Both Winthrope and Michelle have contributed various viewpoints about last weekend's show in Lexington,both gave excellent reviews.
So, I aint going there. This will be a little more cerebral, but informative. Hopefully you all will mine a few jewels out of my late night digressions.
If you are not feeling cerebral, just quit now. You wont glean anything.
First off, it is one of the most beautiful nights in Saugatuck,Michigan that I have experienced all summer.
We left Lexington at 6:30 AM seeing steely blue skies bright with light. A storm came last night and blew all the hot weather crap right out We made it home to Michigan in less than seven hours. No big traffic.
My highlight of the whole trip was when I was going around the beltway around Indianapollis. I listen to XM/Sirius while on the road. They started playing Peter Frampton's "Do you feel like I do". I was playing the wickedest air-guitar riffs as I blew by twittering motorists at 75 mph. It was ethereal
We made it to lunch at the Red Dock Restaurant in time for lunch and Tequila-infused
margaritas made with homemade ginger root beer. Glenn, our hippy-dippy bartender, was in usual guarrelous form.
Ellen took a nap. I played golf, shot an 87, not bad for six days off and being stiff for driving 500 miles.
I came home after dinner tonight and looked up at the sky. Had a little toot and smelled the night. Hints of burning wood from campfires in the air. A crispness which I have not felt once this month. Perfect sky with every star lit up perfect. I saw so many constellations.
Then I started thinking about Lexington. Weird. I don't know why the font just changed. Will just go with the flow.
Met Michelle Wermuth at her booth. She is a newbie photographer to art shows. She is not a newbie to photography. She and her husband have been in the wedding photo biz for years.
Naturally, times are tough, why not branch out. Ergo Michelle, at outdoor art shows. Ring a bell?
She is doing exactly what a hundred other plus people are doing right now. Trying to make extra moola.
Her booth looked stunning, very professional. Hell, I never had a booth that looked that good until my fifth year in photography. I used to use an ORANGE tarp over my handmade pegboard panels. One day coming back from an art show in Gainesville,FL I noticed all these pegboard panels bouncing and exploding all over I-75. I said hmmm, "Those sure look like mine." Cars were dancing and dodging all over avoiding get hit my my dissapearing panels. I got a new professional booth with canopy after that.
So Michelle is way ahead of the curve compared to where I was in my time.
She did not have a good show. Guess what? There were a 100 others that didn't do well too.
As always. there are exceptions like Winthrope. I know about ten others. But a lot of people only made a little more than expenses
On Saturday, I did $2K for the day which is much better than I did any day at Ann Arbor or Minneapolis.
Weather was better on Sunday, crowds were half, and sales were half.
Times are tough. People are holding back--but, and this is big but, they got plenty of money. You see it come out when they really want something.
In my media photography, I see where almost 60 per cent have gone over to doing canvas-wrapped images with no frame on them. The public loves them to a certain extent. Trouble is, they all look alike. They all got the same shots of places in Italy and France. They are all interchangeable. They don't stand out. It is one giant mess of photos from Europe. Guess what?
The economy is catching up with them.
This is the time to take chances. Break out of the pack. Do something new. What have you got to lose.
As I made it back to Saugatuck today. Sirius played one of my favorites by Bob Seger, one of Michigan's best rockers--you remember, "The night moves". It was so apropos. He sang about love in a truck back behind corn fields. I thought about love on islands off the Florida Gulf coast. Times with ladies who shed their bathing suits for greater needs.
I never felt so alive as today. This is my best day in 2011 so far.
But guess what? I know I am going to top it.
Aloha, Nels.
Comments
There is nothing that makes the miles fly by like XM radio. I used to stop on my way from Chitown to my place in Boulder, usually Ogalalla or the like.Installed it for the trip, 15 1/2 hours later I was sitting in my other driveway.I don't even want to know my average speed.
I have begun to move from the full gallery wraps, to prints on canvas and float frames (small edge black metal set ups, easy peasy). Even put stuff behind glass for Crested. The canvas wraps flew off the walls, canvas floats did OK, and sold (1) behind glass. They still sell amigo.
I did overhear a brush artist say he had sold canvas wrap reproductions.Hmmm.Thought WTF, assumed these were to be clearly labled as such. Now these guys are jumping into that item, guess fair is fair.
But, you and I are on the same page regarding creativity.The same old scenes will always be just that, plenty in that pond to choose from,but someone that pushes the envelope will always be found by a buyer. And I need the recipe for that ginger root beer margarita.
Great post Nels, I enjoyed reading it, you always make me think and smile...Oh, and the music, I can always imagine the whole thing with the music on the background.
I just went to Ikea to buy a lamp. They also carry tons of those canvas prints, the only difference is that the prices are 19.99 to 49.99 So photographers, time to use your imagination, we need to attract people to come to the shows because they can find one of a kind and original art ;) Not stuff that they can get in any mass production store. We all need to be unique, that is what makes the difference.
Good for you, Nels! Fine post!
Re: the canvas wraps. Yep, they're increasingly popular (and, as I discovered immediately when I tried displaying them on my back wall) they're glare free and (if well made) stop traffic in its tracks. Which is Step One toward making a sale, eh, hombre?
But you are right about the proliferation of Mediterranean doorways, canvas-wrapped and otherwise. I see them everywhere I go. Reminds me of something a National Geographic shooter said while we were judging a contest together a few months ago: "Jeezus...five hundred photographers entered this contest, and over half of them are shooting in the same places." I had to laugh...