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" First off I want Jon Leben to know I feel your pain.  Florida is really tough for most of us this year.  There is no consistency going on in sales.  I want him to be able to go back to hometown, and my summer home, Saugatuck, Michigan with a big wadful so he can eat and drink to his heart's delight at Wallys, Phils and the EPC Cafe.  I am pulling for you John.

I have been lucky to do this show at least 15 times or more over the years.  I did it back before Naples blossomed into bigtime.  Used to be only one restaurant on Fifth Avenue to get dinner at.

Consistently, it has always been one of my top-grossing Florida spring shows, usually $5K or better.

Now segue to this year.  I do the downtown New Years show, run by the same organization, the the Naples Art Association, and I do a blistering $710.00  I was devastated.  Year before, same show, over $4K--WTF!

So I slid down I-75 last Friday with great trepidation.  So far shows in Florida, the six I have done, have been less than stellar.  And I got new images out there from the Florida Keys, it is not the same old, same old.  That is not my style.

Got there in time for our late Friday setup.

Here is how they do it.  John touched on it lightly--I am going to give you a little more meat--especially if you have never done it and are thinking about it.

A little aside.  A few years back, Greg Lawler's Sourcebook quoted this show as having an average per booth sales total of $7500.  Higher than anybody else in Florida.  I know, I know, you can have one or two artists do $40K and it skews the whole average.  But the point was, you could make a lot of moola here with the right stuff.  The people here have disposable income--what a concept--and, a lot of them spend it on art to decorate their winter homes.

OK back to the setup.  This show is held one block off the main drag of commercial downtown which is South Fifth Avenue. It is both in a lovely treed park and on the the street facing it.

Everybody gets good storage space behind their booths, most get room enough to hang work on one outside wall.  That's what you get for your $450 booth fee.  They provide free food, ample booth sitters and a very well-organized show run under the capable hands of on Mrs. Marianne Megala.  She is the major-domo.  All decrees run thru her.  She has to put out numerous little artist-fires all weekend long, and she does it well.  She has excellent volunteer support who take care of garbage, artist direction and traffic control.  The show runs like a well-greased machine.

Before you all think I am putting on my "Cheerleader's Uniform" listen closely.  There are serious flaws to this whole system.  Easily correctible, but time will tell.  Mrs. Megala does it her way, or you hit the highway.  But she is fair, she doesn't play favorites.

The artists on the street are setup with backs to the curbs or fences with a wide width for patrons to walk between.  Many long-timers consider this "Position A" in the show for sales over spots in the park.  Many ask for it, few get it.

The park is lovely, although shaded, work can look real dark in your booth depending on the light.  My good friend Luciano, a great photographer, loves to be in the West end of the park, doesn' hurt his sales one bit.  His oppposing countepart, John Galbo wants to be out on the sreet front and center.  They both make serious moola.  So go figure.

Here is my criticism about the park.  There is an area we all call the "Circle of Lost Artists."

These people die in this spot.  One noted photographer who does gripping dark images of Ireland, and its graveyards, made less than $300 in there on Saturday.  There is a narrow lime-stained border on the grass that leads you there.  Most people miss it.  I have been there before, it is not pleasant.  It needs to be gone.  They pay the same booth fee as the rest of us, and yet they get a fraction of the crowd.  It just does not work.  Hello Marianne are you listening!

This year especially, you needed big expensive pieces to sell.  The $50-$250 price range was deader than a doornail.  I sold six biggies, $450 each which accounted for seventy-five per cent of my sales.  It was my best show this year.  Over $4K.  That is the now "good" for a lot of us.

Now lets have some fun.  I am gonna tell ya about individual artist experiences as seen though my good buddy Webbie's eyes.

Many of you newbies don't know about Webbie.  I have written about him for the last three years.  He is a hearty show-goer, much like our Geri Wegner, who gets around to a lot of shows.  He has a keen wit, and knows the ins and outs of our biz, he tells it like it is.  He is fond of drink, and hangs around with questionable characters like Munks' Bill the Cat.  When I saw him Saturday, he was fresh out of rehab and full of himself.  So put yourself in the moment as he strides up Eighth street to the front of my booth.

THE RETURN OF WEBBIE

I could tell by the stride and the glide it was Webbie coming my way.  He had on a colorful Aloha shirt half unbuttonned and proudly festooned with his leftovers from the morning breakfest.  The orange piece of Lox attached to his collar was nice touch.

He gleefully bellowed out to me, "Hells bells if isn't Nels."

"Long time no see-um Webbie," I replied.  "Where have you been, it has been a long time since I saw you last."

"Nelsie baby, I keep up with your daily blabberings on Facebook.  See ya posts on AFI, although not as many as you used to do.  Just got out of rehab in Key West and decided to dry out at Holly's Flying Broom Factory (Holly Ollinger).  Bill the Cat and me tried out one of her newer brooms but I cant seem to get the girth to lift ratio right.  Keep crashing in the dang Des Moines cornfield.  The cat might have to go."

"Well buddy," I replied,"What good observations do you have about this show so far?"

"Thought you'd never ask bubba.  First off, I think it is pretty clever that the show committee was able to slide a little GPS device in all your artist packets.  They know if you are in that parking garage or hidden behind the Post Office.  They want ya all out in that field past 41."

"Hmmm.  So that's how they found me."

"Another thing Nelsie baby, you are across from one of the most 'Baby-Licious Artists on the circuit--C.L. Cunningham.  I think me and her need to find out about my "Hunk of Burning Love", whadda ya think?  Do I have a chance?"  "Webbie, C.L. is a very refined woman, you better set your sights elsewhere."

"Who else have you seen of note?"

"Well I saw photographers Larry Humphry and Patrick Whalen getting ready to have wienie roast in the "Circle of Lost Artists.  Humphry aint selling much and Patrick even less.  So they were gonna burn a few canvases and roast some marshmellows and wieners.  Kind of like a Euro-Irish Wake with the trimmings."

"Then I went down the street from you and saw the Marquette Marauders--Barely Bernstein and Patrick the Dragon. They can hurl day-old pasties at each other all day and the lovely Rona will be in the middle as the ref."

"Barely-Bernstein was down to 12 pieces, how does he expect to make any money?"

"First off it is Barry, not Barely, and he sold a bunch at the get-go at Ft. Myers show.  This is all he has left."

"Yeah, but they are pretty dark.  Cant he run those babies thru PhotoShop.  Maybe crank up the saturation and hue about 75 points.  He could call it "Photo-Raku without much Ado" it would be killer."  " I said, "I will tell Barely, I mean, Barry, that next time I see him sleeping on the curb in Ybor."

Then Webbie gave me a big grin.  "I just figured it out, all your Lakeland Photo buddies are not here this year, you got the bathrooms to yourself."  "Well, if you must know, they are down in Key West on an "Artist Working Vacation."  They will do quite well I am sure.  But it was nice of them not to hog into my show this year,"

Then Webbie really grinned.  " I gotta hand it to the Seslars, they are pulling off a righteous "Gary Slidel right now."  (Authors note.  Gary is a noted photographer who gets in the best shows in the country, wins big awards, sells mucho moola, and is married to an awesome wife--Rita--the guy has it made--when are you going to retire.  He is also known for his tireless sales techniques which result in mucho sales, so I guess this is what Webbie was alluding to.) "So",Webbie, what were they doing?"

"They were doing a Coconut Grove technique.  They had all the Europeans corralled in the rear of their double booth.  They wouldn't let them out til they forked over their Gold AMex Cards.

Patrick was writing chits like crazy and Lynn was letting them out with precious little pieces of paper.  It was awesome."  Might be lesson there for all of us.

"Also I saw that Chow-Chow girl across from you selling like crazy."  "Webbie, I think you mean Christine Reichow."  "You say Reichow, I say Chow-Chow, all I know is that girl was wrapping pieces all day long."

"Anything else you want to add, Webbie?"

"See ya Nelsie, I am off to to the Key West Show tomorrow.  I hear there is alot of  tearful discussions going on there.  Something about this incredible hunk of burning love, and crying in the streets.  I gotta see this.  See ya down the road Nelsie."  

And then he was gone.

FINAL OBSERVATIONS.

This is still a great show--but not for everybody.  People this year either did real good or barely made expenses.  There wasn't a lot of middle ground.  
They love Florida imagery big time down here, especially the birds and the flowers.  There are a lot of competing shows going on down here all the time.  You have to work harder for your dollar.

The people are rich and they want the uncommon.  Barry Witt, the director of the Bonita shows, summed it up succinctly for me in  a recent conversation. 

"He said,"Nels, these people have money and they have taste, but they don't want the same thing that 10 other people are going to buy.  Yes you want precious little things in their appropriate place, but you need the show-stoppers out there to entice them."  I think I paraphrased him pretty well with that.  If not, we will hear from him shortly, because he monitors this site regularly.

That doesn't mean that only "Florida-Style" sells here.  People with good abstracts, uncommon clay, glass and sculpture do well here.  But you have to resonate success to click with these Mid-Westerners.

All I know, is I would take two Naples shows over a handful of other Florida shows anyday.

By the way, Barely Barry and I are taking donations for money, we hope to collect enough to give an annual "Cheer-Leaders Outfit Award" at Christmas.  Either sex is eligible.  Want to contribute?  See Barely, see me.  God Forbid, don't give it to Connie, she will just use it to buy IPhone Lessons on EBay.

Whew, and Aloha, Nels.  I think I smell fish burning--gotta go.