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Looking forward to meeting some awesome and sharing information!

Posted by Denise Buisman Pilger on October 10, 2014 at 9:34am in Welcome to Art Fair Insiders!

Hi everyone! Connie Mettler suggested I introduce myself here so...

I'm a Dutch artist living and working in Montréal Canada for the past 5 years after spending 3 years in lovely Fort Worth TX. I'm sort of a 'professional' tourist, keeping my camera at the ready everywhere I go. I use my photographs to create mixed media urban landscapes by combining acrylic photo transfers with acrylic paints and mediums.

You can find more examples of my work on my website http://artistabroad.com. You can also find me on Facebook,Twitter and LinkedIn.

I'm relatively new to the art fair circuit. I've done FIMA (Festival International Montréal en Art) a couple of years ago which was not great and I did TOAE (Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition) this past July which was awesome!

I'm looking forward to doing some more outdoor fairs in the near future so I'll probably be hanging out here a lot ;) I hope I wil be able to contribute some information as well, i am always open to answering questions so please don't hesitate to message or email me. 

I'm looking forward to meeting you here in the virtual world or out in the wild somewhere as we are all roaming the art fair circuit :)

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Replies

  • Christina L. Towell October 13, 2014 at 10:18am

    Hello again, Denise...whew, it sounds exhausting just trying to figure out the border crossing dilemma, I hope you do.  It sounds like you've got plenty of other shows lined up though, did you ever try any art fairs or shows when you were in Texas?  In any event, we're thrilled to have you here and happy to help if we can...

    • Denise Buisman Pilger > Christina L. Towell October 14, 2014 at 9:04am

      Thanks Christina! 

      I didn't do any art fairs when I was in TX, I was just starting my art career back then so I wasn't ready for that yet. Now I wish I had been because it looks like there are some good shows down there. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get back there sometime and try some of them :)

  • Barrie Lynn Bryant October 11, 2014 at 2:44pm

    Welcome, Denise. I remember you from the linkedin Art Business group discussions. Good luck with the shows. We're in Florida right now doing a tour of shows and our first one was fantastic. I look forward to reading more from you and possibly bumping into you at a show someday. I remember your work and hope you will do well. Seems you were collaborating on some and those were especially interesting. Glad to have you aboard. WOOHOO!

    • Denise Buisman Pilger > Barrie Lynn Bryant October 11, 2014 at 2:57pm

      Thanks Barrie! I remember you from LinkedIn as well, you were very helpful! :D Good luck with your shows in Florida, the weather must be nice down there, we're into full fall mode up here in Canada :)  

  • Connie Mettler October 11, 2014 at 10:22am

    Glad to have you join us, Denise. Sounds like you are really ready and accomplished in your art. This is not a business for beginners, too expensive and most of them are not ready for prime time. 

    I hope you get some answers about how to come across the border, where there are a lot more shows. In fact, have you tried it yet? 

    I'm sure you were busy at the show in Toronto, but did you see any people from the US? I'd surely like to have some more info about how we can increase the flow of artists between the US and Canada. 

    What is cool about this site, and the business, is that we do meet here, make friends and then meet in person. When I started this site it was in the days of when people used "user names" in forums but I made the decision that it was important for us to know the info we were reading was legit and that it would help build the artist community spirit by meeting people by name online and then extending it offline.

    What's up for your next event? and what took you from Texas to Montreal?

    • Denise Buisman Pilger > Connie Mettler October 11, 2014 at 12:23pm

      Yeah, that border crossing thing is turning out to be quite complicated. 

      I’ve been researching it quite extensively and it is difficult to find any definite answers. I’ve talked to multiple visa specialists and they told me that I should apply for a B1/B2 visa (more info here) based on this paragraph from the Foreign affairs manual: 
      9 FAM 41.31 N11.10 Artists 
      (CT:VISA-701; 02-15-2005) 
      An artist coming to the United States to paint, sculpt, etc. who is not under contract with a U.S. employer and who does not intend to regularly sell such art-work in the United States. 
      But after applying and being approved for this visa I was told by the guy at the US consulate that it is still up to the border patrol officer to allow you to cross. I have now talked to multiple Canadian artists who have been doing this for quite a number of years and it seems that you will never be able to do it legally if you tell them the whole truth. As soon as you mention art fairs or tell them the work is for sale they immediately start asking questions. You are just not allowed to make any money if you don't have a permit that allows you to work.  
      The artists that I talked to both have E1 visas now, this is a trade visa that you can apply for as soon as you can prove that you sell $10.000 per year in the US for three consecutive years which doesn’t sound totally unreachable, although, if you're legally not allowed to sell I wonder how you are expected to achieve this?

      From what I understand you can do it as long as you tell them that you’re either just bringing the work for exhibition purposes or that the show (or an American at the show) is going to handle your sales. I also heard about artists who ship their work instead of driving it across themselves but these things get costly quickly. 
      And then there's the broker thing, which is really expensive as well. So yeah, I haven’t completely figured it out yet but I guess that won’t happen until I try it out. I've crossed a couple of times with just a single painting for exhibition purposes, it was possible but they did ask questions so I'm guessing that more paintings will make it more difficult. 
      The show in Toronto was awesome, there were a Lot of artists there but I think most of them were Canadian. I've heard that it's easier for Americans to sell in Canada because they're actually allowed to as long as they pay the proper taxes.
      It's a shame that they make it so difficult to find the proper information, it seems like there's nobody out there who is able to give any definite answers because there's no clear rules to follow and the rules that are there are open to different interpretations so you're really at the mercy of the border patrol people. It just sucks that you're really screwed when you do get stopped, as soon as you have that bad mark on your record every single crossing is going to be BAD.
      I already love this site though! The people I have talked to so far haven been very friendly and helpful. It's just nice to have a place where you can ask questions and find information about exactly the situations you are going to encounter!
      I still want to try the whole border crossing thing but we're going to wait a little while. I want to get a few more fairs under my belt so I have a better idea what I can expect in terms of sales and profit so I can make a better estimate about the investments I can make safely, especially as far as broker fees go. I'm planning on applying for 5 fairs in Canada in 2015 and maybe try out the border crossing with a couple of paintings first, maybe bring them to Boston to check out a couple of galleries.
      We moved from TX to Montréal because of my husbands work, he's an engineer and works project based. His company kind of travels us around which is awesome! especially since I can basically work from anywhere :)
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