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My wife Sherry, is a painter. She does original studio and plein air works. This is a description of her work we wrote for a recent show application;

"Original studio and plein air works capturing the splendor and harmony of our natural world. My main source of inspiration comes from seeing God’s incredible handiwork in the mountain vistas and captivating countryside of East Tennessee. I also draw upon places visited in our frequent travels, Some of my work aspires to preserve our heritage with scenes of old home places and other structures in their natural settings, All paintings are created with acrylics on canvas using a limited palette."

Sherry does not want to do prints(and I agree). However, my observations from our first two festivals is that the prints are practically the only sales any of the painters are making. We do not expect to make a lot of money on the shows, but we would like to cover time and expenses with enough left over to buy some art, but we have not even come close to breaking even. In two shows, we have sold one $50 miniature. We have received lots of traffic in our booth, lots of oohs and aahhs, lots of compliments from patrons and artists about the work and our display, lots of question and answer sessions regarding specific works, but only one small sale.  We love to travel and see new places, we enjoy the atmosphere of the festivals, and we have met quite a few friendly and interesting people, especially the other artists. My concern is that the festivals are not the venue for Sherry's work. I watch the crowd parading by and I see almost no one carrying paintings. Ceramics, jewelry, prints, seem to sell. Our price range is $50 for a 5" by 5" gallery wrapped miniature to $850 for a custom framed 28" by 22" or 22" by 28" depending on orientation studio work. Sherry's plein air works are usually custom framed 11" x 14" or 14" by 11" and our priced at $225. The most common size for her studio work is custom framed 16" x 20" or 20" x 16" priced at $500.

Conversely, in the one juried exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art in which Sherry participated, she submitted three plein air works completed that week and one studio piece. Two of the plein air pieces sold within an hour of the exhibition opening.

If the exposure Sherry's work gets at the shows leads to later sales, the expense would be justified, but it is too soon to tell. The chance of winning an award for later marketing purposes and prize money to defer expenses would be another potential justification. If we did make a profit at a festival that money would most likely be used to buy some of the beautiful stuff we have seen from the other artists. We never could remember where the booth with the awesome hummingbird feeders were at our first show. Yes, I am an avid birder.

Even though both of our first two-day shows were plagued by one day of bad weather. Our experience combined with the experiences of other painters on this site, have lead me to question our marketing strategy. In addition all the administrative and marketing stuff has taken away from the time Sherry has to do what she loves, which is either get out in the field and paint or paint in her studio. She loves attending workshops and participating in plein air events which are also on weekends. Although she loves meeting and talking to people, she has little patience for the administrative or marketing stuff, she loves to create. I am trying to fill the administrative, marketing technical, and road crew roles.

I realize our first year or two we must bite the bullet and take all the festivals we can get to build up a resume. This weekend we are doing a small local indoor juried art and craft fair 10 minutes from home at the Tennessee Creates Arts and Craft Fair held as part of the Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge Tennessee. The show is relatively new and mostly craft but would like to attract more fine artists. The Oak Ridge Art Association(we are members) was gracious enough to find space for us after we were rejected by the Whalehead Club, Under the Oaks festival in Corolla, North Carolina and thus missed their application deadline. Fortunately, they had a cancellation and were able to get us in. We do not have to worry about rain and we get to sleep in our own bed. The $125 booth fee is also reasonable.

So my questions for the painter. What marketing strategies should we look to to help pay for our addiction. Are art fairs and festivals the appropriate venue? Which shows are the best for Sherry's style of original paintings? We do not want to stop doing the festivals, we have enjoyed participating. However, do we go in with the idea that we will sell little to nothing at the festivals and find other more effective ways to sell her work. 

So if you have a few minutes, I would love to hear suggestions from some of the other painters about what works. 

As always, thanks for your feedback and support.

Once again I pitched my tent at the Stone Arch Art Festival in Minneapolis, MN. I've been a regular at this show for quite a few years and it's always been good enough to come back. But the last few years this show has really had some problems.

I noticed that the tents this year were really packed in more tightly than in years past. I can only guess that the show wants as many warm artist bodies as they can get. Of course there were some booth changes because of some oversites in planning.

It started at 11:00 (which was a little odd) and went to 7:00 on Saturday. I had some good sales (mostly regular customers) until around 3:00. Then it started to rain. Pour would be a better description. I had a good puddle in my tent. The rain lasted about an hour. After that a lot of the crowd did come back but sales were nill. 

The day Sunday started again at 11:00 and went until 5:00. Last year this show went much later on Sunday so I'm glad they changed it back to 5:00. Sales for me were really bad on Sunday. Again, tons of people! Oh, did I forget to mention that they also had a car show along the same street in back of the artists tents at the show? How could I forget! As long as I've done the show there has alway a very small row of classic cars toward the end of the show. No problem, I like to look at beautiful cars. This year the whole thing exploded and was maybe 4 times as big?! There were cars along the whole length of one end of the show (my end). If that wasn't bad enough we weren't informed that this was going to happen. The back of the booths were marked closer to the curb than usual. Once the cars were brought in and parked (against the curb) I had about 3 foot of space in the back of my tent for me, my helper, and all of my stuff, trying not to hit the car as I tried to do business. It didn't work well. The card didn't even pay anything to be there! I think most of the people there Sunday were just looking at the cars.

These were just the a few problems with this show. Last year someone new took over, and I think they are trying, but have a ways to go.

This is just my experience. Other areas of the show might have been much better. Some artists may have had much better sales. For me this show is just now worth going back. I'll maybe keep my ears open for changes and try it in a few years, but no guarantee.

August 16 & 17  
Frankfort, Michigan
Market Square Park
Coordinated by the Frankfort-Elberta Chamber of Commerce
Fri. 4pm-8pm; Sat. 10am-5pm
180+ Artists
Deadline:  July 1 - original deadline May 1

Where is Frankfort?  High on a bluff in the heart of Michigan's summer vacation land, the hidden gem of Northern Michigan on Lake Michigan and Betsie Bay.

From the Chamber of Commerce:

What's not to like?  

• two days
• beautiful time of year in northern Michigan
• spacious booth spaces:  12x12
• great booth fee: $105 for both days!
• Jury fee $15

There is also fun for the whole family with all the downtown businesses as well as a collector car show 3 blocks away, among many other activities that day and great local food.  You might even want to fit in some salmon fishing!

LATE APPLICATION FEE: Due to the numerous late applications in years past - we are applying a $25 late application fee for ALL applications received after May 1.

Download the application: www.frankfort-elberta.com/index

For more questions contact:  Joanne Bartley, Executive Director, C of C at (231)352-7251 or fcofc@frankfort-elberta.com

For more information about this tourism mecca: www.frankfort-elberta.com

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Find more art fairs that are looking for artists: www.CallsforArtists.com

Have a show across from a beach next weekend. First outdoor show with a tent. I have been reading some of the horror stories of artists returning for their second day only to find a storm or heavy wind ripped through while they slept and now everything is in shambles. My question is, if you are informed and keep abreast of the weather, and know that the night might bring something bad, have any of you ever closed up completely, taking everything with you, including your tent, and just set up lock stock and barrel the next morning? It seems that as much work as that might be, wouldn't it make sense to do that instead of leaving it all to chance?

Also, by the same token, if the morning seemed grand but now it's noon, and you begin to hear or see rumblings that a storm is brewing, have any of you closed down and taken everything away with you in the middle of the day?

I realize that there isn't always time to do this, but it also seems that sometimes there is actually enough time to get it all together and get the heck out of there, including your tent - EZ Up or not.

I have heard that some artists completely lower their tents at night as much as they can, dropping certain things to the ground to lessen the danger of a sudden rain storm or wind gust might incur. Do any of you do this?

Hi Friends, here is my review of this show....

The College Hills Art Fair is held on Friday and Saturday on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.  The setting is beautiful and easily accessible to load and unload.  We were allowed to drive up to our booths for set up and tear down.  Needless to say, set up and tear down were both extremely easy.  This show has 75 artists in the usual mix of mediums and is well juried and professionally organized.  I have to say that the organizers did an excellent job.  The staff was always available and volunteers were abundant and eager to assist artists in any way possible.  It is clear that the people involved in running this show have been doing it a long time.  Overall, this is a nice show in a nice location.

This was the first year for the show being in June instead of it's usual July date.  The dreaded date change...I am not sure if it was responsible for the remainder of the bog, but you be the judge.

Friday had good weather and the show was from 11am-8pm.  If there were 2,000 people there, I would have been surprised.  I had dismal sales, a total of $200.00 for 9 hours of show.  What was selling in absolute abundance was the Kettle Korn LOL.  Anyway, in all fairness, artists around me said they were doing OK, so this may have just been a case of the area not being interested in my work.  It happens, I get it. 

Saturday was more of the same with even smaller crowds.  I spoke to some artists again who said they were doing Ok and two who said this would be their last year as they had not made enough to come back.  At that point, I would have been thrilled to just cover expenses, but alas, I ended Saturday with total sales of $75.00, bringing my total show sales to $275.00.  I did not come close to covering expenses.  The weather on Saturday was cloudy with some very light rain that started at 12:30pm and lasted on and off until about 3pm.  It wasn't enough to make much use of an umbrella, but the show promptly died once the rain started. 

Awards/Judging:  I don't usually comment on this as I never get too involved with the judging and awards process.  I feel that we have already been judged once to get in to a show and for me, that's enough.  There was much chatter going on between artists at this show about how they all felt the judging was biased and unfair.  Maybe someone will elaborate on this more, I include it in the blog only beacuse it was a serious topic of conversation among many artists.   

The show has a children's area with donated work from exhibiting artists sold to kids at less than $10.00.  Just about all of us donated to it and even the kids tent was deserted most of the time.  I donated three pieces that were all sold, but my neighbor, a jeweler actually had work returned to him at the end of the show.   

Artist treatment/amenities:  Artist treatment is superior at this show.  Volunteers are everywhere and cell numbers are given for booth sitters.  Booth sitters are exceptionally nice people, eager to help and friendly.  There was a Thursday night wine tasting and hors d'ouvre party free to artists, a buffet Friday night, free to artists, water delivered to the booth several times and they even came around at the end of the show with free boxed lunches for artists to take on the road.  They also had an artist only hospitality room with snacks, beverages and a restroom.  Very artist friendly show, they truly care and it shows.

I want to clarify that I thought this show was stellar in terms of organization, planning, layout, jury, location and artist treatment.  It is a nice event with nice staff and volunteers.  It did not deliver sales for me or crowds.  I am dissappointed that I have to take it off my list for 2014, because I went to school in Iowa and have a connection and long held affinity for this area.  It is a shame that my sales were so bad, but being an artist who is reliant on shows to pay the bills, I will not be able to go back or recommend it to others in my same situation. I know there were artists who read AFI content there, maybe they will comment on their experiences.  As I stated earlier, I did terrible in sales, others however, said they were doing ok.              

I will be cleaning out the workshop this week since I do not have to scramble to replace sold work for my next show.  I will be doing the Art Fair on The Square in Bloomington, IN on June 22.  This is a one day show (my only one day show of the year), and will review it here next weekend.  Thanks for reading.... 

TUESDAY: JUNE 18, 3 PM ET

Art fairs not working for you? Not getting into the shows where you know you can sell your work? Tired of being on the road? Looking for a new adventure? 

Meet two painters who can say both yes and no to the questions above. Yes, the art fairs work but they wanted to try some  new ideas for marketing their work. Where did they turn? Social media!

• In March, Carrie Jacobson, a painter from Connecticut, drove from Virginia to Arizona, painting, doing a show and visiting her dad. She found buyers  who paid for the whole trip in advance and she had more paintings to sell when she reached her destination.
   
• Painter Scott Coleman from Georgia has been doing art fairs forever (I met him at my first art show back in the good old days), but in recent years has been using his blog and Facebook to sell "a painting a day." He sold 365 "Daily Cupcake" paintings in a year and a half. 

Imagine -- no rejection letters, no booth fees, no storms, just creating art -- and oh, Marketing!  Remember, being an artist is 50% creating and 50% marketing. 

Is there some inspiration here for your art marketing?

We'll talk about using a blog, Facebook and, email marketing to drive sales. 

This should be very interesting, especially in light of the recent storms in Virginia Beach. Both of these artists have participated in that show and Carrie is participating this year. 

Questions you'd like me to ask? Put them in the comments below. You can call in to talk with us: (805) 243-1338.

David Levy holds on to his tent on Thursday as storms moved across the Boardwalk art Show.

Photo by Bill Tiernan, at the Virginian-Pilot

More: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/06/storms-brought-brief-heavy-rain-and-wind-region

September 21 & 22  
Park Forest, Illinois
Downtown Park Forest
Presented by the Tall Grass Arts Association
10am-5pm
100 Artists
Deadline: June 29

The Park forest Art Fair is an outdoor fair held in the streets of Downtown Park Forest.  Known as an exceptionally artist-friendly show (especially emerging artists-friendly) because of its amenities for artists and reasonable registration fee, the fair features:

• $175 Registration fee
• $2,500 in cash awards and purchase prizes
• a complimentary breakfast on Saturday morning and a fabulous dinner party for the artists on Saturday evening after the close of the fair
• Overnight security on Saturday night, which includes conveniently located, locked storage space
• booth sitters are available as needed over the weekend

Artists who participate in the fair report their pleasure that fair attendees, traditionally, stop and chat with the artists.  One artist, who shows regularly through the Midwest region, reported that he sold more artworks on Saturday of the fair than he had sold in a single day at any other fair in which he participated.

The fair is promoted in the regional press (magazines and newspapers), social networking sites and advertised on WFMT and WBBM radio during the morning rush hour.  Musical entertainment is provided all day, both days, as well as a variety of food vendors.  There are many activities especially for children such as an art contest, tie dying, story times with art projects illustrating the story, painting murals, etc.

The Park Forest Art Fair is the second oldest juried fair in the  Chicagoland area.  It is a fine art fair that showcases artists who work in a variety of media. Over the years, artists have participated who travel from as far away as Canada and California.  Although the jurying deadline is June 29, jurying will take place on a monthly basis for applications received during the month so that artists can plan to add the fair to their schedules.

The application and information can be downloaded from: www.tallgrassarts.org.  

Approval through the jurying process also confers the status of Gallery Artist and permits artists to participate in the annual Tall Grass Gallery Artists Exhibit.

Note of interest:  The Village of Park Forest was built for the purpose of housing GI's returning from WWII.  Incorporated in 1949, less than 6 years later, it was home to an arts association that operated a gallery, school and art fair.  The arts association was followed a few years later by a symphony orchestra, classical chorale and resident, equity theater company-a very welcoming home for the arts and for creative people! 

Please  join us. 

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Find more art fairs for your 2013 art fair season in great places like Park Forest and many other special communities across the country:  www.CallsforArtists.com

We headed to Columbus excited to be back at the riverfront.  Many fond memories and great sales were ours at this location in the past.  Good things were said about the 2012 show so we were ready.  The new riverfront is fantastic and the perfect venue for an art fair.

Set up in the pouring rain on Thursday.  Happy to get the bad weather out of the way...still excited for the weekend.  Friday was slow for us, but again that had been predicted by others who were there last year.  Saturday we received a much appreciated merit award with money...yeah!  The crowds came and walked and looked and walked...one sweet sale to a wonderful couple saved the day.  Now all hopes are on Sunday which never really happened for us.  I know some people were doing business, mostly lower end.  The beer booth across from us was filling backpacks with money!  

Tear down was easy for us.  Lance somehow most always manages that.  The first time I have ever seen an exhibitor lift their shirt to get their van on site...now who was that, Nels??  and it worked :))

Getting ready for Lakefront...see you all there.

vicki

This is a wonderful resource for archival framing advice for my 2D artist peeps. There are videos, as well as photos and text to assist you in properly framing your projects. Metroframe also designed the wonderful frame profile for my architectural paintings on panels.              

http://www.metroframe.com/framing-advice/

Let's reward the people who wrote the best content on ArtFairInsiders.com in May.

1. "Top Ten Lessons Learned from our First Show or Learning to Swim By Jumping in the Pool", John Smith, May 8
2. "2nd Annual Dewey Beach ArtsFest - The Rain Date May 12, 2013", Mark V. Turner, May 15
3. "Broad Ripple Review," Margaret Luttrell, May 22
4. "Musings from Mulvane .. in Topeka, KS", Brian Berkun, June 2

Also, many people keep this site helpful and the rewards are few. Let's reward some of the people who give so generously of their time. Who has been especially helpful to you this month? They will receive a fabulous Red Dot on their profile picture.

Choose 2:

1. Maryllis Wolfgang
2. Mark V. Turner
3. Bill McLauchlan
4. Kay Cummings
5. Pat Falk
6. Carrie Jacobson
7. John Smith
8. Brian Billings
9. Chris Pawlik

Many thanks to them specifically and to all the rest of you who make this site useful to so many.

Click here to take survey

Court the Arts, Castle Rock, Colorado is a new show established this year by the Greater  Castle Rock Art Guild.  In part, the show was established because of dissatisfaction and expense of the September show produced by the Chamber of Commerce.  I won’t go into everything I heard about the latter except “every horror story you hear is true”.   I normally do not do first time shows but I was personally invited and I wanted to support a local event.  Also, I had trim to do a June show that was needed on my schedule.  The guild has also opened a gallery on Wilcox Street which has a classroom for workshops.  

Castle Rock is the County Seat for Douglas County, which is often cited as one of the wealthiest counties in the US.  It also has one of the country’s highest per capita horse ownerships (horses go with money).  Other than government, the town provides the usual service businesses to a wealthy suburban bedroom community that commutes to Denver or Colorado Springs.  Much of the residential property is rural.  The town is in the I-25 Corridor about midway between Denver and Colorado Springs.

The show was held on the Court House lawn which is on the main street through town providing good visibility to street traffic.  Booth fees were $100 but mine, being late, was $175.  Set up and take down were easy but you did have to dolly on sidewalks from your site to parking.  I don’t think anyone had to dolly farther than about ½  block and there were wheelchair slopes on the curbs. Set up started Friday afternoon at 4:00 which is a little late but employees had to leave the Court House.  The show ran from 10:00am the 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday June 8 and 9.  From my studio, the show was about 15 miles away or a 20 minute commute on a rural highway.  Sunday morning was spectacular with clear blue sky and snowcapped peaks  of the Front Range from Longs Peak to the north and Pikes Peak to the south; about half of Colorado.  Thunderstorms were forecast for Friday afternoon, but they blew through around 2:00-3:00 before set up.  Saturday was in the 80’s except when cloud cover came over and then it was a bit chilly.  Sunday was clear and in the 80’s.

There was a good selection of art but it was heavy on the painting side reflecting guild membership I believe.  The crowd was small (fewer than 2000) but they were spending money.   Some artists did not do well, yet I did see some large pieces of wall art going out to cars.  I did not make the $2K minimum for my rule of returning, but our expenses were nil and proximity to home are the factors leading to wanting to do this one again.  My sales were in the $1-$1.5K range, and the average sale was $76.  A custom saddle client from twenty years ago bought a $235 belt.  I also made a lot of contacts with locals for gun leathers, special order work and saddle repairs.  All of this stuff materializes throughout the year after shows are over

THE FUN STUFF:  My booth faced Wilcox Street, the main street through town.  Castle Rock, Franktown, Sedalia  and Palmer Lake are  watering holes for bikers from Denver on their weekend rides (doctors and lawyers playing bad boys) so we saw lots of EXPESIVE Harleys and custom bikes with lots of custom paint and chrome.  There were lots of clubs showing their colors and a few hard core guys with beards flowing back over their shoulders.  Next were the restored vintage car guys and street rods cruising town.  Finally the retirees in their BMW, Audi, Jag, Porsche et. al. convertibles with the tops down plus or minus trophy wives.  The good looking tattooed biker gal with the long blond ponytail who waved at this old coot, made my day. LOL. Nuts and bolts of the show are in Art Show Reviews on this site.

Photos:  Castle Rock butte and new Veterans Memorial

                 Wilcox Street  booths, mine is in the shade

                 Court House booths

I just posted a new painting - Lavender on a Blue Chair. I came across a similar photo on-line and decided to paint my own version of it. You might like to purchase a mug with this image from Zazzle

This is my first year doing outdoor venue shows, and I have about 10 I am doing this summer. I've been pretty excited thus far, and have had to go through quite a bit of horrific weather for the first 3 shows I had been in, but still managed to make booth and over at each of those despite the bad weather. I was in hinsdale the weekend though, and finally lucked out because there was beautiful weather. HOWEVER... even though the weather was beautiful, the people were not in the buying mood, or at least not on my end of the pond.

I was told that this show would have a lot of buyers, and I would do amazing since I do abstract oil paintings. I was actually told at a show before this one that I might want to up my prices because people in hinsdale have a lot of money and would think my work was too cheap and not want to buy it on principal. I took that advice with a grain of salt, but upped them just a little bit, nothing outrageous. I was also told that this was an artsy town with a lot of money to spend, big homes (million dollars +) and an appreciation for local artists.

The traffic was fair to poor, the people were seemed as though they were just taking an afternoon walk, not even looking in the tents to see what there was, OR bee-lining it to jewelry booths only, or photography booths only, and no looking at anything else, which I've come to find pretty normal at most shows, but the lack of engaging in conversation with anyone is what threw me for a loop. I also only saw one volunteer for the entire two days I was there. The girl brought water around one time each full day. (not that this is the volunteer's fault, she's just doing what she is told). I didn't even meet the person who ran the event until halfway through the second day, and it was a quick, hellothankyoubye. Very nice woman, understandably busy, but not what I was expecting really.

I have reasonably priced work ranging from $100-$1,000, the $1,000 being a 4'x5'x1.5" original oil painting, and I had some people look at my prices (from the outside of my booth) make faces then smile at me, and continue on. This is always disappointing, pricing I have come to find is the hardest part of this whole deal, and unfortunately people do not understand. I am all about original work, the buying is the only person who has that piece of art, and that is it, no prints, no remakes, all by hand. To me, that is fine art, that is what the people should be paying for. I barely saw anyone leaving with anything at all come to think of it except for maybe a little bag of jewelry every 50 people?

I was overall just very disappointed, and felt the trip was a complete waste of time. With amazing weather, and slow traffic, it was a bit mind boggling. The other artists around me were great, very nice, all said were kind of in the same boat of shock to the lack of people buying or even being there period.

Everyone I talked to was ready to pack up and leave halfway through the second day, and all of the artists were lined up to pull their cars in at exactly 5pm, but were stuck waiting for the Rotary Club to pack up and leave before the artists could even get their cars into the spots by the booths, completely rude and ridiculous and unorganized. And I've heard some artists tell me they had to move before we could get in there, but honestly, I walked all the way down there from my end to help my car get through, and they did not need to move first, the could have let the artists in before packing up, there was plenty of room before they got their stuff together. Needless to say, I didn't sell a thing, not a single thing, which to me was baffling.

I understand that I am a baby at this art show thing, but to leave completely empty handed when I had taken off work this weekend to make money was just not what I was wanting to have happen. I do not recommend this show to anyone who has original one of a kind work and does not live within the chicago area, it is just too much of a crapshoot to make it worth it, and I have traveled 7 hours away to bumble oklahoma and somehow still made booth and above at a much smaller show, so this, was just sad.

I'll keep my chin up though, there is always another show, another weekend, this one just wasn't my time. :/

I preface this review by saying that I absolutely love doing Paragon shows...  I have a lot of respect for Bill as a director and appreciate what he was trying to do for New Jersey by offering a free booth space to all the artists who got juried in this year.  I've done 4 other Paragon shows since last year and my average sales is over $3000 at each show, so needless to say I went into this weekend with high expectations.  Sadly they were not to come to fruition.  I wasnt even going to do the show being a 10.5 hour drive for me and I've never done a festival in Jersey before, but I was lured in with the free booth space and thought I would give it a shot.  Sales-wise, this was my worst show yet.  In fact, I came very close to zeroing out for the weekend!

Friday started off badly with Tropical Storm Andrea hitting the east coast hard.  Flooding and horrible traffic caused my GPS to divert us off the highway in eastern PA and we ended up in downtown Philly, in torrential rain, on a Friday night, towing a trailer through the roundabouts.  A road closure even took us further off the beaten path and into some sort of concert venue where we had to talk our way out of having to pay for parking to get through and back to the main road.  I think the trailer should have made it obvious enough that we were not there for a concert... anyway, after an additional 1.5 hours we made it back to the highway and yet another toll road (over $95 just on toll roads this weekend!). 

Bill had sent out an email earlier in the day that there might be a break in the rain from 4-8p and setup would be available at that time but warning it would still be very windy.  After all our diversions, we arrived much too late to even attempt to set up, which I was just fine with as the weather had taken another toll for the worse and was causing mass flooding again.  We opted to wake up at 3:30am and set up super early. 

We arrived at the festival location at 5am.  Unlike most Paragon shows, this one is in a big field, which unfortunately was still incredibly flooded from the night before.  Literally giant pools of water were all over, making it impossible to drive up (like we were supposed to) or to even dolly in so we had to carry everything.  The booths seemed rather oddly spaced out and didnt follow a great order (although almost everyone got a corner).  One tent had blown over during the night and was completely upside down.  There were quite a few empty spaces where artists apparantly decided not to come due to the weather.  We laid out as many tarps as possible, set up all our tables, and sacrificed a couple extra propanels in water to have places to lay out the paintings.  Surprisingly we were still able to set up everything in about 4 hours and were ready to sell!  Our booth had a large puddle at the front but we were one of the luckier ones.  One artist had so much water in front of her booth that it was impossible for people to get into it.  She did an amazing job though with finding wood planks down by the beach and created her own boardwalk in front of her tent.  I should have taken a picture.  It was absolutely ingenious and looked beautiful!

And then we waited.  And we waited.  And we waited.... all day.  Where were the people?  We waited in rain, we waited in wind, we waited in a tiny sun.  People just didnt come.  There were some, and some were carrying good sized packages, but there sure werent many.  I could wait 5-10 minutes sometimes before even one person would walk by my booth.  The people who did come sure werent interested in my more modern paintings.  The only work I really saw selling were landscape photographs of LBI beach, other traditional beach/ocean related art, and silk scarves patrons made themselves (thats another story... I'm not sure if scarves patrons themselves make should be allowed in a fine art festival).  The silk scarf guy had patrons surrounding his booth all day watching others make scarves and waiting in line to make their own.  The majority of us just sat there.  It was my first day to ever zero out.  The fiber artist behind me zeroed out.  The people on both sides of them also zeroed out.  The photographer next to me made one sale.  The wooden instrument artist across from me also zeroed out.  After all day in bleak weather, 13 hours in soaked and ruined shoes, and no sales I was thoroughly disappointed and regretting my decision to try out the show.  However after a good meal at Red Lobster and a tall beer, I was able to put on a more positive attitude and forced myself to believe good things were in store for Sunday.

Sunday the weather was much better.  Beautiful sun and low 80s.  If for nothing else, it would be good for tanning.  I made one $300 sale early and so did my neighbors behind me and across from me, so we were all thinking today would be a vindicating day!  A furniture maker who made beautiful chairs sold a $2000 piece.  The crowds were good in the morning and there was decent buying energy, but very soon the crowds died down and energy went back to a zero.  Again, the only work I saw being bought was very traditional beach related art.  Even the "beach art" that was more modern wasnt selling.  There was one booth that I thought was really great with found objects they used to create ocean animals, like helmets for sea turtles shells, and driftwood for bird nests.  It was really unique and ingenous, but I didnt see much leave their booth.  I guess if you have traditional beach art then it might be a good venue to try, but otherwise it seemed like a bust for most people.  In the last hour, I managed to pull out one good $600 sale, which after expenses brought my profit to just over $200.  So I didnt loose money on the show, but I sure did come scary close.  If I'd had to pay for the booth fee I certainly would have.  I think the people on all sides of me ended up loosing money.  Really disappointing as I said, I love Paragon shows and I've never done a bad show with them before.  First for everything I guess.  I'm just glad it wasnt my first loss!  It sure did come close!

Any suggestions on how best to water proof my canopy?  Favorite products, application methods, any advice is appreciated!

I had a show in Salina, KS this weekend. Friday night, I was t-boned in the driver's side front by a drunk driver, though below legal limit, so he was not arrested. I was on a main road and he did not even stop at the cross street stop sign before plowing right into me full speed. How does one miss seeing a large white van with blue stripes running down it!? My driver’s side front suspension needs to be placed and door repaired or replaced. Frame appears to fine according to wrecker mechanic. Will find out more today. I am praying insurance will not total it out since it is '97, but it is highly customized, so not easily replaced especially on the road. I only suffered severe whiplash since I was in a large van and hit by a small sedan. His car is totaled. Thankfully, I was at a well-run caring community show (Smoky Hill River Festival) that has helped me store my artwork until things get sorted out. The director actually saw my van on the wrecker Friday night.

I have not been a car accident in 22 years back in college, so I am unfamiliar will what I should do, especially since this will affect my business. I was in a dull haze most of the weekend, so my sales were not great, while most others were. I could not communicate well at all especially on Saturday. The whiplash was worse on Sunday. I could not lift my right arm up very far. I am seeing a doctor today for it. I will be on the road until late October. My van/home is out of commission for an unspecified amount of time (will find out more on that today). I have a full schedule with only a couple weekends off this summer.  My next show is in South Bend, IN, then Columbus, OH, and then Chicago. Right after that, I fly home for 1.5 weeks. How do I determine lost wages for a job that fluctuates so much? What records do I keep? Do I contact a lawyer or just let insurance handle it (I have USAA with comprehensive and his is Nationwide)? Should I rent a van to do my next two shows then drive the 12 hours back? I stay in South Bend as a home base for most of the rest of the summer. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Our first show of the year was a bomb. Not "da bomb", but a stink bomb, so we were really hoping that the Allentown Art Festival here in Buffalo would make up for it. Since we live in the neighborhood, it is way too easy to do and one tends to be more forgiving of so-so sales when one can bike home to walk the dogs in the middle of the day. 

Our assigned spot had a small parking lot right behind us, so we wanted to be up early to make sure we had a spot there. At 5:30, I jumped/staggered out of bed and made my way downstairs. Our big dog, Quincy, leapt up and raced me down which was unusual, but when he galloped to the couch and began to kiss Russell's face  I realized Russ must have had a restless night and come downstairs to watch TV.

"So, there you are" I said as I approached the couch, then, as I got closer "You're not Russell"

I didn't panic at first. We live in in the neighborhood where a big art festival was happening and it would not have been unusual for my guy to invite random artists to crash at our house. I went upstairs and asked him who was sleeping on the couch, his eyes popped wide and he said "Someone's sleeping on the couch?" I told him he needed to put his pants on and get downstairs.

Brave me waited halfway down the stairs, cell phone in hand, while Russ turned on some lights and stared down ant the sleeping guy. When he started nudging him and asking, "Who are you? hey, wake up, who are you" I got nervous. The guy eventually came around and slurred "I'm Kevin". Russ asked "Do I know you?" and the guy said that sure we knew him and when Russ advised him otherwise, brave me on the stairs with the cell phone called down "I have the phone in my hand and I am calling the cops if you don't leave this minute!"

He shuffled off to the kitchen to put his shoes on and started to apologize and which point I shook my big scary iPhone at him, advising him that I was sure he was sorry but we did not know him and he had to leave right now. I was amused inside that he was polite enough to shuck his shoes at the door.

Apparently, this lanky 20 something kid from the suburbs had been partying during the night and friends directed him to their house to sleep it off instead of driving and he got the wrong house and we had neglected the lock up during the pre show craziness.

"Kevin" became the punchline of the weekend. "where's the bag of bungee cords?" Kevin borrowed them. "I'm going to bike home and walk Quincy" Ask Kevin to do it. "Who got Best of Show?" Kevin for Confused Media. And on and on.

The show turned out to be decent for us, thanks to a beautiful, sunny Sunday.  Allentown is a huge show that spawned an adjacent non-juried show and more yard sales than you can count. Lots of competition for that mythical "20 dollar bill". 

Now I just need to rest my weary bones and train Quincy how to be a watch dog. Maybe Kevin can do it.

Yay! Had my biggest sales day ever at the Crocker Park Fine Art Fair and my highest total in my year and a half of art fairs. I know my art fair career is short but I had a really good show. I had my first $1000 day!

So, thus far my experiment into getting into bigger shows is encouraging. Maybe it was being outside the Baby Gap, maybe it was the kids who brought their parents into the booth or maybe people like my minifigure photographs. I had a lot of compliments and chuckles by those viewing my minifigure photos. But my traditional (non-minifigure shots) sold too. So, I feel validated as an artist.Well, from this weekend at least...

But my experiment will continue this year as I attend Crosby, West Shore (Ludington, MI), Wyandotte, Univ. of Toledo Alumni Show (yes, I am a Rocket alum) and Hyde Park. We will see the results of these fairs too and then decide if shows like the Ann Arbor Art Fairs or Plymouth's Art in the Park are right for me. Just starting out but what a weekend!