Blog

As Bob Marley used to say, "I am a busy man, and I have work to do."

This is one of the biggies on the circuit for me.  It is one of my top three shows in the nation, the other two being Main Street Ft. Worth and Kansas City Plaza.  Can't count Winter park since they have juried me out for 26 years in a row--but hope springs eternal.

I had a pleasant seven hour ride home from it yesterday so I have had time to get my thoughts together.  So here goes.

It is always nice to swim in the same pool with the great ones and taste the sweet smell of success.  Saint Louis (SL) is one of them.

There are less than 200 exhibitors and all of them are pretty darn unique and successful looking--in every medium.

Not everbody makes a ton of moola, but most do far better than your average show.

To give you a yardstick, I did more here in two-and-one-half days than I did in Art, Eats and beats, Uptown Minneapolis and Ann Arbor combined.  It is like a cocaine high.  The hits just keep on coming.  Doesn't mean I do the white powder, but it is a good metaphor.  I mean what else are metaphors, for?

Info about location and setup.

This is a very well-organized show.  Every little detail is taken care of to the enth degree.

If you are traveling say eight hours or more, you will want to get in on Thursday, the day before booth setup which starts Friday at 11 am.  They have an artist special hotel rate at the Sheraton Clayton which is two blocks from the show.  They have free parking in an open guarded lot--they waive the $14 per day parking fee.  Hotel rate is $99 for a room that normally goes for $160.00.  Nice bar and restaurant too.  The show sign up is at the Sheraton and so was the free artist breakfest/awards on Sunday.

Clayton is a north suburb of SL.  It is where all the government buildings are.  Also, a ton of great restaurants to choose from.  Usually you will come in on I-70 then on to I-170 and get off at the Ladue exit.  Hotel is on Bonhomme Street and Beniston.  You can walk two blocks to the show from there.  There is a Starbucks, two breakfest diners plus a news shop that sells ice.  They got it covered well.  Gee Michelle, am I giving you too much info?

I just wish others would give simple info like this to me about a show I have never done, sure makes the job easier.

The show layout is basically on three streets.  Artists are back to back, down the middle of the street.  You have electric with lines running behind your booth.  It is tight in the rear with little room for inventory storage unless you can get your hind neighbor to scoot out  about 12 inches and do the same.  Plenty of room side to side.  I had a corner spot, it was well worth the extra money.

Corners go fast.  I got my acceptance via Zapp while at Ft. Worth.  I accepted immediately and paid booth fee including money for a corner.  If you don't do it pronto you are SOL.  Too many pros out there who know how it goes.  You snooze, you lose.

You are on paved streets, you need good weights, it can get very windy.  Better bring cut nails to nail down canopy feet so your booth does not go walking.

They let you in at 11 am, first come, first served.  They are not art show Naizis so you can hang around with your van for a while.  It is a very mellow setup.

Likewise, teardown is very civilized and easy.  They forgo asking you to take everything down and lay it on the pavement and get a pass so you can get your van.  You just lineup after 4pm, show closing, and they let you in.  What a breath of fresh air.  I was loaded out in an hour and a half and eating at Morton's before 7pm, after a cold shower and a short power nap.

Show runs from 5-10 pm Friday night, then Saturday it is 12 hours, 10 am-10pm.  Sunday it runs 11 am to 4 pm.  How civilized.  You have 22 hours to make serious moola and most people do.

So there, that is a lot of meat, but it is very helpful.  Hope it helps you when you get in this show.  If you were a smart person, you would print this blog out right now and store it in your file drawer under "Dreams."

Lets talk about personalities and moola--always a fun subject.

Lots of heavyweights at this show.  A lot of them had just driven in from doing Sausalito, which can be a biggie if you have the right stuff.

Artists here are comfortable, and expecting, to do big numbers, many in five-figures or better.

SL delivers.  There are several shows in the area over the year like, Laumier, Queeny Park, the Shaw, but the Art Show at Clayton is the biggie.  People wait all year to buy here.  Oh, let us not forget nearby Belville--but that really isn't St. Louis--it is its own force of nature.  You see people with really good shoes wearing expensive belts and carrying very pricey leather bags, and they are clothed very nicely.  Not a lot of tee-shirts like Royal Oak and others.

I have been lucky to get into SL five times now in 20 years, last time was four years ago.  Before the recession, this was a very good five-figure show for me.  Now in 40% off times, I wasn't expecting as much.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I did not do a ton of low end sales, it was more in the $90-$200 range.  People were buying three and four pieces at a time, and they were not trying to get you down on the price.

My neighbor next to me, Harvey Greenwald, does expensive, well crafted, leather bags mostly for women.  His bags start at $400 and up.  He had no trouble selling them.  Interesting thing about Harvey, he had his first show at Woodstock, the music fest in 1969.  I took a pic of him holding a photo of him at Woodstock when he was 23 years old.  He has been doing shows for 41 years.  He is a smooth pro.  He can charm women and get their dinero.  I learned a few new pointers from him.  

Down my row three booths away was fine ceramicist named Jenny Mendes from outside of Cleveland.  She made intricatly,designed vessels with cool edgey subject matters on them. I bought three of her pieces.  One of them I am drinking tequila from while I write this blog.  She had a so-so show, she sells to a very small niche market.  She still made money, just not a lot of it.

While waiting to set up I ran into this cool dude from High Point, NC named Steven Sebastian.  He does etchings of traditional subjects like rural farm and garden variety.  He sells expensive things, most all over $500.  I watched him all show walk back to his nearby parked truck and bring another framed piece back.  He did that at least six times on Saturday alone.

He was telling me he has been in the Plaza Art Fair for more than 25 years in a row.  That is awesome.  He has been in SL more than 10 times--equally awesome.  He expects success and he gets it.  How refreshing.

I walked around both Saturday and Sunday mornings saying hello to friends I know.  They all had great success stories to tell.  Saw Amy Flynn, Alan Teger, his lovely wife Barbara with her own work.  Saw Andy Shea, Matthew Cornell and a host of others.

There were only three Florida photographers in the show, me, Alan Teger and Doug Cavanaugh.  I felt happy to represent the sunshine state.  I beamed the whole show.

If you can ever get into this show, I hope you have equal or better success.  I am going to post photos in a seperate blog.  Right now, I am going to go work on my putting game.  I have this weekend off then it is off to Birmingham, MI, then St. James, then go shooting "Juke Joints" in Mississippi, then Bayou City in Houston.  Then I get to come home to Saugatuck in late October and dig up approximately 2,000 daylillies and get the damn weeds out of them and then replant the whole bed.

Then I go home to Florida and deal with my jungle of a yard in Ybor City which I will not have seen for five-and-one-half months.

PS.  Munks, I got to meet Holly Ollinger but she was not flying on her broom that I gave her at Christmas.

Later gators.