The votes have been tallied and the winners are:
Member of the year: Geoff Coe - "He gives incredible answers to people's questions. He tells them the where, the when , the why and the how. He tells them where to stay, where not to stay and how much of his answer is from is personal experience and how much is what he heard. Then if that's not enough he tells them to e-mail him if they have any more questions."
Personality: Munks
Author: Nels Johnson - "People watch for how he answers and take the lead from him; consistently contributes the most interesting blog posts with show info. Plus his experiences are a hoot!"
ROFL: Caroline Kwas & Framer Dude - "appreciate hearing all of their adventures and always look forward to the next one"
Most Generous & Helpful: Larry Berman - "useful answers on Zapp"/Jim Parker - "all things computer"
Newcomer: Ruth Finkenbiner - "great to hear from the West Coast"
Special Recognition for hospitality and generosity: Geri Wegner and Annette Piper. Geri hangs out here with us and then goes out and meets us in person. Annette is the unofficial greeter from Australia who is part of our international community but who feels like she is a neighbor in the next booth.
Best Blog Post: Escalating Booth Fees--In This Recession What are They Thinking? from Nels Johnson - over 5000 views
Best Discussion: What's the Worst Question You Have been Asked at an Art Fair? Linda and Jim Dalton - nearly 7000 views and 32 pages of comments; runner up: Addicted to Gushers from Leo Charette
Special Award: Nels Johnson has been a frequent contributor here and we have especially enjoyed his Tequila Reports. Now that he has turned 67 and has resigned from this particular activity (drinking tequila), nonetheless when I attended BlogWorld and one of its sponsors was a new tequila, U4RIK, the product manager agreed that Nels should be the recipient of this special award. Coming your way Nels:
There was a lot of excellent writing and I want to note these particular posts which made a contribution:
Karole Bowlds: EZ-Up, Secure 40 Minute Set up the Maine Way
Corey Johnston's several thought-provoking blog posts
Nels Johnson's helpful post: How to Write an Interesting Blog and not Necessarily Be Witty
Kathy Oda's My 2011 Lessons Learned
Ray Hartl's photo blog from Madison, WI, Protest on the Square
Barry Bernstein's post about Oklahoma City: It's Cold, It's Hot, It's Rainy...
Helpful discussion: Where do you keep your money at an art fair
Best intervention with an art fair: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/old-town-art-fair-amp
Want to have some fun? Here is my personal favorite discussion: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/on-the-road-again-with-youtube
In Memoriam: We will surely miss artists Jackie Russo, Bob Vonesh, Sandra Sharon, Hank Bardenhagen, Todd Lundeen, Dee Segula, Sonny Dalton, Barbara Cook; promoter Audree Levy and Bill Batts former husband and best friend of Pam Bartl.
Many thanks to this site's administrators Larry Berman and Jacki Bilsborrow who keep us up to date.
Building a Community is the plan for this website. Helping artists help each other and entertaining them along the way is a big goal. 2011 was a very good year. The traffic to the site increases daily. We have members come and go and lots of lurkers. The list of contributors is lengthy. Google analytics say that over 500,000 visits occurred in the year, with nearly 65% of them return visitors. (2010 saw 120,000 visits and we thought that was a good year.) I hope you are finding this resource helpful and I look forward to meeting you here and in person in the coming year.
Comments
Geoff-
I just wanted to say that I am so happy that you were recognized by AFI. I have only posted a question once and you were right there helping me out.
thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!
Cheryl Stevens
Well, Willow and I have been throwing back Tequila shooters, designing with PMC and watching the blizzard while we wait to see what will come out of the kiln. I've been hugging the......oh, never mind.....since I saw that Munks looks just like Sally Field.
Sincere Congrats all around to Geoff, Larry and Jim, Nels, Annette and geri, Ruth and Caroline and Sally.
I read with interest what you write, am always intriqued by your opinions and look forward to the next thought. In a world where only words matter:
Kudos and Thanks
Come on down Connie. I count at least 8 of us are doing Ft Myers. Come on down for the weekend.
Oh my, thank you! I feel very special even though I'm on the other side of the world! Hopefully some of you will come downunder one day and I can meet you. There is talk in my house of a possible visit to the US in 2013, so you never know I may even get over your way and see how you REALLY do a show :D
What a wonderful group to be honored with. Thanks!!
And congratulations to you Jim for sharing the award with me. Thanks to Connie and all the members of the academy. And thanks to my loving wife and puppies.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
We are so blessed to have all of you great writers on this site, and really appreciate all the comments and helpful and humorous information that makes its way here. Actually, to quote Geoff -- you do all make my day. Finding you here (all of you) the prize winners and everyone else who has kept the conversation going makes this writing life worthwhile, and yes addictive. Just got to get out of the house more often but, like Jim, thawing out and shoveling. Ralph Rankin called from near Orlando today with invitations to Camp Ralph, only in my dreams.
I'd sure like to meet all of you this year, those I know, and the rest -- Geri, Ruth, Geoff, Annette and so many more.
Thanks to all in the community for the votes of support. I am so looking forward to getting to Florida next month (Ft. Myers). I was just outside on the driveway de-icing the locks on my trailer. Three out of four required de-icing fluid, graphite and the hair dryer to get them off. It's 18 here, and we're expecting 3-6" of snow in the next couple of days, so I figured I'd better get them now before they are buried. Ay-yi-yi!
Congrats to Geoff -- love your posts, and hope to meet you, perhaps at ArtiGras? Larry, Nels, Munks, congrats to you terrific, interesting writers. And to Annette, Geri and Ruth, thanks for your varied perspectives...
Happy Trails
Jim
Wow, what a nice honor! Thanks, this made my day!! Contributing to AFI is my most fun non-shooting/selling task of just about any week. And nothing beats meeting fellow AFIers at shows! With that, I realize that I cannot possibly top Sally Field / Munks so I'll leave it at that.
I'm looking forward to meeting more of you in 2012!
It looks just like him!!!
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