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The 2018 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival will become a three-day event, opening on Friday, from 10am-5pm, and thereby provide access to an entirely NEW buying audience: the approximately 10,000-person workforce in the Town Center!

It is an audience we have not truly reached in the past (we used to open on Friday night, but by then the workforce had already left). Making the very significant logistical investment in a Friday opening provides A NEW, BUILT-IN, AFFLUENT BUYING AUDIENCE looking for world-class art for their offices, homes, for gifts, and more. It reflects our relentless focus on investing to grow our audience (and we typically draw tens of thousands of visitors already) and driving sales, explaining why ArtFairCalendar.com has described this as a festival where "the 'art stars' of the outdoor art fairs vie for spaces."

Added bonus: we will now move our Festival Party, to Saturday night (7-9:30pm) and use it to announce our Artist Awards ($500 cash prize for our ten awardees, a blue ribbon to display at their booths, and automatic acceptance into next year's Festival). By making the Artist Awards the focus of the evening (something we could not do when opening on Saturday; not enough time for judging of booths), we will shine an even brighter spotlight on our participating artists and your work. As always, our artists and their plus-ones are our party guests, FREE, another of our nationally renowned artist amenities.

These major changes will make the 2018 Festival bigger and better than ever! Artists applications for juror review are required by Sunday, December 10, through the Juried Art Services website. http://www.juriedartservices.com/index.php?content=event_info&event_id=1319

Artist set up will be on Thursday during the day and Festival operating hours will be 10am - 5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Garage parking will be free all three days.
The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival is the Greater Reston Art Center's (GRACE's) largest annual fundraiser. www.restonarts.org

This year was the 62nd annual Talbot St show and the 1st annual attendance for me.  I sell functional fused glass pieces in the $35-50 range plus some decorative work that goes up to about $200.

Talbot St is on Talbott Street and a couple of side streets between 17th and 19th streets just north of downtown Indianapolis.  Hours are Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-5.  My impression was that the art and fine craft were of good quality with good displays and affordability, perhaps a level or two below the premium national shows with the highest-priced art. 

Others have written about this show previously so you can find many details in past blogs.  Here are my additional observations.....

Thunderstorms threatened much of the weekend, but didn't finally break loose until about 30 minutes into tear-down.  I don't know if the forecast affected the crowd size or demographics.  This year the first 3-4 hours on Saturday were packed with shoppers who were interested in the art and buying it.  Then at about 1:30 the crowd shifted to youngish couples with kids and the mood shifted from art sales to free entertainment.  Many artists I talked to had far fewer sales during the afternoon.

Sunday was similar.  Fewer but motivated art lovers/buyers in the morning and early afternoon, then a mighty thin crowd for the rest of the day as the rain got closer.  Lots of us made only half a dozen sales during those hours.

This show is run like a well-oiled machine.  They get it, and on top of that the staff is friendly and helpful.  Food trucks offer a tasty variety of food, and the nearby port-o-trailer provides air-conditioned, multi-stalled, gender-separated and well-kept facilities with toilets that flushed.  Even the neighbors -- whose front yards and driveways we're blocking for the weekend -- are a delight.  Mine offered the use of his shady front porch and bathroom for the weekend.  A neighbor down the street threw a bloody mary breakfast for the artists near him.  What a pleasure to have a genuinely nice, positive vibe swirling around the show all weekend.

It's worth repeating that the show is set up on residential streets that are old enough to be more narrow than today's streets.  The houses have been nicely renovated and the trees are lovely.  However to fit everyone in, the front 6' of your tent is in the street and the back 4' is up on either a grass curb or slanted driveway.  It's doable, and just requires some additional time and patience during set-up to get everything squared up and level.

My revenue at less than 2K was disappointing, but I expect to try this show again because the ingredients seem to be there.

Hi! My family and I are moving to Atlanta, (Suwanee) Georgia in a few weeks. I am wondering if you may recommend any shows in that area?

I make handcrafted jewelry (non-beaded, $20-$60 range). My schedule is full through October here in the Midwest area, but I'd love to add a few shows from November through May.

Any suggestions or advice would be SO appreciated. We are completely unfamiliar to this area.

Thanks in advance,

Rhonda

Public Art Project on Tour in Basel, Manfred Kielnhofer

Shared by Austrian artist and designer Manfred Kielnhofer. The “Light Guards” project is further developed and become a ghost car touring in Basel art show during June 15 – 19 2011.

http://artobserved.com/2011/06/ao-on-site-art-fair-news-summary-and-final-photoset-art-42-basel-2011-in-closing/

Eccentric art was also at Basel, if not as dominant a presence as the traditional buys. Ghost Car by Kielnhofer was a large white van with hooded figures driving outside the fair, and the Bleifrei (which translates to Lead Free in German) Art Collective told Art Info: “Art is like Jesus; it died and it’s coming again.”

Manfred Kielnhofer, Ghost Car (2011) Basel, via Kielnhofer.com

The grim seeker after truth
Anyone wondering why these grim reaper style figures were seated on this white van - look no further than the latest installation from artist Manfred Kielnhofer. He is from Haslach an der Mühl, in the district of Rohrbach in Upper Austria, Austria, and is an artist and designer whose work usually centres around the human anatomy. His recent piece of art is the Ghost Car, which is a product of the developing ‘Light Guards’ project. This project surfaced from the theory that humankind has always been able to boast having guardians in different ways, in potential danger from only themselves. This idea intrigued the artist Kielnhofer, who approached it with his artwork, intertwining the theme of longing for security harboured by all humans. The Ghost Car portrays a sizely white van driving, seating sheet-covered figures. Perhaps this reflects individuality, exploration and recognition of current events in society, as it seems to interpret the theme by suggesting the hooded figures are looking to the drapes and car for protection as they are possibly ghosts, who are afraid of the life after death, and long for safekeeping.
By Alessia De Silva
http://austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2011-08-06/35422/The_grim_seeker_after_truth
http://kielnhofer.com

Entries are beginning to come in, get yours in as soon as you can for the best booth location at the First Huntley Artfest, Huntley, IL  where there is FREE parking for Artist and their RVs, adjacent to the Artfest grounds. 

visit  http://www.firsthuntleyartfair.org/  information for artist, lodging suggestions, and event map

any questions can be sent to me at  theling@firsthuntleyartfair.org

fill in the online application and then hit 'Print'  we have made it easy for you to participate in:

This first piece that I saw of Susan’s shows what every twelve year old girl knows is the truth: horses are the coolest animals on earth.   The image of Kickin’ Up captures the spirit of the animal in an amazing shot of all four feet off the ground, and reminded me of the utter joy of being astride my first snorting steed.

She uses digital techniques to enhance a scene artistically –“painting “ within the digital darkroom, which creates flowing motion like Golden Mane:

Susan’s eye for the dramatic moment extends to landscape also, capturing swooping plains, soaring mountains, jagged natural shapes and vibrant color:

And Sunny Susan herself:

See more of Susan’s artistic photography at http://susanquinphotoart.com/

Note to self: The desert can get cold.  I don’t mean the kind of cold where you can bundle up and do fun aerobic activity in, like ice skate or have a snowball fight.  No, it’s a bone chilling cold that comes from sitting still for hours at a time in front of the easel in a tent that likes pretending it’s a refrigerator.  I was not prepared for this.  I brought one heavy wool sweater and I’m sick of it.  Paint takes on a tar-like consistency that mangles good sable brushes.  Paintings that I expected to set up overnight are still wet and sticky, so I now have six paintings going.  All wet.  That’s not a bad thing, but it makes maneuvering around my abbreviated studio area a dicey proposition, especially since I’m forced to also wear my nice coyote vest over said heavy wool sweater while painting, as it’s the warmest thing I brought. Factor in a pair of heavy sheepskin gloves, and you’ve got a rhinoceros trying to needlepoint.

I’ve been sitting here with a hodgepodge of half blocked in pieces, wallowing in the self-imposed peer pressure brought on by being surrounded by productive artists, and feeling the labor pains of a new style that wants a midwife.  I know we all struggle with our art, we all talk every day here under the big top.  It’s gratifying, in a small, small way, to know that others are struggling too, and I don’t mean that to say misery loves company.  But, being human, we have all absolutely convinced ourselves that no one is struggling quite as much as we are.  Everyone else here looks to me as if they are moving swimmingly and effortlessly along, blissfully turning out canvases like biscuits from a well-greased tray.  No one could possibly be feeling the angst that I am, the utter self-deprecation that cloaks itself in thoughts like, What was I thinking coming here?  Or, even better, in the voice of a certain influential family member, You’ll be selling portraits in Grand Central Station for a nickel...there’s a million artists better than you!   It becomes a bedlam that calls for large doses of Pink Floyd and vodka.

 But, open book that I am, I have confided my existential crisis to a few kindly souls, and relieved to know this twisting agony is not unique nor my own personal neurotic albatross to bear.  It comforts me and lets me continue in the face of struggle.  It also make me think, why the hell hasn’t a European tour promoter come up with a new kind of tour to supplement the mainstream cultural tours of Florence, Rome, Paris?  There’s Al Capone/Gangster Tours of Chicago, there ought to be a new Tours de France: Van Gogh in Arles: Assault of Gaugin and Institutionalized in San Remy.  I’d be first in line.  Just think, the unknown works of the Great Masters: the fits of pique and the holes punched in the wall, broken brushes and rent canvases, arrest records, psychologists’ notes (depending on the century and statute of limitations on patient-client privilege).  I remember withering upon entering the Uffizi, the Galleria dell'Accademia, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, and weeping over my own paintings later at night.  Oh, what a relief it would have been to this young artist to know Caravaggio was a criminal- a felon!   That Michelangelo’s father was disgusted with him for choosing art as a career and suffered from low self-esteem!  (The Agony and the Ecstasy would have been helpful reading.)  

The artistic struggle that exists within an often solitary work environment can break the budding artist unfamiliar and unprepared for this mine-ridden emotional psychological territory.  From what I can recall from art school days, the most the topic was ever addressed was maybe a fleeting, “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”  You might as well tell a teenaged girl that those five extra pounds make her look healthy and the glasses make her face unique.   I propose new classes at the university level:  how would a, say, Psychology of Creativity 101 go over?  Or, The Blank Canvas: You DON’T Need a Straightjacket and Lithium! ? My guess is those classes would be standing room only and there’d be a hell of a lot more well adjusted artists pouring out of art schools telling arrogant gallery owners to stick their attitudes where the sun don't shine.  Perhaps a cooking class: Ramen Noodles and The Food Pyramid? OK, maybe not.  But if we had Psychology for Creative Productivity classes maybe we wouldn’t have to battle the myth of the starving tortured artist so much.  Sure, there’s a bunch of books out there on the topic, self help books, but most of them are written by opportunists with a bent towards self-promotion and prey on us artists desperate for an answer.

Baloney.

No one can tell you the answer.

You just gotta go through it.

I’ve been here almost three weeks, at what some of us are affectionately calling the Fine Art Boot Camp Expo, and there’s no way out but through.  That’s a thought that actually comforts me, much as the Serenity Prayer gives a recovering alcoholic the strength to go on.  Then I can take a Xanax at 3 am and leaf through Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstracts until I finally pass out around 4 and Framer Dude awakens me at 8 with a chopsaw.  Yeah, I’m painting everyday. I’m an artist!  This is the life!  Would someone just get me another sweater to wear?

OK, I’ve fallen behind a couple of days and peeps, I had a couple of hairy nights and Expo had the Gala last night, which I’ll write about in a separate post.  Suffice it to say, I may not have been writing, but I’m collecting a ton of material...onto Charles, today’s Peep!

Charles came into the art world because of a terrible accident which nearly ended his life.  Despite the fact that it ended a very successful career as a high-end carpenter, he says he would “relive the accident a thousand times” because it opened up a new life for him.  One look at his work and you can understand why: these beautiful forms couldn’t come out of a two-by-four! Organic, flowing, full of movement, the wood comes alive, this in purple heartwood and maple:

I wish I could do the wood grain justice with my camera for this mahogany piece:

Although he has patiently explained to me the intricate process of transforming a 2-D drawing into a 3-D sculpture, I still can’t wrap my mind around it.  It looks ingenious to my2-D artist eyes.  This is a piece in the making:

 Here's Charles with his sculptures to give you an idea of the size.

See more of Charles’ work at: envisionsbytaube.com

...that this is where you are supposed to be?  For the past couple of years, I've toyed with the idea of attending a workshop for a week, and hopefully be able to choose someone who is a good teacher and a good artist.  Now, here, it appears my search has been fulfilled, because I am surrounded daily by hard at work artists.  The energy here is amazing, intense and positive.  Other artists echo my sentiment; they accomplish more work in the ten weeks here than the rest of the year.  I've truly missed the old art school feeling I remember of pulling all nighters and the determination to create, create, create.  I have even found the courage to plunge into a stylistic change which has been lurking in the back of my mind as I've found myself a bit bored with the photo-realism I'm known for.  It seems as soon as Framer Dude and I crossed the AZ border, the name Georgia O'Keeffe  rose, unbidden, into the forefront of my mind.  Now, I have been somewhat familiar with her work most of my adult life.  But when I did a Google search the other night on her images, her work resonated within me for the first time. Aha,  I thought to myself, THIS is where abstraction meets realism !  I'm not going to say I understand abstract art or "get " it all the time;  I'm not too proud to say that I still don't really get Pollock.  But seeing Georgia's realistic intimate landscapes (as I have come to call mine) and her consequent progressions into abstractions of the same subject, I see what she's trying to say.  It's a catharsis of sorts.

I have met artists here at the peaks of their careers, and they are generous in  sharing their acquired knowledge and providing constructive critiques.  Understand, I have worked in near solitude for the past 10 years, where productive interaction with fellow artists was brief, few and far between.  I couldn't have chosen a better workshop, and paid less, since this is a ten week gig, plus there is the opportunity to make sales.  I broke the ice today and sold 2 (small) pieces, with a strong bite from her friend on a much larger piece.  Here, the artists have a silly little dance that they all do to celebrate each other's sales (after the celebrant patron has left the vicinity, of course.).  I will be inducted tomorrow morning.

Did I mention our Happy Hour?  Every day, at 5, a metal artist sounds his gong, and many of us who have been hard at work all day rush to gather at one artist's booth, who takes his role as master artist seriously and master of happy hour very graciously.  Framer Dude is in awe of him.  He is the consummate successful professional artist who is able to enjoy life to the fullest and is utterly gracious.  As Dude stated last night, "He cranks out a %$#^&!@ painting a week, gets paid $%^@& good $$$, and %$#&!  parties at night!  Why can't you be him?"  Or something like that,  I didn't hear the rest of it, I pushed him off the log into the fire. (Dude was between his fourth and fifth Jack so he didn't feel the third degree burns til this morning)  Anyway...patrons sometimes mingle with the artists during this very informal setting, and they get a kick out of hanging with us.  I have met some terrific artists who are terrific people also, and for a relative newbie like me, it's a brilliant view of what one can accomplish in the short-term, as well as long-term for life goals.

Anyhow, I just know that this is where I am supposed to be right now, and quitting my 40K a year job in FL was just a part of it.  All my pics are on the Mac right now, so I'll share them later.