I applied to La Quinta 2 years in a row. Last year they told me I was rejected. It seems my art was great, it was my booth. I was 2 points from being accepted, the artist peers said my booth was not great (grids instead of panels) So I got Pro Panels and applied again (after other shows too, of course, which I got into). Again I was rejected.
Here is the pic I sent when I applied.......Here is the report they just gave me....
"A perfect score is 28. In your media of Drawing & Pastel (which is the category THEY suggested I put my art into), the highest score achieved was 28. An Artist with a score of 25 or higher was confirmed into Festival. Your score was 23. Comments made by the jury members were that “technique is strong but booth is not clean enough”. The peer artist jury members are extremely critical when it comes to this part of the judging process. They are seeking a very clean booth display. Less is more. Think of exhibiting your work in an art gallery."
Now, tell me how I can 'clean it up' and how to make it like a gallery.......I do scratch board and the largest I can do is 24x36
Replies
Why the half panels? That's what's giving your booth the cluttered look. That and there are a few things on the right hand wall that look like they don't belong. Hang the work more symmetrically on the walls. Next time you photographic your booth, use a tripod and set the camera to auto bracket so you have a voice of exposures to choose from.
Larry Berman
Here's some ideas and some articles at the end to check out.
24x36 is a decent size. That is larger than most of my prints as they are 20x30 for the most part and a few 24x30's. The size is not the issue. The arrangement of the booth is.
Maybe that show you were at is okay with the two panels sticking out in the aisle, but most shows are insistent on keeping our wares inside the 10x10 footprint. I like the angled corner back in the right rear as it shows off work better that way. While the Dutch door style half panels is a different look, it does block the view of a third to half of the interior and contributes to a cluttered look with the broken sight lines.
My suggestion would be to do a mirror image of your booth panels set up on the left as you do on the right. Place the largest pieces in the back, smaller vertical pieces on the diagonal corners (I'm guessing those are smaller panels), and the medium size pieces on the forward panels. Give more space around the pieces so they can "breathe", and don't use signage or small info cards. Keep the larger work only two rows and pay careful attention to the frame edges keeping level sight lines.
Get some clamp on lights up in the rafters and spotlight the work to make it stand out from the dark background, or get some remote controlled flash units you can bounce off the top like a giant reflector. I would suggest a wider angle lens that what you're using so you can open up the walls a bit more.
There are a series of three articles I wrote after sitting in on the St. Louis Art Fair mock jury workshop that might be helpful in terms of how to arrange the booth for the "gallery look". The first article from 2012 is a good overview, and the ones from 2013 go into much more detail. The third part from 2013 is very specific about the booth shot itself.
2012 St. Louis image prep mock jury
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/artist-image-workshop...
2013 St. Louis mock jury workshop
part 1: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/st-louis-art-fair-mock-...
part 2: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/st-louis-art-fair-mock-...
part 3:http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/st-louis-art-fair-mock-...