Blog

A brief introduction . I am Joseph Paratore a Nature Photographer from Michigan and have been photographing for over 20 years. My wife and I are new to the Art show adventure life style. We are in our 3^rd year. The first year ( are timing  couldn’t be at a worst time to start a business) we did two shows, last year six shows and this year it will be 13. So far this year we’ve  been rained on 3 times and suffered through 3 shows in a row with 95 to 100 degree heat. I don’t remember anyone telling us it was going to be this hard of work.

I want to share my experience on a new show called New Buffalo Artigras put on by Amdur productions. New buffalo is quaint Harbor village in Southwestern Michigan located on the shores of Lake Michigan near the Indiana border. This is another Hot spot for Chicago vacationers with second homes and cottages. It seemed to be a lot smaller to similar Harbor towns like Saugatuck, South Haven, and Grand Haven. There are many excellent restaurants in and around the Downtown area. One I highly recommend is Casey’s Bar & Grill, from the outside it doesn’t look like much and you  may think Bar and grill Hamburgers  Not!!!  I had the best mushroom stuffed Raviolis with garlic cream sauce ever. And I must admit I am a food snob. With the quality on the spices and sauces I would think this to be upscale restaurant.  Did I mention that the prices were very reasonable?

Now the Show.  This is my first time doing a show with Amdur. So I didn’t know what to expect. Setup was done with flight times and Drop and drive, first time doing that also .  My time was set for Friday at 2:30- 4:30.We arrived at two in hopes of setting up little sooner. The setup was u shape on three streets near the main part of town. One street  Thompson which we were on was a paved street with a severe slope in front of a huge condo complex .One street was dirt and sand and the other was somewhat paved. I got their at 2:00 hoping to get an early start along with a handful of other artists. I was about to set up when I was stop because the Main sponsor Amway didn’t like where their Tents station was at and had to be move to more level area. They took up about 15 booths so Amy had to relay out one quarter  of  our row of booths. Even though She was under a lot of pressure and very short with us (which she later apologized for) she handled the situation fast and professionally . The setup was brutal the temp was around 96 degrees and no breeze .By the end of our 3 hour setup I was weak and dizzy.                        Saturday  morning  was very warm. The show started slow with a few people visiting booths. From eleven to twelve thirty it pickup and we made some sales. The afternoon was real slow there were a fair amount of people but they weren’t buying. I talk to about 15 artist or more and they were all struggling. At about 4:30 a huge storm blew in and we were pelted with quarter size hail. We were fortunate we saw it coming and shut down the hatch early. Rained heavily for 30 minutes.

There was another storm overnight, so when we arrived on Sunday there were two tents completely pancaked on our row. I heard that photographer had lost $13,000 worth of images and inventory. Just heart  breaking.  Sunday didn’t fare any better for me and many artists. The leather purse maker next to me made a great rebound from Saturday and did ok by their standards. I thought they did well; they were making a lot of sales. Everyone else I talked too barely made expenses .We sold a couple of big images so we made booth fee but didn’t make expenses. The foils of a first time show I guess. Most agreed that $450 booth fee was way too much for a first time show. I’m not convinced that area will support an Art show of that status .Only time will tell I guess. I don’t think I will be doing New Buffalo Artigras!   show anytime soon . If the booth fees were $250 to $275 I may try it again.

It is about making a living isn’t ?