I received this today as part of a newsletter from the Indiana Arts Commission and thought you all might want to read about how happy we all are whether we knew it or not.

National Study Suggests People Involved Professionally in the Arts are Happier

I had a great time this year at Ann Arbor.  Amid the lovely, heartfelt compliments there were a few comments I "collected" and thought you all might get a chuckle out of them...

Two separate buyers assured me I shouldn't worry because my work would be "going to a good home."

A lady with a very obvious Chinese accent and a large camera pointed at my ceramic art:

"Is all of this made in the US?"

Another  lady scrutinizing the sculpted ceramic…

I have a question regarding jury photos.  What do you all think about picture-in-picture details of a smaller part of the work in the photo?  Is it distracting, or does it give the jurors an opportunity to see the details of a large piece?  I make ceramic art with sculpted elements, so the whole piece is interesting, but there are details that would be missed by an overall photo.  Good or bad?  Thanks in advance for your input.

I've checked through the blogs, and I've found a couple of companies mentioned that I plan to contact, but I welcome any other suggestions on this topic.  I'm interested in comparing a yearly insurance policy for art fairs against buying insurance for a single event.

Originally I contacted the agent who has our homeowner's policy and discovered that what State Farm offered was not only too expensive to be practical, but it also had a whopping deductible that pretty much made the…