BLOGS (20)
Yep. The belly dancers show up on Sunday and captivate a huge audience with their rhythmic swaying for a solid hour. They are part of the show.
It is held in a beautiful treed park right on the edge of downtown Lexington. All booths are on grass and you can stake down. They are scrimmy about giving you room on your sides (unless you pay for a corner). Most people have room for a rear awning and storage. It is a mellow Friday setup with the show on Sat. And Sunday. Decent hours with show ending at 6pm, Sat.m and 5pm on Sunday.
This year the weekend forecast was horrible with rain and thunderstorms predicted for 80% on Sat and 40% on Sunday. Thankfully, we lucked out. We had a few pissy,short showers early on Sat. And then clouds the rest of the day. It finally poured buckets around closing. So we lucked out. Because of the weather forecast, and the fact that it did rain everywhere except in the park, crowds were not at their fullest. Still, there were plenty of people and a lot of sales, mostly low end, were happening. Sunday morn we had pissy showers until about eleven. Then the sun came out along with a cooling breeze which in turn brought out good crowds.
Lexington is both a university town and a horse-breeding town, So you have lots of young couples and wealthy elders. Not a bad mix. I make more sales to young people here than anywhere else. And, I do 35 shows a year all over the country. And, I have been doing them for 42 years. I usually always make decent profit. In fact I can only recall less than ten shows where I lost money at, out of more than 1400 I have done.
This year was my best ever at Woodlands in the last seven years, It helps that I have a loyal following who seems to keep buying from me even if my work changes. For those of you who may not know, I had open heart surgery (quad bypass, one new valve and a band around another) four years ago. So along with a new body (hell of a way to lose 40 pounds when they rip you open with a saw) came a new body of work--my black and white photos hand colored using acrylic, not watercolor. They are working quite well and I am making a decent living at it in spite of the hard times we are going through. What I am saying is if you want to succeed in our biz you have to create your own niche market so that you stand out from the herd.
At this show there were at least ten photographers with outstanding European images. The trouble is that they all looked fairly alike. And there are only so many buyers for those images, so some prospered while others died or barely made a small profit.
Back to the show. People here, tend to buy traditional and conservative. It is a good market for crafts like metal, clay and leather. Glass, not as great. There are a ton of jewelers from all ends of the spectrum. Again, some do well while others languish. If there is one valid negative about this show it is the fact it is too large for the population it serves. Close to 400 exhibitors. It is run by the local arts association and they depend on it to make money to keep them running. So you can see they are not going to cut back the number of artists.
One other negative here also. The art league puts up pop up canopies for its sponsors who are intermingled with artists booths. Trouble is they do not anchor them. I pointed this out to the show director on Friday, because I had such a tent beside me, unanchored. I told him if a big wind came along the canopy could damage mine and others. He shrugged me off and said he would take care of it. He never did. Those tents were unanchored the entire show. That is just plain dumb. The Lexington Art League barely gets by and they do not need a liability issue like that. Are you listening to me, Mark, the director?
Sunday the crowd started buying by noon. I saw lots of packages in people's arms. Not all exhibitors were happy. But that is show biz. In fact I do not know of any show where 90 per cent of artists are happy. For an August show this is a decent one where you can make a decent paycheck. Hotel rates are very reasonable here. Food is varied and decently priced. You can drink great bourbons everywhere. Had a few great ones but I passed on the 24 year old Papys, I had a great show, but not that great.
Well, there it is kiddos. Hope you gleaned some nuggets of wisdom which will help you make an informed decision about this show. I tell you one thing, this show beats the hell out of the new Cleveland Flats show. But that is topic to be addressed in the future.
"The kid is doing better than us, and, it is his first show here."
Anita Bauldorf, wife of painter, Steven
"Art shows are a lot like "Hotel California", you can check in, anytime, but you can never leave."
Photographer, Nels Johnson
Well, that probably, and succinctly, describes this year's Artigras held at Abacoa Town Center just south of Jupiter.
At least year's ago we got to ogle Lonnie Anderson on the arms of Burt Reynolds. She is now gone, he is pretty infirm, and the show is death-spiraling into just another fricking art show in Florida.
With the booth fee,gas,hotels,food,etc. most of us have $1K tied up in expenses before you make a dime. If you can't turn better than $3K here, it is not worth coming to.
Oh, I guess for you northern artists, you can write it off as a Florida weekend vacation--beats shoveling snow.
We had great weather til about 1pm on Monday (it is a three day show, same time as the Grove). Monday's at this show, if you make $300 you are doing good. So the rain did not cost us much.
But, Saturday and Sunday,the crowds were moderate, mostly uninterested in art. Some people killed them, but not most.
I know one photographer, who used to do mostly do B/W and now went color on canvas,went home with a nearly empty cAmper, they cleaned him out.
For the most part, sales were sluggishly,slow. No flurries (what's a flurry, anymore). Very few be-backs. Mostly low end numbers were sold.
For photos it was the "P's", palms, piers and Pelicans.
Florals and seascapes prevailed. Ad nauseum,ad nauseam. Forget about art outside the box--it does not reside here.
A lot of us did really good here last year and this year we did half.
So far this year, sales have been pretty static. I have been slugging it out for the last eight years barely keeping my head above water. Getting pretty tired of it. I keep hoping it will turn around.
About the two quotes at the top of the blog.
First, the Bauldorf's son was doing his first Artigras. He has done other shows. He is a young talented painter, just like his dad.
They did not have a kick-ass show, and junior was kicking their ass in sales--but it was still low figures.
As for me, I have always been an Eagles fan.
At my age, he'll, what else am I gonna do? Hustle old farts on the golf course. Not. Be a greeter at Walmart--double not. Do real estate--get real!
I guess you all are stuck with me.
At one time this was considered Michigan's top outdoor artshow--those days are gone, I think, forever.
Here is a quick synopsis.
They charge a $400-plus booth fee with nearly 300 artists.
Two many artists for too few big spenders.
So, that is the Cliff-Notes Version.
For an in-depth analysis, read on.
In the glory days of Michigan shows--pre-2001- people went to Birmingham for the Shain Park show one day and then the next day they went to Rochester for Arts 'n' Apples (hereafter AA).
People bought like crazy and many artists had bigger shows at AA then they did at the Ann Arbor show.
That is now a pleasent past memory. Mind you, all the heavy hitters on the circuit were there, unless they were lucky enough to be at Saint Louis. We are talking about last weekend, in case you are not sure.
Galbo and Luciano were down on the same row dukeing it out. Photos weren't exactly flying out of either's booth.
Fact was, photos and other 2-D art weren't flying out of many booths, mine included.
Crafters seemed to do better.
Ceramicist beside me with raku sold steadily all thru the show.
Metal sculptor behind me killed them all show long (we will get to that later).
The Paint Creek Center for the Arts runs the show--it is a fund-raiser for them.
Trouble is, they are the only ones making out well. Their booth fee is way to high for the average sales return.
When you are charged $400 plus for a booth--there are certain expectations.
You should be able to turn at least $3.5 K or higher for that kind of money. Most exhibitors were lucky if they hit the mid $2.5K range.
It was mostly lowed sales. Mostly in the $50 and under range. Good luck with that.
Setup is pretty mellow. You can setup Thursday, day before show, or Friday before show opens at 4:30 going to 7:30.
Saturday show ran 9 AM to 7:30 AM. God knows why.
Sunday, show was 9 AM to 4 PM, vans got let in after 5PM.
Teardown can be hectic. Booths are all on grass with ample storage room behind. That was the one plus.
Their free food bag was a joke. You got one over-ripe banana with some fruit bar that glowed in the dark and one other tiny mysterious package. No water, no coffee. So much for the $400-plus booth fee.
Saturday was chillier than you know what, I had one five layers of clothing trying to stay warm. It also did a little pissy rain that lasted about three hours and killed sales. Overall, Saturday sucked. Why we had to be there on Friday, I have no idea. We just wasted a bunch of time. Sunday brought good weather and average crowds, not tons of buyers. It was Ann Arbor redux again. Most of them just walked on by without really caring to look. There were very few packages in anyone's hands.
My take on it, is this show is not worth the loot charged. Go to Saint Louis, go to Swampfest, go anywhere but don't go to Rochester.
About my sculptor neighbor.
He has a good gig going, except it drives all his neighbors batty.
Basically, he is selling a metal horn about 5 inches long anchored to a wooden tray that you then put your smartphone on with its new extra cover that has four tiny speakers in it and voila, you have loud music.
Trouble was, he only downloaded a John Phillip Sousa march song to be played on his demo model. After listening to Sousa's march a million times in one day, I was ready to puke, so were my neighbors.
We told him how we felt about it and he listened well. We heard no more Sousa the rest of the show.
Sorry, my blog is not more positive, but that's the way it was. I won't be back, nor a bunch of others.
I did get a great Tequila Report out of Rochester and that will come next.
Aloha. Nels.
Here is a little history of how I came to be in art shows--and it harkens back to where I was in downtown St. Petersburg last weekend.
Ironically, my booth at Artscape in St. Petersburg last weekend was right across from the old Crislip Arcade where they had coffee for the artists. In 1956, at age 11, I had my first taste of selling retail. read on.
His name was Col. John Fritz, retired Air Force, and he showed up at our Boy Scout Troop 268 meeting one night.
My pop was our troop leader. he was a Lutheran but our troop was all Catholic because it was at the St. Joseph Catholic hall in southside St. Petersburg. Father John Murphy, our parish priest, would always chuckle and say, "Johnny, you are just one of us, your just a little bit to the left." My pop was Nels Johnson Jr. (I am the third) but in his Coast Guard days he was known as "Johnny." Only my mother called him Nels. Hence the priest's benediction.
Anyways we were all earnest Boy Scouts going for our million merit badges so we could become a Eagle Scout( I made it there plus three palms, fifty merit badges all total, an over-achiever at an early age--but what the hell, I was the scoutmaster's son, I had to better than the rest or there would be hell to pay.)
Anyways, Col. Fritz shows up at our hall lugging collections of rare coins--he got our attention--we kept hoping he would drop just one fifty-cent piece on the floor.
He was the guy we would have to beguile if we wanted our Stamp Collecting or Coin Collecting merit badge. Curiously I noted, he brought plenty of coins but no stamps. So when the meeting ended I cornered him. I said," Hey Col. Fritz look at my stamp collection. Whadda ya think?"
He was impressed. I had stamps from all over the world the. Borneo, San Marina, exotic small island republics in the Pacific who are long gone now.
You have to understand I had just come off a three year bout with polio--a winner, before the Salk vaccine. I had lots of time sitting around so stamp collecting took me traveling to far off places.
I think he saw my enthusiasm for stamps and also saw i was good talker. So he offered me a deal.
He was opening a new shop in the Crislip Arcade where he was going to sell stamps and coins. he wanted me to come work for hi, after school weekday afternoons, and then all day Friday.
In return he guaranteed me I would get both badges, which was cool since I did not have a coin collection. Heck a coin collection to me was what you used to buy packages of Fleer Bubble Gum with baseball cards inside. Or nickel Hershy bars. I said, "Sign me up Colonel, I am all yours."
I would ride the bus for a nickel down to Williams Park in St. Pete and then walk a few blocks to the arcade. My pop picked me up at night and dropped me off on Saturdays.
I remember when you first walked in the arcade there was an old juice bar there and they sold papaya juice along with orange and grapefruit. Papaya was exotic to me. My parents never touched the stuff. Naturally, I wanted it. It was 15-cents a glass, it was served in little pilsner glass like you would get 25-cent drafts of beer years later.
I imbibed papaya on a regular basis and showed up charged ready to sell stamps to the Rockerfellers.
My crowning achievement came one Saturday. This guy came in flush with cash. You could smell it. And yes, he was wearing "good shoes." He wanted a ton of stamps, but naturally, he wanted a "best price deal." He was looking at buying almost $500 worth of stamps, which was the most money I ever saw in my life. He looked first at the Colonel and flashed his big smile. "I will give ya $300 for the whole bunch."
The Colonel looked over at me and told him, "talk to my associate here, young Nels, he handles the stamps."
I took a big gulp. He was backing me. I was nervous, but I knew it was my play. I looked the guy right in the eye and said,"$450 and not a penny less." The guy smiled and pulled out the cash. He was impressed at my moxie. Even then, I had figured out the guy really wanted the stuff, so you gave him a little so he felt he had gotten a deal. Everybody went home happy that night. I got both my merit badges and continued to work for Col. Fritz until his untimely demise a year later.
So back to the present.
I walked into the old arcade last Saturday and of course it does not look like it was in 1956--that was 55 years ago.
I walked down to the last suite on the right where Col. Fritz" shop was. I looked inside and I could remember every shelf with the coins on it and every stamp collection laying on the tables. I could see that young kid,me, grinning and looking forward to talking to people about stamps. Just like I do now with my art. It is a long journey, but to me it was just like yesterday.
I had a magic childhood growing up in St. Petersburg in the 1950s. It has shaped me and made me who I am today--I am truely blessedI hope you liked my Thanksgiving tale.
God bless you all and aloha, Nels.
While I am happily typing away this morn I wanted to address one of my pet peeves about street shows right now.
The escalation of booth fees at shows on all levels is really getting out of hand--especially in this economy.
I just did my app for the Milwaukee Lakefront show on Zapp this morn. They want $500 for the booth fee. I have done this show many times over the years and it is not the show it used to be for sales. The economy there is not good and sales are off. When I last did it three years ago I barely cleared $2K in sales for a show in the old days where I could do $5-8K. So now they want $500 for a booth which will account for 25% of my total. And, this does not include gas, hotel, food and the cost of replenishing goods sold. Sorry folks this is not a good business plan for any sole proprietor.
I know, show directors are going to say,"Well we gotta pay for security,police, porta-potties so we need that kind of money. BS. We are also paying for nice large salaries that these show directors now make.
How do they expect most artists to make a living with these kind of fees and our meager returns on sales. Most people are off by 50-40% on their grosses over past years because of our economy which is worst we have seen in our lifetimes.
These fees kill the chances of most newcomers to get in our biz. Too high of cost for too little of return. Only the well-off and most successful will thrive. These fees will kill the street shows.
Naples, an already over-saturated market has routine booth fees of nearly $500 and most artists are not gettong a five-fold return on their money. It is a recipe for failure.
Love to hear some feedback from those 6000 lurkers of you out there.
I mean doesn't this rankle your feathers a bit. How can you sit back there blase and think well that is just the way the biz is. Guess what, we are all on the way to the Poorhouse with no salvation showing on the horizon. Show fees can not continue to escalate like this in these times. Nobody wins.
OK now I am off to play golf, with luck I will do better on the links than I did on the streets last weekend. Come on folks, chime in and stop being lurkers.
I have been noticing lately that there does seem to be many members on the site on a daily basis. As I look around and read the posts I can see just how many other people have also read the same posts. We are glad that there are many people reading the posts and blogs. Do you know what would make this site better? If you would take a few minutes to leave a comment or a question others will get to know you and what you are all about. By posting and leaving a comment you will be making friends in the Art Show Business all over the country. This will be great networking for you, too. It is very rewarding when you finally get to meet other artists that you have interacted with here at AFI. Meeting artists at shows allows you to actually put a face to the name that you have been conversing with for months and maybe eventually years.
As I have been looking around and reading blogs and posts I can actually see that many postings have 100, 200, or more views but maybe only 5 people have left a comment. I understand that we can't always leave a comment because sometimes we don't have a background on a particular topic. Sometimes just leaving a simple "this has been great reading" or "I have enjoyed reading all these comments", or even "thanks for starting this topic". We will all benefit as more and more people take part and get involved. Reach out, welcome new people, comment, that is the kind of interaction and activity that makes this such a great site. If you have just been a lurker for a while break out of your shell and get to know us so we can get to know you. Lurkers, we are calling you to come out and get to know us.
I think it is safe to say that we would all be disappointed if there weren't blogs and posts to read here. We would soon become bored and wouldn't be coming back here. Don't be afraid to leave a comment no matter how small. It is appreciated. Start a post or blog. What is on your mind? What are you having a problem with? Take a few minutes and welcome the newbies. Just make sure you leave a little comment so that we know you are here! The AFI members are what makes this site great.
Jacki B
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.
Just got back from Artisphere held in Greenville,SC last weekend. Only 120 exibitors, almost 400 apply for it, it is gem for most of us.
First, a little background. I used to visit a good friend of min e in Greenville for years. His name was Loren Marshall, a great glass artist, met him at a Charlotte show back in 1981.
Whenever I would leave Florida for my summer swing of shows, which lasted 5 months, I always first stopped in Greenville to stay with Loren. We would canoe the Green River by day and try to party at nite downtown.
Back in the 80s and early 90s there was no downtown to go to. We usually had cheap tacos and margaritas at a mall location there. That was as good as it was.
Come forward to 2011.
I had tried getting into this show four times with no success. This year I made it. With nearly 400 applicants, your chances of getting in are slim.
So I returned to Greenville after not being there for nearly 18 years. Loren had passed away from an unfortunate accident so I had no reason to visit there anymore.
When I first drove down Main Street last Thursday I was startled, in a delightful way ,to see its transformation from a dormant mill town into small, vibrant metropolis.
The street was lined with tall leafed trees on both sides forming a sheltered tunnel. Restaurants of every food-type you can think of were filled with people,young ones, eating and drinking. Diverse shops enticed you. Big new office buildings, concert halls, government edifices soared up into the sky. The place was electric.
Greenville is home to several large automotive manufacturing companies. it is the main seat of commerce in South Carolina, easily outshining Charlston and the capitol Columbia. Numbers of Europeans living there, working in commerce. Lots of young people,well mannered and dressed, all sporting copious disposable income.
It is the gateway to the mountains. So traditional and conservative are two key words that come to mind when selling here.
I got there on Thursday to drop off a piece for the Gala Auction which I attended later that nite, That is covered in a seperate blog.
Hats off to Travis. He blgged and photoed about it last year. it lived up to its reputation. One of the best ever with a free open bar--yahoo! Vodka and more vodka, just keep it coming with the crabcakes and the crab legs.
Friday we could set up from 8 am on. Show started at 4 pm went to 8 pm. Easy setup. Van right in front. Ample canopy room behind for me and my inventory. Fellow photographer Karen Connelly was setup beside me. We both pulled our booths back to the outer edges which left room on a common side for art to be hung. I canopied it and we deemed it the art ally.
Predictions of 60 per cent rain and thunderstorms never happened all weekend, we skated free to our immense relief.
As Michael Stipek pointe out about the Bellville Show, same was true for Artisphere. They couldn't do enough for us. We had free lunches and dinner every day.
Crowds were thin Friday nite and so were sales. We were up against the Kenny Chesney concert downtown that nite. Plus two other restaurants had band stages with music going on. Lots of competition for the crowd's dollar. That is the only negative to this show, and it can be a big one.
Volumous crowds both Sat. and Sun. Not many big packages gooing down the street in people's hands. it did get better on Sunday.
Lots of fellow AFIers at the show. Matthew Hatala, Amy and Phil Crone, Peggy Fulwin from Wisconsin (I apologise, I know have misspelled your name) Diane french, Gary Seidel (He had all the German money locked up in his booth again), and many others, oh yeah, Gerry Maschinot, a great Southern photogrpher.
At Saturday end most artist wewre ok with sales. Many said they were down from last year. Me, I had my second best Sat. of the year only beaten by Main Street Fort Worth.
Sunday. Beautiful skies, cool weather, high of 77, and early crowds--"we aint going to no stinking church today, we be buying art and chicken wings."
Oh, before I forget. ON Saturday nite it was prom nite and the kids were dreesed to the nines coming down the sidewalks. This one girl had vivid orange dress on, so vivid, it reminded me of a Creamsicle on acid. It was that intense, but she looked great in it.
I mostly sold precious little pieces of paper out of the bins both days, but it all mounted up. Iam heading to Saugatuck, my summer home for the next five months, with a fat bank account and a healthy show line up. Also that means cooler weather and much better grass to hit golf balls off of.
In summation, this is a hard show to get into, it is worthwile if you have the right stuff, but we artists are not the main reason why they are comming to downtown. We are being used to attract them, so people can sell all other matter of goods, not only art. Unfortunately this is getting to be trend throughout the country. We are seeing most big shows using the spectacle of great art to lure in the crowds. Meanwhile, the auto people and every other corporate sponsor is looking for ways to piggyback on us and sell their wares, We sometimes get lost in the tumble of things.
Aloha, Nels.
Well it has been a while, so I thought I would leave this little "bon mot" under your electronic Christmas Trees.
Recently, in Tampa, I have discovered this great little diner on Florida Avenue called Nickos. It is an old railroad car diner run by a Greek family who does everything right. Generous portions, cheap prices and great service. It is frequented by undercover cops, working trademan and even an occasional artist or two. Heck, Elvis Presley ate in this diner in 1956.
How do I know? Because it is boldly printed on all the menus. So today, I went in for breakfeast and sat down at the second booth in from the door. I happened to look over where all the condiments were stored, and lo and behold, there was this little metal plaque attached to the window. It basically said that Elvis had sat in this very seat after one of his shows in Tampa in 1956. It made me think a lot. About Elvis and the life we live at being artists who sell on the street.
In 1956, Elvis was just getting started, he was a new whirlwind phenom, nobody had ever seen the likes of him before. Justin Bieber don't have anything on Elvis, hell, he couldn't hold his pancake fork, but anyway, back to Elvis--and us.
I wondered if Elvis was experiencing a real high after his performance. I wondered if it was anything akin to how I felt back in 1999 when I almost sold everything I had at the Kansas City Plaza Art Fair (don't worry, this blog is not going to be all about me--this just served as an apt metaphor). I wondered if he ever had to deal with daily rejection like we experience when we get our little electronic blips on the internet which tell us "thumbs up! or thumbs down!." Back in the days when we all got those SASE letters in the mail, remember that. Yeah, you could feel for slides in them, right away, you knew you were out. Except a few shows could still fake you out. The slides would be in there along with a much coveted letter that began with "Congragulations."
One of the coolest ways you knew you were in, was when you got an SASE from Harvey and Audrey. They were the original founders and promoters for the Cain Park art fair, in Cleveland, back in the 80's and into the early 90's until their passing on. Anyways, what made their response so cool was how they sent the SASE. If you were accepted, Harvey would write above your name on the SASE,"Good News for" Nels Johnson, or Munks or whoever it was addressed to. We don't get those little highs anymore, I kind of miss them.
As I sat eating my plate full of homefries with perfectly cooked onions along with the cuban toast which only costs ten-cents extra, I thought some more about Elvis. I said to myself,"Heck, he was more famous than I will ever be, but I outlasted him. I am still trucking along making my art, doing my 35 shows a year, still playing golf and still eating and drinking good." There is lot to be said for that. I figure, with luck, I got maybe 15 more years in the biz. That equates to about 325 more possible shows, give or take a few. I wonder how many of them could be a Cherry Creek, A Grove, A Kansas City--heck, maybe even a St. Louis or two. You gotta have hopes and dreams, and baby, always have lots of them. And I hope you all do to.
So this is my kuleana (that is a Hawaiian word that means a gift of the spirit) to all of you out there. HOPES AND DREAMS. Never give up. We are all special. Nobody can fire us, not a lot of people can feel that way. You are your own boss, nobody gets to tell you what to do. You are the supreme creators. You make the art, and in turn it helps make you. It define who you are, it leads you on a path of good life.I don't think Elvis ever got to know how lucky he was. We do, and we are on the right side of the growing grass. Cherish these moments and thoughts. This is the moments of our lives, embrace them with fury that knows no bounds.
Merry Christmas and a happy 2011--things will get better.
PS Haven't written a lot lately, don't know how much I will write in 2011, depends on how much "meat" is thrown out there, or the lack of. It is good to see new names out there contributing to our lives. I still think a little bit more info could be included in those reports, but at least people are contributing.
