craft of collage and doing a show or 2 early on that focus on them.  See how it goes.

This is a scary detour because the collage is totally about the art itself. As we say here, nobody needs our stuff, and they need stuff on their walls the least. And rejection of these works would be a total rejection of me, because they are totally me and not a widget someone might use.

But I think I'm going to do it, and you know why? Because when I go up to my studio on the days I am making collage, I have a little bubble of anticipation in my gut and I am happy. When I finish one and hold it against the mat to see how it will look, I am happy. When customers comment on little things in the design, yep...happy.

I know happy doesn't pay the bills, but if I can do this right, maybe it will. Because if it was just about the bills I would still be occupying a 10 X 10 cubicle instead of a canopy.

Time for a legal u-turn, I'm thinking.  

As always, the Winterfair show in Greater Cincinnati was held on the Friday-Sunday after Thanksgiving.  A loyal following of shoppers routinely spend Black Friday at Winterfair rather than at the malls. 

Put on by the Ohio Designer Craftsmen (ODC), many out-of-town artists make the two Winterfairs in Cincinnati and Columbus a one-two punch since they're held on consecutive weekends.  The Cincinnati Winterfair is the smaller of the two with just 200 artists of high quality work.

As an aside, the Cincinnati Winterfair is actually held in Covington, KY just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  Years ago the show was held at the Cincinnati convention center and it was always packed with shoppers.  Then the center began renovations so ODC moved Winterfair to the Covington convention center and never returned to Cincinnati.  I'm sure the rent is lower in Covington, although their center is fine in terms of design, cleanliness, etc.  Having a Cincinnati event held in Covington doesn't seem particularly weird to the locals, since Cincinnati's airport is also in Kentucky.

I hadn't done this show for three years or so, and that year my sales were pretty good on Friday but Saturday was half of Friday and Sunday was half of Saturday.  This year Saturday sales surpassed Friday's and Sunday was the usual snore.

The crowds are thinner in recent years than they were in the good old days when the show was in Cincinnati.  But the booth and app fees come to only about $350, so it's not too hard to turn a profit.  I have the impression that many artists can bring home $2000-$3000 and of course some do quite a bit better than that.  If I'm wrong on this point someone please correct me.

The organizers make set-up as easy as possible given the logistical difficulties of the building.  You can set up on Wednesday before Thanksgiving or all day on Thanksgiving day or early Friday before the show.  The center has available quite a few large/long carts which help cut down on the trips to and from your vehicle.  However the loading dock and its parking that serves the back half of the show is quite small so there's a long line of vehicles lined up in the street waiting for their turn to enter the lot and unload.  A freight elevator takes you up one floor to the event hall, and when the elevator isn't working (which happens off and on) there's a ramp you can take to get into the hall.  I set up on Wednesday, arrived about one hour before the announced set-up start and was able to snag the fourth spot in line.  Artists in the front half of the hall must park on the street in front of the center and dolly their stuff in.  Some park in the lot right across the street and dolly from there.  Not an ideal situation but the artists make it work.

Upsides of the show include booth sitters, a nice environment and a Starbucks off the lobby.  The booth layout offered several corner booth possibilities as there were a couple of cross aisles across the eight rows.  The second floor of the center holds food exhibitors and food vendors for hot and cold lunches.

Downsides included the storage area that was only about the size of two booth spaces; way too small for 200 artists.  And, like the Columbus Winterfair, I believe that the Cincinnati show needs more promotion to rekindle shopper interest in attending.

All in all, I count this as a decent show at a reasonable price that allows you to make money on Thanksgiving weekend rather than spend it.

As a final aside, this was the show that rocked the exhibiting artists when word spread of the sudden passing of Indiana potter Jim Kemp on Friday evening.  Jim was a phenomenal talent and strong advocate for the local clay arts community, so his death was a sad event for many of us.  Jim was in the midst of preparing for the Columbus Winterfair show the following week, where he was memorialized in the booth space he would have occupied.  Rest in peace, Jim.

Many thanks to all of you who keep this community active and full of useful information and great stories about living the life of an artist.

Presenting this month: 2 show reviews, a report on an open jury and a philosophical discussion about owning art. Good job, folks!

Vote now for the people who won the weekly post of the week awards. Which one deserves to win "Post of the Month?"

• Ruth Finkenbiner - "Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival - October 19-20, 2013"
• Geoff Coe - "My Northeast Show Summer: Sandy and Sequester take their toll"
• John Hunsucker - "Ft. Worth Main Street Jury"
• Larry Berman - "The New Definition of Owning Art"

Next: 

Who has contributed the most to the community this month and deserves the Big Red Dot on their profile picture?

• nominate a member who has helped you most on this site

Click here to take survey

Deadline for voting: December 15, 6 pm