Don't hate us because we were successful at this years Orchard Lake Art Show.At first I was scared about the location of the new venue and did not think ANYONE would find the show..it was very far off of Orchard Lake Road.Patty Narozny. of Hotworks did her job with tons of signage and television coverage - which brought the people out. The Friday night preview party was packed! Bob and I usually don't depend on these parties to determine the success of any art show...drinking and shmoozing is what the crowd usually wants to do.That night we sold a very expensive piece to a young couple from Royal Oak, and we had no stress from then on.That is not the case for most of the artists we talked to. A much larger show(240 artists) larger than the previous years- good for the customers, not always for the artists.Set up and take down was a breeze....

And come to the show they did! The quality of art was fabulous! Lots of great artists who also did Ann Arbor the previous weekend.We sold three large,two medium and two smaller pieces at the show which added up to the best show of our summer so far..we also delivered and hung three pieces which I think added to the sales we made- customer convenience is something every customer wants.There was alot of money walking around the show...don't know if they all spent it, bnut they were there!!!

I think the crowd did buy from some artists- there were mixed reviews from artists around us...same as always.

We will be back next year and hopefully sales will be even better!

And , Nels...we missed you- sorry you had such a great Ann Arbor show and could not join us for dinner Saturday night at Bravo- we enjoyed our martinis anyway!

Every show has its challenges and this weekends show was no exception. But there was something a little different ... a little "off", on this show. The paperwork asked for a 6:45 a.m. set up. Which on normal shows, would be fine. But this show did not open until 12-noon on Saturday. I thought it was strange that it has a late opening time. I send an email to the organizers to request a later set up time. They told me I could arrive at 7:30. But couldn't make it any later. It will only take us 2 hours to set up.

When we arrived, it was drizzling a little, but soon stopped. The street was a little tight for tents on either side and cars unloading down the middle. But you make the best of it. We unloaded, got set up. We were all set up and ready by 9:30. So now we sat there, no customers and chatted with other artists for over 2 hours. There seem to be no good reason for us to be there sooooo early. We had traveled 3 hours away. So we had gotten up at 3:00 a.m. to sit there. We could have "slept in" til 5:00. We asked artists if they had done the show before. I did not find one artists that had done the show last --- not a good sign.

The gates opened at 12-noon. But they charged $7 to get into the area. This admission charge also included music at one end of the festival. This has a major affect on the type of person attending the show. These were people that were willing to pay for the (rock) music, but not interested in buying art.

The "services" provided to artists were strange as well. When we checked in, there were no name tags. About 1:00 on Saturday afternoon, they walked around and handed everyone a name tag. The "artists lounge" was open from 2:00-5:00=which was the peek selling time.

The show was to run until 10 p.m. but the artists were able to close earlier, if they wanted to do so. We left on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. out of boredom. Some others did stay open later, but did not sell anything. Sunday night they closed the show a 9:00 p.m. (do you know how dark it is at 9:00 p.m.?) Then an other hour or so to pack up and get out. We left at 7:00.

Total sales were very poor. We covered our expenses, plus $100. Not even closed to what we expected.

This seems to be a music show that added art. They are not really interested in developing the art side of the festival OR don't know how to run an art show. Too bad. It could have been a good show. But we will not be returning next year. Most artists around us did little to no sales. One artist next to us did OK on Saturday, but nothing on Sunday, told us he would not be returning next year.

So where will it end? Shows are no longer fun to do and artists no longer are able to make the money they did in the past. And that's where I'm going to end this essay.

Thought you might like to see some pictures of the surroundings that inspire some of my artistic endeavors. There is a picture of my pond as seen from my front porch, the flowers in my gardens and some of the critters that visit. Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed my little piece of artistic heaven! The studio door is always open if you wish to drop by for a cuppa!

Terri at the Drake's Nest in beautiful Ossineke, MI

Website: http://www.drakesneststudios.com

Blog: http://www.drakesneststudios.wordpress.com

Arron writes art reviews for the Jackson Hole, WY newspaper called Planet News.

Here is the article we wrote July 22, 2010

Art’s fair in love and war

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

By Aaron Wallis

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-If you're looking for art that comments on society or attempts at originality, you won’t find it at art fairs. Everything is safe and appeals to median taste because selling art is really the only reason to do an art fair.

I learned about art history from Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas movies. We know that Michelangelo was not afraid to yell at the pope and run off to Florence in a time when most men would not have dared look the Holy Father in the eye. Van Gogh had nothing but utter contempt for the taste of his day. Jackson Pollock once put out Peggy Guggenheim’s fireplace with his urine in front of a crowd of Manhattan socialites.

Looking back on last weekend's art fair, I recall little more than the usual suspects. Bad wildlife photograph stretched on canvas – check. Earnest yet completely unimaginative landscape painting – check. Something made out of bronze on your shopping list – got ya covered. Looking out across an empty Miller Park, I felt like Wellington must have felt gazing out across the Waterloo battlefield after repelling Napoleon’s forces.

I see the problem as one of improper labeling. The art fair should be called a craft fair. Any great work of art has a certain amount of craft and I respect technical expertise in many artists, but craft has never held back a great artist and a lack of artistic vision dooms many artists who lack imagination.

I walked past booth after booth of arts and crafts that had little more than consumption itself in mind. Perhaps it was not all that bad – I saw a few friends, and I did buy one piece, though the artist who created the belt stitched together from recycled inner tubes would, I feel, agree that it was craft. Not only was it sustainable, but also my waist size was a small. So either bitches are getting fatter or I have gone down from a size seven to a three in the last decade. The artist responsible for this belt was actually charming and educated. She reminded me of the artists I knew back in school, unlike so many impressionist zombies.

Twice in my life, I had a booth at an art fair. I’ll try anything once, and I have never felt like such a dirty whore. The visual arts have a proud tradition of dissent, rampant individuality and treatment of our wealthy and powerful patrons with the disdain that that rest of society is afraid to show them.

Great artists have worked many crappy jobs waiting for commercial recognition. But I don’t feel the artists I respect, and artists who have been validated by art history ever considered selling work as the primary motivation for creating art. JHW

photo by AARON WALLIS
Wholesome art misconstrued by a perv photographer.
PERMALINK:
Art’s fair in love and war | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

Here is the link to the entire article and response

http://www.planetjh.com/music_arts_culture/A_106380.aspx

September 4 & 5
New Baltimore, MI
Downtown in Burke Park on Anchor Bay
100 Artists
Deadline: Right now!

The New Baltimore Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is bringing a brand new event to Downtown New Baltimore this summer: "Art on the Bay". This juried fine art and fine crafts festival will be held over the Labor Day weekend in the Walter and Mary Burke Park on the beautiful shore of Anchor Bay, a gateway to Lake Huron.

Saturday, September 4 - 10:00am - 5:00pm

Sunday, September 5 - 10:00am - 5:00pm

Event organizers anticipate 100 exhibiting artists to participate along with several area restaurants serving up specialties to satisfy ever kind of appetite. There will be entertainment for the whole family - all within walking distance to quaint Downtown New Baltimore.

As you well know, Labor Day weekend in Michigan is the last gasp of summer before everyone gets serious again! Be here to catch families enjoying the weekend in this vacationland. Since this is a holiday weekend (and artists always get to work on these days) how about spending two days at the art fair and then having a day off on Monday?

Join us for the inaugural 2010 Art on the Bay!

Walter & Mary Burke on the Bay in New Baltimore

The City of New Baltimore is located in the northeast corner of Macomb County bordering beautiful Anchor Bay located on the coastline of Lake St. Clair. The City is approximately 30 minutes northeast of downtown
Detroit, Michigan.

Visit www.CityofNewBaltimore.com, click on "Artist Application" to download the application.

Call 586.716.7620 for more information.

Of course Port Washington is a small city just north of Milwaukee.

This is a community festival. The arts and craft show was on July 17.

All the mechanics, loading, organization, etc were great. But....

A hot day. The crowd seemed to be dominated by locals who were just shopping ....as in not buying....just looking.....they liked my art.....but did not seem to have the money to buy it.....also there was a young flavor to the crowd.....whereas a good number of my sales are to 35 to 55 year old people. I am guessing, but it seems like this community festival does not attract enough tourist type people with money from outside the local area. Hence there is not a ton of money spent. All around me, sales were poor or average.....but I admit I just checked with people right next to me....not with some other vendors I could have talked to.

There was a lot of emphasis on the bands.....and the bands were good.....but it seemed like the bands may have distracted people from the vendor area....I do know of a couple of shows that have thier best bands in the evening....and during the fair hours have background music on stage and street musicians in the vendor area......and this helps the vendor sales......but this was not the case at this show.

I did this show about 5 years ago (2005) .....and made double what I made this year. (2010). So for me, this show was a bust. Sure I made some money.....but next year, Ill be in Eagle River......One DAVEY out of 5.

The show was held on July 10......the people at the show ranged largely from 55 to 80 years old....most came to watch the bands which included the Kids from Wisconsin....who were excellent...and everybody including me loved the 1930's retro number.

The program barely mentioned the art and was all about the bands.

Most of the crowd just brought their chairs watched the bands and did not walk around and look at the art. It was a hot day. I am guessing but I suspect that the crowd were contributers to the college.

One DAVEY......out of 5......I would not do this show again.

Well, my inlaws are on their way back to AZ, but that is NOT why I'm doing a happy dance . I am going to be the "Official" Photographer for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival Oct. 7-11th in Alpena, Michigan! Last year I did a bit of a photography gig for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival Museum and this year have been asked to be the official photographer for them and making an historical CD for them. I will have a booth at which I will be offering not only my photographs of lighthouses and the like for sale, but will be offering a CD of the Festival itself, for those who sign up and pay for the CD. A portion of the proceeds will be going to benefit the Lighthouse Festival Museum and to the lighthouse preservations funds. I'm hoping that there will be a lot of interest in the CD's and photos. If all goes according to plan, I will be doing this photography gig every year, so wish me luck!

My studio renovations are just about complete and I'll hope to be in there working by the fall. My dear hubby says it may even be earlier than that. We have a little bit of the ceiling to finish, trim between floor and walls and install cabinets, book cases and the like and I'll be ready to go. We did finish installing the wood laminate flooring and I have hung curtains so it has a semi finished look to it.

I may post some pictures of the semifinished studio - we will be adding more cabinets as our finances allow in the future. At some point, I will even have a long arm to help with my art.

Have a great day all!

Terri at the Drake's Nest in Ossineke, MI where Giant River Otter play on my pond.

webpage: http://www.drakesneststudios.com

blog: http://www.drakesneststudios.wordpress.com

It was my first year of going there, either as an exhibitor or visitor; so I didn’t know what to expect. I am a photographer and I am fairly local – about an hour’s drive from my studio in Greenville, SC. So I planned to
commute each day and not have the hotel expense and also be able to replenish
whatever I sold. I purchased a
double booth and had all walls filled with subjects from the Carolinas. I didn’t know what price points to
focus on; so I had $50 items in bins up to $1300 items on the wall.

You can apply to exhibit in “Arts Park” or on the street or you can apply to both for an additional fee. I was in Arts Park; which I found out afterwards was merely a parking lot instead of on the street. Everyone that had been there before is now "in the street" because Arts Park only gets about 1/4 of the traffic that is in the street.

The fair is promoted as a city party or street festival; as apposed to an art show. Conseqently it was not surprising to find 95% of the patrons with a beer
glass in their hand. There were so
many they must have been issuing them at the entrance (and every block
thereafter). Patrons were civil
during the day; but after dark the scene became much more festive. Arts Park had a scheduled closing of
8PM every night while the booths in the street had an official closing of 10PM
(because most people in attendance were in the street after 8PM – and
continuing until 2AM). Yet Arts
Park had access to electiricty (for lights) but the street artists did not. Go figure.

Arts Park had 1 porta-john and a block down the street there were about 8 more. However all were padlocked at closing and you could not get into one again after closing or until the opening the next day. So if you stayed open
late or you came in early, there was no toilet available. Further I heard many artists on the
street that stated their booths had been used for a toilet. Gee would that have
anything to do with the porta-johns being padlocked? You’d think after 33 years we could learn from past issues.

This was a three day show (Friday – Sunday). Setup was to begin at 8PM on Thursday. And you could not get past the barricades (2 blocks from the festival) until after that time. I arrived about 7PM and I managed to
talk my way through the barricade as I explained that my booth was just “right
there”. Yet about 7:30PM I was
asked to remove my vehicle as another artist complained that I had received
preferential treatment; even though I was not going to unload until “the
whistle sounded”. Most
exhibitors from past years stated that they had always been allowed to begin
setup earlier; at least by 6PM so this year everyone had to set up in the dark
– no exceptions.

The weather seemed to be the hottest days of the year (90’s). And for this higher altitude, that is very hot. In my
hometown just one hour away it was 100 every day. Wind was nonexistent; so fans were a life saver.

This festival is advertised as having 300,000 attendees Yet Friday was so slow and traffic was so thin and sales were almost nil (across the board within my view). I actually zeroed until the 8PM close, then made two small sales as I was shutting down my tent. Saturday started with a bang as I was made three sales
before the 10AM opening and it continued right until about 1PM. By that time I had about $1800 for the
first three hours. Then the heat
came and absolutely killed any buying energy there could have been. I did have sporatic interest and
frequently thought I had some more sales, but none came. Sunday was just dead. I didn’t see the early morning visitors
that I had seen on Saturday and then it got hot quickly and it was almost
painful by 1PM. By mid afternoon
we see serious storm clouds brewing and we receive a pending severe weather
alert and we hurriedly secure our goods.
By the time the rains ended it was near closing and the day was
gone. So without any travel expenses
to speak of I made the event semi worthwhile. I still have several people I’m working with on big
purchases, so it could actually end up being a great showing for me. But without any additional sales
forthcoming, I would rather spend more travel money and go to a proven show.

Of all the artists that I saw or spoke to the average seemed to be just enough sales to cover the booth fees and perhaps “some’ of their travel expenses. I did not speak
to another artist who stated that he/she would travel to do the show again.

I know some other AFI members attended. So hopefully they can expand on these comments.

I have a question regarding the entries that are shown in the Art Fair Calendar and it relates to where the info comes from, what causes it to be shown, etc.

Specifically, Huffman Productions has four shows in the Midwest and have been fairly highly rated in the past. They have Omaha, Shakopee, Chicago and Sioux Falls. At the present time, one of the shows (Sioux Falls) is scheduled for Oct. and the other three in Nov. All the shows are called "Autumn Festival - An Arts and Crafts Affair".

My question is what would cause the Shakopee, MN show in Nov. to be listed in the calendar but none of the other three are? Does that mean it is vastly better or larger than the others? I'm especially interested in why the show in Ohaha on Nov. 4,5, 6 & 7 would not be listed.

I suppose all this is pretty trivial on my part. However, if a show isn't listed because there is some problem or negative aspect to it, then maybe it's a show I would want to avoid. I just don't know how to intrepret this and would appreciate knowing a little more about the process.

Thanks to anyone who can help with this.