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When my jury results for Art in the High Desert came I expected to file it away with my rejections. I had juried for this show for 4 or 5 years, always with the same results... no joy. I was close to giving it up and not apply this year. I was shocked to be wait-listed. And then I was almost immediately called off the wait-list. I’m really glad I didn’t give up! It was a wonderful show in all respects... except for the weather, but more on that later.

Art in the High Desert is located in central Oregon in the resort area of Bend. The area is known for the Mt. Bachelor ski resort, the Deschutes river, and other various outdoor activities and its numerous brew pubs. As the name implies it is in the high desert. This is an artist run 3 day show running Friday thru Sunday. It’s always the weekend before Labor Day. It has been set up to attract artists heading to either Art in the Pearl in Portland or Sausalito near San Francisco the following weekend. Because of its timing and proximity it is able to draw from a field of excellent artists. The show is set along the banks of the Deschutes River, right across a footbridge from the Old Mill district shops.

This show promotes original art. There is no music and no stilt walkers. There is a list of rules, which I did see enforced. All work hanging on walls needed to be originals, which I liked. I never hang reproductions. It makes it easier for the customers to know what is what. No B/S that I could tell. The show directors are present and communicative. Carla came to my booth to welcome me and talk a bit, she spent time running around with weather updates when her text message system failed to work.

Here's a short video someone made of the festival on Sunday, some of it in the rain.

booth fee $375

amenities

artist hosting
Thursday night artist dinner
food, drinks and coffee all mornings
awards breakfast on Sunday
wide booth spaces with storage behind
booth sitters
jury feedback (what a concept!)
gifts for the artist (this year a wine stopper and a AHD sketchbook with the logo embossed on the cover)

Thursday

I drove the 160 miles from Portland and checked in with my host. Yes, this show offers artist hosting. The woman I stayed with was wonderful and I hope I have made a new friend. Her home was only about a mile from the festival site.

Setup

Setup is by time. There were volunteers a plenty and carts for artist’s use during setup. Spaces were wide enough to walk between to access the storage behind the booths. It was windy and threatening rain so we were instructed to set up and secure our canopies first before finishing unloading. There was a little rain but it didn’t last long. I unloaded everything and hung most of my work and went to the artist dinner. This was hosted with beer and wine. There was a talk about selling at art festivals before the dinner.

Friday and Saturday

Ran from 10am-6pm. Friday was mostly browsers but Saturday the real buyers came out. I had one very good customer who had come to the Old Mill to see a movie and ended up buying 3 paintings from me! I saw other original work walking by all day on Saturday.

Sunday

When I think of Bend I think of sunny, hot (and maybe windy) summer days. The last thing I expected was rain, but after threatening all weekend, the skies finally opened up Sunday afternoon. We were told we could close an hour early at 3pm if the weather didn’t break. Some artists started closing around 2:30 because rain was blowing into their booths. There were still a few hardy shoppers. I took down my price tags but otherwise waited until after 3 to seriously start packing up amist the cracks of lightning and sounds of thunder. It crossed my mind that a metal canopy might not be the safest place to be in a thunder storm :/. Fortunately, by the time I was ready to load my vehicle the rain had stopped.

Yes, I would do this show again in a heartbeat. My sales were good and the cost of doing this show is relatively low. I think the weather on Sunday may have affected my sales somewhat.

My last show of the season is in the bag. This was another new show for me, running Fri-Sun Sept 6-8. I woke up late on Monday morning after the show and felt totally fried. I’m not sure why. Sure, the show had long hours, 10-8 Friday and Saturday, 10-5 on Sunday, but Edmonds was just as long. It wasn’t that hot and I was in the shade. They had men with golf carts to help haul your gear so set-up was relatively easy. It was a 430 mile drive which probably took its toll, but I don’t think that was it... I think it was because I was in a major dead area of the show. This show claims to get 200k people and although I knew that was surely an exaggeration, I expected at least 60-100k. I’ve had more people walk by and into my booth at small shows this year. I certainly had more activity in Edmonds this year. If it had been hotter, the shade in my area might have helped attract some people. I made most of my sales on Saturday but Sunday had the most people. Others around me had differing results.

I was watching traffic flow in my general area all weekend and here’s what I noticed. Some of the isles were WAY too wide, as was mine. There were only 7 booths on my side of this HUGE isle with intervening trees and about 25 on the other side offset from ours (not directly across). There were always more people on the other side of the isle than on my side. They just didn’t bother to come over to my side. Not enough booths to matter maybe? Even the other side didn’t get the traffic that other parts of the show got. One jeweler was smart and asked to be moved after the first day. This was not the area I requested and there were many other first timers around me. The picture below was taken around the busiest time. Notice how wide the isle is and how there are many more people on the left than the right. I was on the right.

I had heard there was B/S at this show, and there was. I had heard there were some low end work at this show, and there was. But many artists say it’s their best show of the season so I decided to give it a try. I came prepared to sell a lot, a lot of small items. I was stocked up on prints, cards and other reproduction items. But they didn’t sell like at other shows this season. I think buyers were very price sensitive. I did however sell 2 originals which saved the show for me. In the end I made money. It was my highest grossing show of the season, by a small margin, but it was also the most costly with its 20% commission. In the end, I'm glad I did this show and I will try it again if I can get a better booth location. Also I will check the Boise State football schedule. This year there was a home game on Saturday which may have affected attendance. I know there was a 4G outage during the game that affected square sales. I didn’t have a problem with it but many others did.

Some specifics

Setting-- In a very nice partially treed park between the art museum and the zoo and across from the Boise River. I could hear elephants during the show! Layout--260 artists in a very confusing and spread out configuration. For the first 2 days I got lost trying to find my own booth!

Food-- 36 food vendors!!! Mostly stuff like hamburgers and hotdogs. On the expensive side.

Setup-- all day Thursday starting at 9am. Although you can’t drive on the field they have men in carts to help you load in and out. Artists trickle in throughout the day to set up.

Booth size-- aprox. 15 ft wide by 12 ft deep.

Booth fee-- $100 (more for a corner, I think) plus 20%. There is a very long line at load out to pay your fee. They also collect the sales tax. Some people waited over 2 hours in line! I tore down and loaded up first. The line wasn’t that bad by the time I was done.

Weather-- A storm came through on Thursday afternoon. We lucked out and only caught a portion of it. Other artists that came in late said they drove through torrential rain, high wind and 3 inches of hail. Even so, a few artists lost their tents to the wind. They don’t allow staking so bring plenty of weight. It wasn’t very hot this year but I heard it often is.

Amenities-- artist breakfast on Saturday, evening drinks and jazz with free drink coupon. Coffee and snacks in the morning. They take coffee away at 10am and tended to run out. I only got some at the breakfast.

This was my first year at this show and is my 3rd full year doing shows. The show ran from Fri-Sun, June 13-16 with setup on Thursday June 12th. Edmonds is a northern suburb of Seattle, WA located on Puget sound. I was a bit apprehensive about this show since I hadn’t done well at the Belleveue Festival of the Arts in 2012 and I expected the demographic to be similar. Also, the weather is iffy in the Northwest in June. I always joke that summer doesn’t start until the 4th of July in the NW and that’s usually true. Fortunately this year the weather was flawless, not too hot, not too cold and mostly sunny! The booth fee for Edmonds is $150 plus 15% commission (more for corners and larger spaces.) Other artists I know said this was a good show so I applied.

The Nitty-gritty

The show sends booth location and set-up time around the end of May. I was on "the field" in the fine art section. I had a 12-2pm unloading time so I decided to drive up from Portland on set-up day. I arrived around 1:30 pm and waited about 40 mins in line to be let in to set up. I had planned to get there earlier, but it turned out just as well since I heard those that were there earlier had an over 2 hour wait in line. Set-up wasn’t as bad as I feared, maybe because I was there late. There weren’t many other vehicles in my row. I unloaded and parked the car across the street. On show days there was a shuttle lot a few blocks away (but with a steep hill.) The shuttles ran often. My biggest gripe was that there was no storage space or wiggle room. The spots were exactly 10x10. This gave you no place to put your stuff, other than in your booth, while setting up and one artist in my row had to be moved because there wasn’t quite enough room. Next time I will set up my canopy first, if possible, and then unload. As it was I had to work around a pile of artwork, etc while setting up the canopy. I must have been brain addled by the boring 3.5 hour drive up I-5 not to realize this. It probably added over an hour to my setup.

I took my time tearing down because I had heard it was hell and I had given up hope of driving back to Portland on Sunday night. That was a good decision since I didn’t get out of there until dark. On the plus side, by the time I was ready to load up, there were no lines to get my vehicle onto the field. So I can’t comment on how that went for those that were speedy other than I did see a number of people dollying out rather than waiting to get their vehicle on the field.

The show

The show ran from 10am-8pm Fri and Sat and 10-6 on Sunday with an artist dinner Sat night. For me, each day showed less in number but larger sales and total sales higher than the day before. I sold cards. LOTS of cards! More cards than I’ve ever sold at a show. I sold out of one of my boxed sets. I only sold one largish original (on Sun), but I sold so many small items that it made for a decent show and better than any show I did last year. In the end, they got a good commission out of me. Attendance was good and people seemed to be buying. All my neighbors seemed to be happy. The metal sculptor next to me almost sold out. He sold a lot of yard art but he also sold most of his larger pieces. There were times I was very busy, early, around lunchtime and again in the evening. At one point on Sunday I thought I was going to have a blockbuster show, with several people discussing sales of multiple paintings. Unfortunately this didn’t happen but I’m happy with my sales and I will reapply next year.

If I had a $1 for every compliment or every business card I passed out at this festival I’d be one happy artist! This was my second year at the Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival. Last year I sold one original and not much else, this year I sold a number of smaller items and only one very small original. In both cases my total sales and the outcome was the same. I broke even, give or take a little. I really like this show. The town of Gig Harbor, WA is beautiful, the show is well organized, easy to do and the booth fee is reasonable. However, unless I get some follow-up orders, it doesn’t make financial sense. In talking to other artists at the show I got, "just OK" to not so good. Since the show I’ve heard reports of good sales.

I had some good moments at the show, like the one woman that really wanted to buy some original work, but couldn’t afford much. She ended up purchasing  a little 5x7 and a box of note cards. She was so happy it warmed my heart. And then there was another local artist, not participating in the show, that introduced herself  by saying that she had liked my facebook business page and how much she loved my art. She was just starting to do shows and was looking at doing this show next year. We talked and she bought a couple of boxes of cards... and there were others. The bad moment came near the end of the show when a woman was trying to get even more off a framed metal print I had. I had already discounted it quite a bit because it was a size I decided not to carry. I was happy to get it out of inventory. But she wanted to pay cash and skip the sales tax. I told her I wanted to stay above board. In the end I took another $5 off. It left a bad taste to what was an otherwise pleasurable show (even though I wished for higher sales.)

About the show... Gig Harbor is a nice little upscale town outside of Tacoma, WA, just west of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. As the name suggests it’s a harbor. The show has easy set-up and tear down, They give you a set-up time for Friday evening depending on which side of the street you are on, drive to your spot and unload. Spaces are EXACTLY 10 ft. wide but there is storage behind the booths. Fortunately it all worked out and everyone fit. They provide coffee and doughnuts on both days and a number to call for booth sitting. I had some pot holes in my space which I was mostly able to cover with my table and I filled the rest with sand. The art was variable in quality and type. There was soap and oils mixed in with the fine art. There was also some amazing work there. To me the mix seemed a little heavy on pottery and landscape photography. The attendance seemed down on Saturday from last year but picked up on Sunday.

I have learned from this show... it’s probably not the right fit for me, maybe I need to tweak my artwork, which I’m already in the process of doing, I need to work on my sales technique which I’m also doing and I need to learn to not let customers get to me. I’ll give this one a rest for a couple of years and re-evaluate. On to the next show...

This art festival is located on a farm in the very small community of Trout Lake, WA which is north of the Columbia River Gorge. The area is known for outdoor activities, Mt.. Adams and the huckleberries that grow wild there. This year it was in a new location complete with a stunning view of Mt. Adams. That was the good part about the new location, the bad was that we could no longer drive onto the field so we had to dolly to our spot over bumpy ground. Friday was setup from 1pm-whenever and the show ran from 10am-5pm on Sat and 10-4 on Sunday. It was fairly windy during setup but otherwise the weather was beautiful but HOT. Because of the heat I was really slow setting up and tearing down. It was the longest load out I’ve ever done. I was the last to leave, although I did spend some time talking to another artist.

The show is small with 55 artists. The quality is mixed, however, most of the art was good and I think better than previous years. Since it’s so small, customers tend to make the rounds a couple of times before purchasing. The attendance was good both days and people were carrying purchases. The locals from Trout Lake and the surrounding areas really turned out and supported the show this year. Don't let this photo fool you, there were times it was pretty busy. Unlike a show in a large city, it’s the only show in town so the people come. This was my 3rd year at this show. In 2011 I sold several originals and did well. Last year, attendance was down and I just made expenses. This year I did a little better but only sold small items and no originals.

This is a very inexpensive show for me to do. There is a $55 booth/jury fee which is refunded if you are not accepted and a 10% commission. Lodging is limited and it’s on the expensive side (no bidding or deals), however I camp at the county campgrounds for $18/night ($24 with electric) and it's only a 80 mile drive from Portland. Amenities include ice water for all, iced tea and lemonade for artists and credit card services. The credit card services came in handy for some artists that couldn’t get data reception.

All in all, it’s a fun show to do. I don’t think it’s the type of show where anyone would make $10k, but I know some artists grossed over $3k. You can do ok here, especially given the low cost. It’s not the kind of show I would travel far for, but if you’re semi-local or laying over in the area and have a free weekend it could be worth a shot. For me, it’s a crap-shoot. It’s a lot of fun to do and I enjoy camping and seeing the other artists that work that show. The director is great, the food is good, reasonably priced and there are healthy options. It depends on my schedule whether I'll do it next year but it will be on my list.