This show happened the past weekend, same time as Wells Street and Old Town in Chicago.
Right off I will tell you this is a filler show for me. If you live more than a three-hour drive from it, it is not worth doing. I make it there from Saugatuck, MI in two hours and ten minutes. Can do it back and forth on a tank of gas while driving 75 mph. Bought the E-Pass and I zoom thru the tolls now, no more looking for quarters and waiting in a slow line of vehicles.
I have done this show four times over a decade Like I said, it is a filler for me. I make money, just not a lot.
Hinsdale is a very affluent SW suburb of Chicago. You exit off the Thru-way on Ogden Road heading west. Turn left on York and wind your way to downtown of this quaint village. Show is held in a lovely treed park by the railroad tracks. The village has five flower shops that all seem to make money, also three coffee shops and Pages Family restaurant where I get a great, cheap breakfest at every morn of the show. There is a news station two stores away where I can get a multitude of newspapers.
It is a small show with a small booth fee held in a beautiful park. Load in on Friday is very mellow, load-out can be a little hectic. You gotta plan your escape route out. As usual, I was one of the first ones in, and I loaded out in one hour.
Lots of painters and photographers at this show. Lots of competition for those slim sales to buyers. Many artists barely broke even at the show. Saturday morn we had clouds and a drizzle for most of the morn coupled with chilly temps, I was wearing a long-sleeved wool pullover and glad to have had it.
Crowds Sat. were very slim with few sales happening. I would guess if they had 1,000 people show up, that would be about it.
Nice thing is I got to meet up with a lot of fellow AFI-ers there like Paul Zerjay, Munks, Lynn Krause and Lynda Wallis. A bunch of us went to a great Sushi Restaurant Sat. nite and ate like kings for mere pennies during its Happy Hour. $2 Sakes, $5 Hamachi, pot-stickers for $3. The place was a deal. Zerjay ate his first sushi and loved it. Couldn't get either Munks or Zerjay to take the big plunge--snort some Wasabi. Bill the cat snorted some with me--the rest are a bunch of limp wimps.
Sunday brought perfect weather, still a bit chilly. Crowds were much bigger and well-dressed. This is a dog show, every other person is walking one. They do pick up after them.
Sales were still so-so. I don't think Munks will be back. I made a big sale while loading up at the end of the show--paid for my sushi bill, and then some.
Next week I am off, then two weeks from now, it is off to Des Moines. Aloha, Nels.
Comments
Hinsdale was such an interesting experience…made even more so by the fact of meeting and spending time with the three seasoned veteran road warriors-amazingly gifted artists, Nels, Paul Zerjay and Munks. I’ve been working on my triangulation even since pulling away from the show a little over 24 hours ago.
I’m new to the show circuit this year. This was my fourth show out of a dozen I’ll be doing this summer. Before starting, I decided I wouldn’t draw conclusions show by show; instead, I would look at the summer as a whole. The potential is there for me to sell $10,000 at one show-which would make up for the previous shows of not making much $. I believe in my work, I know it’s good, I know it will sell-eventually. I’m not looking for outside validation about the quality of my work-that’s not why I’m doing the shows. I’ll admit, it’s been very tough so far, but I’m new, I don’t have the right shows dialed in for my work and its taken some experience to get a variety of price points covered. I’ve made adjustments after each show. I’ve been very deliberate about this process.
I did go out the with guys Saturday night, I did watch Nels snort Wasabi---I thought he was trying to get the new kid to do something crazy and I wasn’t going to fall for it. Munks and Paul didn’t buy into it either.
Each of them was very generous and kind and dare I say it, gentlemen. They were honest about their expectations and sales, which were twice and three times as high as mine, were. As I drove away Sunday I kept trying to puzzle out what it was about them, their art, their salesman ship, their booth personalities, their professionalism that added up to account for their higher sales totals them mine-and all the other artists near my booth.
They are pros…no doubt about it. Each of them excels at their chosen craft or art. Their booths were excellent, extremely well dialed in. I had a sense of what the artists located near me earned, I know of three artists at the show that didn’t make a thin dime, I know what I earned…more than I’ve earned previously, but still not quite enough. Yet Munks and Nels indicated that they were not satisfied with their final numbers. From the very limited data I had, the three of them were higher money earners at the show.
What does that mean for the rest of us?
I’m not sure, but I will continue to ponder this…
I’ve been in business as an artist for a very long time, just new to the show circuit. I talked almost non-stop the entire show. I had folks drive over an hour to come meet me at the show because of the email note I send out prior to each show I do. I met several clients that I’ve only dealt with via the internet or phone. One woman showed up wearing a tee-shirt I designed. She brought word of two more Freelance Illustration jobs she had for me. I spoke with three different folks about commission work. I gave out over 100 business cards-after spending quite a bit of time talking to each person who asked for one. At least a half a dozen times I thought people were going to buy a larger painting…it didn’t happen …yet. I did sell a few smaller paintings and was delighted. I didn’t walk away with a fist full of $, but I didn’t walk away empty-handed. I know that in time I will hear from some of the people I met, some of the commissions will really happen, perhaps that sweet older woman at the very end will call me back because she can’t live without that large painting that made her feel so good.
Would I do Hinsdale again? Yes. Will I do the three shows that I had done previously? No. Will I listen to the great advice given to me by the guys? Yes, they really are pros. Will I ever go out for sushi with them again? Yes, absolutely. It was a perfect storm that brought all three of them together with me at the show in Hinsdale; it may be a very long time before the stars all line up like that again. But my takeaway from this experience is to play each show, opportunity and experience for all it’s worth.
I drew the line at snorting Wasabi with Nels...I thought he was kidding 'till I watched him do it! It was impressive.
Did Lynn go to the sushi with you?
We did this show once, as a filler. Couldn't be nicer, but slim crowds when we needed more volume with our price structure. I'd think that the right person with the right art could build a nice following in this community, at a low cost. Actually, I think the year before we'd done Wells Street and with its higher expenses and really long hours and stress, we did just as well, at our ease, watching the trains go by, as we did at Wells Street. Worth a try.
Funny Philip.. didn't even notice the trains. But I guess since I live a block from the Burlington and work at a store across from the train I don't notice them any longer!
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