I have a rival who will be copying this within a year
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For an extra fifteen bucks that could be a bloody mary
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The sign said "Dining With The Roosters" We didn't think they MEANT it.
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This is another show we love to do, but it would be a stretch if we weren't coming directly from the Coconut Grove show. The sales would be fine for a stand alone show if it were an hour away.
But this is KEY WEST. Most artists I know don't go there for the money. They go for a good time that pays for itself with a little left over. For a photographer it also provides a lot of great photo ops.
We were quite apprehensive about the setup. It's on the morning of the show. We were told that the setup did not start until six. We arrived an hour early to scout out the setup and there was not another van in sight. Oh boy! we had it all to ourselves. I found our booth number and started dumping stuff on the sidewalk. Shortly after another van arrived and took a position at the entry to the show. And waited. I walked up to the driver and told him what I was doing.
"Ohhhh, Nooooo" said he. "Get your stuff back in your van and get in line before she spots you or you'll get yelled at and maybe kicked out of the show." I did as told and later on I was very thankful for the advice. This lady takes no crap from nobody, runs as tight a show as I've ever seen and everything turns out. Just. fine.
At precisely six the gate is open and everyone pulls right up to their booth space. More or less. You get until about nine to get dumped and down to the parking area.
The crowds were OK and although the sales were mostly small it was steady. We got a nice boost when a tourist bought one of our largest framed pieces. They had a large motor home they'd brought which indicated that somewhere they had a much larger real home somewhere to hang the piece in. Sunday was quite a bit slower but all in all our total was more than satisfactory.
We have a friendly rivalry with a seasoned art-friends couple when it comes to sales and we had more or less tied each other in sales two shows in a row. They still consider us to be newcomers after ten years. Anyway, they kicked our butts by over two to one in Gasparilla and put us back in our place. We're out to even the score in Melbourne. If we don't get our butts kicked again, that is.
Public drunkenness is considered, within limits, as a kind of performance art in KW. A couple of attractive and nicely dressed young women off one of the boats were walking, more or less, through the show WHOOPING drunk. We had to wait until they passed before resuming a conversation with a prospect. All in a day's work there. Later, during teardown, a drunken couple started to enter the show and the director advised that the artists were not necessarily watching out for pedestrians and they might get run over. They seemed to become dimly aware of the danger on some level and slowly stumbled elsewhere.
We brought our bicycles and they came in very handy for pedaling back and forth to the designated parking lot for restocking.
The weather was good and the showers that came through just missed us. We enjoyed the show, the sales were OK and all was well.
Teardown was not that bad since we'd made up our minds earlier that we wouldn't be in a hurry. We did have to set stuff aside on the sidewalk until the booths across the street were packed and gone. So much for the show itself.
The next morning we decided to try the Blue Heaven breakfast for the first time before the long trip home. We'd heard of long lines and were also concerned about long waits for the food based on our previous experience with other restaurants there. We rode our bikes from the motel so we'd avoid parking problems and got there just after they opened so we got a table right away. A few minutes later the lines began to form outside. The menu looked great and it wasn't as expensive as we'd been led to believe. But then again we'd gotten our information from folks who liked a bloody mary with their lobster benedict on occasion.
Coffee was almost as expensive but you get free refills. We had been advised not to be chintzy and go for the good stuff. It turned out to be the wise choice. Since we are among at least four other photographers to have a money making shot from the place we decided the place had long since paid for breakfast.
If you hang around an extra day or two to see the sights, leave your car parked and take bikes. KW is flat as a pool table and it's no effort at all to slowly pedal through all of it. If you get the chance, be sure to do the Mallory Square sunset. Get there an hour early and you'll see some of the most remarkable buskers you could imagine. Then there's the sunset itself. For some reason swarms of sailboats make it a point to cruise back and forth in front of the setting sunball providing photo ops for the crowd.
If we get lucky and get into the Coconut Show again we'll be very happy to do KW again. We recommend trying this show at least once.
Comments
Love the photos and the great review, too. Now I want to go there really bad. It sounds like a great place to spend some winter days.
Great review Bill, thank you!
Great report and very amusing thread. Thanks, Lois, for the story on the "Chicken Wars." See, what's fun about this business is all of the end of the road places we all get to go, the stories we hear and make too. I recently went through a book with a friend "1001 Places to Visit in the US and Canada" and I'd been to probably 75% of them -- many thanks to the art fair biz for making this possible.
Melana, re: Thelma and Louise, the last time I was in Key West was with my mother, who was recovering from a stroke. We'd just done the CG show and I rented a convertible and did the drive and stayed in a lovely place. It was a wonderful trip and a great memory of her.
Nels, let's look at your earlier comment in this string..
"I know you were not talking about me in that initial blog. I was just yanking your chain like you do to me."
We all need to take the comments in the context you wisely framed above. That having been said, a good natured chain yanking calls for the same in return.
I'm surprised you retired that shot you did 25 years ago. Mine sold out the first time out. I'll be the first to admit that I only made a half dozen of them at first so I wouldn't risk being stuck with a surplus a year from now. I've just made sets in all sizes for Winter Park. Like you said earlier, things can change in 25 years.
I didn't know you had a monopoly on bragging, guy. That's all I was doing when I said my picture of Sloppy's was better than yours. Bragging's fun and I can understand why you enjoy it so much. Everyone should toot their own horn now and then.
My tripod holes are on public property and you can use any crowd control technique you see fit in turning your old shot into a salable one. Photography has come a long way in 25 years. Also, Sloppy Joe's is in a public place and I don't think their lawyers are going to see any payoff in suing people who dress like we do.
Chain yanking aside, I think at least some of us will appreciate seeing your historical shot of Sloppy's .
Don't let those bug fumes give you great delusions, Bill.
Actually Lois asked a question, "Did Sloppys have neon in 1987?" I know reading isn't one of your better abilities. You are a lot like Newt, you bend ideas to further your own gain.
BTW. Any picture of Sloppys is useless for most sales, every tourist in the world shoots it.
I am off for golf. This is the last you will hear from me on this. I found the old pics have to reshoot them digitally and make a jpeg to send out there in the internet ether.
BTW. Nice Photoshop Ynon.
That's OK, Nels. We know mine must be better.
Hey, me too!!!! I showed you mine, now show me yours!!!!! :))))))))))))))))))))))))
Wrong, Nels. Lois commented about it, too. We want to see what the place looked like in 1987
BTW Bill, from what I can read, you are the only guy really wondering--think I will keep you in a cloud for a while.
Gee, do ya think opening, closing lighting procedures might change over the years--duh!
Yes, Lois Sloppy's has had neon for a long time' I have to scrounge thru my files for a pic from 25 years ago, I will produce it and show it. I wonder how many other people could just put their hands on work done 25-plus years ago.
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