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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.

Nels, first of all, best wishes for the season, happy holidays and all that good stuff. Next, what is with those people where you live, can you tell them to buy a vowel, what the heck is a ybor??? Really.

God bless.

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.