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Shoppers at Arts, Beats & Eats

• Intricate ceramic sculpture from Gail Markiewicz - new!
• Pastel drawings from

  Drawing by Meredith Kuntzsch

  Meredith Kuntzsch 
• Detroit's own Carl Lundgren  
• Seriously funny digital art from Chuck Wimmer - new!
• Leather goods from returning artist Sylvester Robinson 
• Paintings to make you think from John Stillmunks - new!
• Plus many more eager to meet you!

1. Friday morning join the Royal Oak Marching Band as they open the show
2. Explore the juried fine art show before the best art is gone
3. Take your kids to perform in the Children's area
4. Eat at your favorite Detroit area restaurant outpost
5. Enjoy Saturday night dancing in the streets at the R & B Jazz stage with Thornetta Davis
6. Back to the Art to see who won the prizes and take your own "prize" home with you
7. Close out the weekend  with George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic at the Main Stage 

Eleven stages

Having participated in the Woodland Art Fair twice my experience is mixed.The first year I had a great show in terms of appreciation and sales;the second year my sales were minimal but my work was appreciated nonetheless.

I have not done the show since then but I still think it was worth the experience

Want to know what happened at the last one? Details:

Stop the presses!
Curious about what’s in store at the ZAPP® Conference? Listen to the two most popular sessions from last year’s conference: The 2010 opening presentation, Rise of the Aggregators, and the 2010 symposium session, State of the Art Fair.

Rise of the Aggregators:
The 2010 conference opened with a presentation from writer, researcher, lecturer, and cultural consultant, András Szántó. Szántó’s thought-provoking keynote chronicles the ups and downs of the gallery system. Szanto predicts that the next art-world business model is one in which artists will sell directly to the marketplace and marvels that art fair and festival artists have done this for years. LISTEN NOW

State of the Art Fair:
What happens when you get Stephen King (Des Moines Arts Festival), Elaine Kroening (Positively Pewuakee), Reed McMillan (The Artist Project New York), Larry Oliverson (Lawrence W. Oliverson Fine Art Photography), Teresa Saborsky (ARTiculate Sculpture; National Association of Independent Artists), and Steven Wood Schmader (International Festivals and Events Association) in the same room together? You get an in-depth conversation about the current state of the art fair! At the 2010 ZAPP® Conference, these leaders tackled topics that included the impact of generational change and the role of art fairs and festivals in creating community. LISTEN NOW

Have a friend who needs to know about the ZAPP® Conference? Forward this message on and spread the word.

---
The third annual ZAPP® Conference is coming to the W Atlanta Midtown hotel September 19-20, 2011.

Register now at http://regonline.com/zappconference2011

Attention traveling Artists! (or anybody needing a HOTEL room)

If you have to hit the road to participate in art shows, fairs, festivals, gallery openings, seminars, conferences, or any other reason that requires an overnight stay...

...this card trick is for you.

Combine the cost-saving benefits of using Priceline.com...

...with the additional tool of TheBiddingTraveler.com.

Assuming you like saving money and getting a decent stay for a great rate then you are probably already a big fan of Priceline.com...notwithstanding the quirky, punching pitch-ster, William Shatner.

TheBiddingTraveler acts like an Ace-in-the-hole to give you the advantage during on-line negotiations.

They aggregate all the recent winning bids (and the rejected bids) for specific hotels, giving your bidding strategy the edge.  Kind of like getting to peek at the other guys cards.

Other sites claim to offer this information but I particularly like the simple navigation of this web site.  On the first visit it was easy to use and aligned with the same 'definitions and formats' as Priceline, for hotel ratings, zones, and maps.

Beyond the option of manually entering your bid, you can also choose a nifty Autobid feature.  Simply enter your lowball bid and your 'final offer' highest bid...you can leave the table and let The Computer play out the hand for you, thereby 'managing' the different timeline rules Priceline has for re-bids.  Autobid starts low and automatically raises it in increments until a bid is accepted or the final offer is rejected.

Consider the combination of Priceline and TheBiddingTraveler and you really can get winning hands of 60%+ off normal hotel rates. Hey, a 3-star Hyatt Place in Birmingham for the low $40's/night ain't too bad.

Sort of tickles the left-side of my brain...my wife the artist, just says..."make sure they have good beds".

Our last show of our summer schedule was the Lake Chelan Fine Arts show.  Show seems like it could really have some poential.  It has been re-started after a few years lapsed.  The artists who returned this year that had done it last year all raved about how good it was last year.

Not sure what changed this year, but there was a serious lack of attendance.  Overall, most of the artists I talked to said they did okay, people who showed up were spending money, no one was saying they had an absolutely horrible show but then again, no one was raving about the show.

We were all raving about the volunteers, they were plentiful, visible, treated us to home made scones Sunday morning plus lots of other treats all weekend.  Lots of fresh fruit from the area was available for the artists.  They were contstantly bringing around water, asking if we needed breaks, etc.  The Arts Council is really trying hard to build this show and they are doing a lot of things right, are open to suggestions and with a little more focused marketing to the tourists, this show seems like it should be a lot better than it turned out for most of us.

Chelan is a tourist town in the North Central Cascade mountains in WA, situated on Lake Chelan.   There are a lot of summer homes in the area, with lots of tourists that are here to play on the lake or visit the wineries.   Venue was the Riverfront Park, absolutely beautiful location.  Load in / load out was not too bad, you couldn't drive to your spot so unless you had a spot on the perimeter of the park you had to hand truck your stuff, but it was very far and there were volunteers to help if you needed it, especially during load out.

Temps were in the 80's for the highs, thank goodness for the lake breeze, especially Sunday afternoon during load out.  We had one of the sunny locations, other booths had primarily shade.  This was a 3 day show where we really only sold on one day, Saturday.  However, that wasn't the trend for everyone, it was a bit strange but most of us who had good sales on Saturday had poor sales on Friday and vice versa.  Didn't talk to anyone who had consistent sales between Friday and Saturday, Sunday was slow for everyone.

One of the best parts of the entire weeked?  Dunking in the lake after load out!! Felt great and was a great way to cool off before starting the 5 hour drive home.

Well once the surprise weather past and they let us leave the fire station we got all set up.  I set my tent up Friday night and it was very easy in and out.  I got the display all set up Saturday after they let us go back to our tents.  Due to the weather everything was about 2 hours late in starting.  The organizers were great.  The volunteers kept us supplied with water (more than the 2 times advertised) through out the day, both Saturday and Sunday.  Once the storms past Saturday was a beautiful day although a little humid.  There were lookers but very few shoppers and the crowd was very sporadic.  Most of the people around me made no sales on Saturday at all.  It made for a long day with the fair going till 7PM on Saturday.

On Sunday we had a beautiful day with low humidity.  More people came out, but again only lookers.  I saw very few people caring art or bags.  The ones I did see with bags were from the small shops in Long Grove.  Most artists I talked with made expenses, but not much more.  Those who had been numerous years stated it was one of the slowest shows they can remember.  For myself, I barely made expenses.  There were a lot of nice people telling me how nice my art was, but they weren't willing to part with the money.  I had items in all price points with the lowest being $45, but with that people would look at the art then the price and turn around and walk out.  Not sure I'd do this one again.

As I stated the organizers were fantastic and even in and out after tear down went very smoothly.  It was great to meet some other artists in the area, being a newbie this year I'm always trying to learn.  I got some helpful critique that I will encorporate into future shows, but for Long Grove I'd been told they were mainly lookers and those that did buy would be looking for low price points.  This was definitely true.  I'll need to do better research for future shows with my price point and product (wood sculpture).

Both Winthrope and Michelle have contributed various viewpoints about last weekend's show in Lexington,both gave excellent reviews.

So, I aint going there.  This will be a little more cerebral, but informative.  Hopefully you all will mine a few jewels out of my late night digressions.

If you are not feeling cerebral, just quit now.  You wont glean anything.

First off, it is one of the most beautiful nights in Saugatuck,Michigan that I have experienced all summer.

We left Lexington at 6:30 AM seeing steely blue skies bright with light.  A storm came last night and blew all the hot weather crap right out  We made it home to Michigan in less  than seven hours.  No big traffic.

My highlight of the whole trip was when I was going around the beltway around Indianapollis. I listen to XM/Sirius while on the road.  They started playing Peter Frampton's "Do you feel like I do".  I was playing the wickedest air-guitar riffs as I blew by twittering motorists at 75 mph. It was ethereal

We made it to lunch at the Red Dock Restaurant in time for lunch and Tequila-infused

margaritas made with homemade ginger root beer.  Glenn, our hippy-dippy bartender, was in usual guarrelous form.  

Ellen took a nap. I played golf, shot an 87, not bad for six days off and being stiff for driving 500 miles.

I came home after dinner tonight and looked up at the sky.  Had a little toot and smelled the night.  Hints of burning wood from campfires in the air.  A crispness which I have not felt once this month.  Perfect sky with every star lit up perfect.  I saw so many constellations.

Then I started thinking about Lexington.  Weird. I don't know why the font just changed.  Will just go with the flow.

Met Michelle Wermuth at her booth.  She is a newbie photographer to art shows.  She is not a newbie to photography.  She and her husband have been in the wedding photo biz for years.

Naturally, times are tough, why not branch out.  Ergo Michelle, at outdoor art shows.  Ring a bell?

She is doing exactly what a hundred other plus people are doing right now. Trying to make extra moola.

Her booth looked stunning, very professional.  Hell, I never had a booth that looked that good until my fifth year in photography.  I used to use an ORANGE tarp over my handmade pegboard panels.  One day coming back from an art show in Gainesville,FL I noticed all these pegboard panels bouncing and exploding all over I-75.  I said hmmm, "Those sure look like mine."  Cars were dancing and dodging all over avoiding get hit my my dissapearing panels.  I got a new professional booth with canopy after that.

So Michelle is way ahead of the curve compared to where I was in my time.  

She did not have a good show.  Guess what?  There were a 100 others that didn't do well too.

As always. there are exceptions like Winthrope.  I know about ten others.  But a lot of people only made a little more than expenses

On Saturday, I did $2K for the day which is much better than I did any day at Ann Arbor or Minneapolis.

Weather was better on Sunday, crowds were half, and sales were half.

Times are tough.  People are holding back--but, and this is big but, they got plenty of money.  You see it come out when they really want something.

In my media photography, I see where almost 60 per cent have gone over to doing canvas-wrapped images with no frame on them.  The public loves them to a certain extent.  Trouble is, they all look alike.  They all got the same shots of places in Italy and France.  They are all interchangeable.  They don't stand out.  It is one giant mess of photos from Europe.  Guess what?

The economy is catching up with them.

This is the time to take chances.  Break out of the pack.  Do something new.  What have you got to lose.

As I made it back to Saugatuck today. Sirius played one of my favorites by Bob Seger, one of Michigan's best rockers--you remember, "The night moves".  It was so apropos.  He sang about love in a truck back behind corn fields.  I thought about love on islands off the Florida Gulf coast.  Times with ladies who shed their bathing suits for greater needs.

I never felt so alive as today.  This is my best day in 2011 so far.

But guess what?  I know I am going to top it.

Aloha, Nels.

       The AFB Woodland Art Fair is a much anticipated, premier event in Lexington, Kentucky. This past weekend (August 20-21, 2011), was my second opportunity to show my photographs in Woodland Park, an almost downtown, urban park in a neighborhood setting.

       I live in Savannah, Georgia, so I began my nine hour journey to the blue-grass state at 6:00 am Friday morning. I arrived at 3:00 pm to an easy set-up. Load-in begins at noon so many of the artists had already come and gone. You drive right to your site and set up liesurely, in my case, under the shade of enormous trees behind a baseball diamond. Some artists around me were complaining about the heat. Well the mid-80s temperature felt real good to this south Georgia boy who had been subjected to triple digit temperatures and 100% humidity all summer. Felt like winter to me! That night, I stayed at a Baymont about ten minutes away for $49.

       Many of the patrons at this event are well educated in art, and do their research before attending the show. The Lexington Art League, who are the promoters, link from their website to participating artists that have their own websites. Starting at the first of the month, my Google Analytics showed that I was getting scores of hits from Lexington, Louisville, and several surrounding communities. After a few days, hits from repeat sources became common, with stays on my website as long as 30 minutes. That's always a good sign that somebody may actually buy something!

       The weather report for Saturday was excellent. Lot's of Sun, but little breeze. It felt fine to me, but many of the locals were complaining. The show runs from 10 to 6 on Saturday and 10 to 5 on Sunday. I like to arrive early to get my pick of parking on the ballfield. I can back my truck to about 50' of my booth, providing easy access to my weather-proof warehouse. Booth spaces in my area are twelve feet by practically unlimited, giving much appreciated breathing room. The Lexington Art League honors same-space-as-last-year requests whenever possible. They are also great at providing a continental breakfast each day with a wide variety of choices and they bring water to your booth.

       Attendance momentum was a little slower getting started this year than last year. Probably because nasty weather (which never actually materialized) threatened opening day last year and folks wanted to get around to the booths before it started raining. Well, by 11:00 this year buying momentum was up and continued strong to about 5:30. This was my best show last year and I ended Saturday ahead of last year's figures.

       I woke up at 6:00 on Sunday to a disappointing weather report. It showed a 95% chance of rain that morning until around 11:00. The issue was, if the ballfield is wet you have to park out of the festival area and take a provided shuttle. When I returned from breakfast, the rain chance had dropped to 40%. What a relief!

       At 9:00 the art league had an awards ceremony. Last year, my good friend Greg Turco, a fellow Georgia photographer who was set up across from me won the merit award for photography. That was an instant free ride into this year's show. Well this year he took the whole shebang by winning the top show award and another free ride! Yehhh photography!

       Sunday was especially pleasent with a nice breeze most of the day. Attendance was a bit lower than Saturday, but I was still busy all day, selling a number of framed photos as well as my large limited edition matted prints. Load-out is equally stress free, except toward the end, rapidly approaching thunder gave me added encouragement to pack up what I had left. The rains came as I closed the lid on my camper shell. Whew! It was right at seven as I pulled out. By 4:00 am I was home. Aren't Interstates wonderful?   

       The AFB Woodland Art Fair is a well run, top notch show. You can find it on Zapp. It is juried very well with much high quality variety. There were many photographers present, but we all had different subjects and approaches. There was even one fellow who made ancient cyanotypes with a view camera. I do around 25 shows a year and so far Woodland is my second best this year. But only because my hometown, Fine Arts on the River Festival last April, was a killer show with buying energy from our massive tourist base. 

       I'll be praying that I will return to my space under the shade trees next year. Of course Greg doesn't have that worry...lucky stiff!

It's a sad commentary on my state of mind, perhaps, that I started to post this with a show date of "July 20-21" before catching myself.  When you aren't sure what month it is, it may be time to go home and take a few weeks off!

I wish I were able to.  But alas, the "Northeast Extension 2011" from Fort Myers, FL continues, and so do the bills...so I can't help but be a little testy about this past weekend's visit to Collingswood NJ.

Not that the show sucked.  And not that it was great, either.  The source of my ire is that I only saw the first act of the two-act play, thanks to some dire forecasting by the weatherman. 

Act 1 was reasonably OK: Saturday morning dawned sunny and not too clammy, at least, for August in the Philly suburbs.  It was only a 15-minute drive from my Extended Stay motel in Mt. Laurel, and upon arrival the local cops had the area nicely cordoned off.  Although I didn't see the promised volunteer who would direct me to my space, a patrolman and an artist who'd done the show previously made it easy to find.

The booths run back--to-back for about five blocks along the center of Haddon Avenue, logistics which lend this show  a unique choreography: Per the show instructions, you drive alongside your (nicely marked) space by 6:45 am and unload onto the sidewalk, then park your vehicle in one of two nearby lots and walk back to your space.  Setup, we were told, begins at 7 and not a moment before (this gives artists' vehicles a chance to exit through the normal driving lanes).  Then, at 7, you move your stuff off the sidewalk and set up in the center of the street. (I was wondering if, at 7 AM, someone would fire a starter's pistol or ring the Liberty Bell, or something.  Would there be a prize for the first artist to spring back from his/her tent, hands in the air, with the setup complete?  But I digress.)

The plan worked pretty darn well.  A few folks had begun setting up early, and a few artists ignored the instructions that said that if you arrived after 6:45, you'd have to dolly in from the parking lot.  One artist on my block arrived just before 8 AM and drove right along the curb, nearly running over several of my tent poles. But all in all, one of the easiest setups I've had all summer.

Saturday crowds were respectable, though hardly elbow-to-elbow, at least until 1 PM when it started getting hot.  Although no one was buying big, they WERE buying, at least from me, and from a purveyor of metal sculpture fashioned from rods of some sort (think metallic "art on a stick").  Although the crowds were appreciative, they were buying small: 8x10 and 11x14 mats, mostly, and there was little conversation about the more expensive gallery wraps.  My neighbors, who offered an interesting, though not inexpensive, array of canvas paintings as floormats, zeroed out on the day, and my neighbors on the other side (a fine jeweler and a glass artist) weren't raking it in, either.  All of us were hoping for better sales on Sunday.

But it wasn't to be--which brings me to my earlier rant about the weather forecast. 

At some point between Saturday morning and the weathercast on Sat night's 11 PM local news, the forecasters amped up the intensity of the Sunday forecast.  The 40% chance of thunderstorms morphed into "60% chance of severe storms...with possibility of hail and wind gusts of 50-60 mph."  Which completely changes the equation for us artists, especially after seeing some of the carnage from some of the recent AFI posts. 

Sunday hours were scheduled short, 11 AM to 5 PM, so I opted to get some early morning work done on my website and keep an eye on the forecast.  The 9:30 AM forecast hadn't changed, so I gritted my teeth and drove over to the show, where I found several of my neighbors in the parking lot comparing radar screens on their iPhones and shaking their heads glumly. 

"Storms are coming sometime between 10 and 11, and then again between 2 and 3," they said, confirming what I'd heard before I left the hotel.  "W e're packing up."  At that, dark clouds began to loom just to the southeast, and thunder rumbled.  After some commiseration, I walked up to a couple of the police officers, who'd heard the same thing from their captain, who was in a golf cart nearby. Asked the captain if he'd talked to the show organizers.  Yep, he said.  "There was some talk that they'd close the show around 3, but nothing was decided."   Given the forecast, a 3 PM shutdown would make it safer for the patrons, but wouldn't help the artists, and might put them right in the crosshairs of the worst weather.   

So I did the math:  60% chance of storms. Some chance that they'd have gusts up to 50-60 mph.  Some chance that if that happened, even with a Trimline and a foul-weather game plan, I'd have some work damaged.  Multiplied by the fact that I am 1,000 miles from my Florida home, and anything damaged would take me three weeks or more to replace...and in the meantime, I had 4-5 more shows to do up North. 

And so, for the first time in my show career, I packed up early.  And as if to taunt us early departers, the skies cleared by 11 AM, with hardly a drop of rain.  But by that time, of course, I had dollied most of my work to my van; by noon, the tent was disassembled, and by 12:30, the sun blazed hot on my van as I strapped my tent poles to the roof.  I decided to seek out the promoter to explain why I was leaving (she completely understood, so they're won't be a "penalty" if I decide to apply next year).  Then, I strolled the show for a few minutes to say good-byes.  I'm guessing that maybe 20 artists left early. And I couldn't help noticing how light the crowds were.  Who knows how many residents saw the forecast and stayed home?

I grew up in the Philly 'burbs, and I know that thunderstorms there are notoriously fickle.  Sometimes they wither and die; sometimes they move in unexpected directions.  And sometimes the dire forecasts, sadly, are right. 

So, despite the fact that my hotel room was only 10 miles away, I don't know to this moment if the forecasters were right or wrong, if the show closed early, or if the crowds took a second look at the skies and ventured forth to make it a successful day.  I know only that I've got a vague feeling of an opportunity lost, and I can't help feeling a bit like I--and the other artists who stayed, and the folks who cancelled their plans to attend--all might have gotten screwed by the forecaster. 

I'm 100% content with my decision.  But I'm curious: How much stock do you place in forecasts?  What do you see as a bigger threat: wind or rain?  And how much does the distance you've traveled to do a show weigh in your decision to stay or go? 

And, if you were at the show:  How WAS the weather, anyway??

Had a great time at this festival this past weekend.  Our first time doing the show.  Our location was in the Frontier Park....a really nice location with park benches, shade trees, etc.  Good crowds all three days.  Rained for about 1 1/2 hrs. on Sat. but folks were still out buying in the rain!  God Bless them!!  One concern that we saw creeping in were vendors sneaking in buy/sell items into their booth that they were not juried into the show for.  WHY do vendors feel the need to rip off promoters and others buy selling this crap?  We shoot ourselves in the foot by doing this.  In a very short period of time, if the promoters do not stay on top of the buy/sell, it could fast become a crappy show.  I for one sent an email to the gen. chairperson about my concerns.  I would DEF. recommend this show to anyone with quality handcrafted items.  These folks came to buy.  Our first Missouri show and will return again next year for sure!

The City of Ann Arbor seeks an artist, or artist collaborators to create artwork(s) for permanent inclusion in the southwest corner of the main lobby area of the Ann Arbor Justice Center (AAJC). Deadline for submissions of qualifications has been extended. Contact Aaron Seagraves, Public Art Administrator, for more information. $150K for public art inside Ann Arbor police-courts building lobby. Deadline is 09.01.11 - Ann%20Arbor%20Justice%20Center%20SOQ%20RFQ-797B.pdf.

2.  Guggenheim Grants for artists and scholars 

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is offering unrestricted grant money to selected individuals who demonstrate advanced professional standing in the humanities annd creative arts (excluding performing arts). Fellowships will be granted to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship/research work or artistic ability. This fellowship is intended to provide time and unrestricted funds to individuals to focus on their projects. Deadline 9.15.11. Learn morehere.

3.  Director of Development - Ann Arbor Summer Festival

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival is seeking a creative and strategic-thinking individual to serve as its Director of Development to plan, manage and implement a comprehensive fundraising program. Details here.

4.  1708 Gallery seeks exhibition proposals for their 2012-2013 season.
National and international artists working in all mediums including, but not limited to, video and film, new media, installation, painting and social practices, and curators are encouraged to submit exhibition proposals. Current students are not eligible. Proposed work must have been created within the last three years. Please visit the exhibitions page of the gallery's website for more details. Deadline: 10.15.11. Gallery website.

5.  WDEE TV (budding local internet TV station) is looking for artists
who would like their art piece placed on the set of a talk show. You will be mentioned in the credits and during the show as that episode's art sponsor. Contact Lfriend@darkelfentertainment.com if interested.

6.  Calling all indie crafters and art makers!
We want you to be a vendor at Liberty Local - a hand made craft fair presented by the Ann Arbor Art Center. The Ann Arbor Art Center is currently accepting applications from artist vendors whose work embraces the indie spirit - unique, handmade and creative. View the rest of the listing on a3arts.org.

All these links come to you by way of the Cultural News from the Ann Arbor area Arts Alliance.

Do you "like" this post? Please, please click on the social media tabs -- Twitter, Facebook, Google & Like

IL doesn't have the best weather reputation. We were at Long Grove IL, beautiful charming and peaceful suburb surrounded by golf courses. A dark cloud appears out of the blue (or the black) and a 40 minute storm took couple tents. We are doing our best trying to be creative to be able to make it in hard times. We don't need to add storms to our shows, and why do they arrive on weekends and not week days??? mmm...I took some pics that explain why is better to invest in a good canopy. No need to to type words. Oh, and after that damn storm came on Saturday at 10:30am , a beautiful sun came out and stayed for the whole show.

PS...What are those cables doing connected to the pole during a storm???? That is the question...

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

My husband just left to go "get his line wet".  Around here that means he's going to see if a fish wants to bite.  I should probably share that he is pretty much strictly a bass fisherman.  Large mouth or small mouth--no matter, but it had better be a bass.  I guess they are more fun??

But here's the thing about most bass fisherman:  they are catch and release people.  They don't play for keeps.  At least not until you get to the Pro level, and then they keep them just long enough to weigh them, and then back they (the fish) go.  Bass fisherman buy lots of cool colored baits, and lots of gizmos and gadgets to catch these large mouth bass, or small mouth bass, and as soon as they've caught them--they let them go.  To swim away and get caught another day.  The whopper of a fish story he told last week/month?  He could tell it all over again tonight, with the same fish.  What a concept, the possibilities are almost endless.  Catch and release.

At this point, let's remember that this is an art blog, and while I love a good analogy, this is not the time for one of them.  In fact, we had all better view this as a polar opposite.  If an artist catches someone's attention with a painting, to the point they want to take it home with them, then I say at that point the release part of "catch and release" becomes a bad word.  A wrong word.  A much-to-be-avoided word.  We'd better be thinking in terms of keep.  Catch and keep.

No silly, I don't mean keep the painting, I mean keep the patron.  They just gave you a vote of confidence.  They just told you with their checkbook that they like what you are doing with the paint brush. 

And you would release them??? 

Not stay in touch??? 

Not send them a newsletter now and then??? 

Not tell them when your next show is, and where???

Ha!  I thought you'd see it my way.  Now go send out a few post cards or something.  An email note, or a newsletter.  Show that patron the new paintings you've been working on.  Whatever.

Catch and release is for fisherman.  Catch and keep is for artists. 

Later, Cooper

Grrr... have you ever spent longer than you intended on a post and then hit the wrong key and LOST THE WHOLE THING?  I love you all enough to start over.

Long Grove, IL is located in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago.  It used to be an extremely popular little shopping area... primarily very crafty painted wooden type stuff, but the weekends used to be nonstop swamped there.  I don't go often but I've heard it is not quite as popular anymore.  I thought I'd give it a try because it wasn't too expensive and was close to home.  When will I learn?

On the good side, setup and tear down were easy - you could drive up to your booth.  Cold water was offered often, lots of choices for lunch delivered to your booth, booth sitters dropped by at least twice a day.  I had wonderful neighbors and the quality of the show was decent.  I only saw a couple stinkers.  Some pretty good live music played throughout the event.

But I sold next to nothing.  Didn't make booth expenses.  Everything else really doesn't matter, but I'll vent about the rest just to make myself feel better.  The artists had to park at a remote site with a shuttle.  Didn't want to wait for it after a terribly disappointing Saturday and had to drag my roller bag over some rough terrain... quaint brick sidewalks, stone and the like, while sulking the whole way.  I sold only small ticket items.  I had a lots of interest in commissions and some significant jobs could come out of it.  Maybe it's just me?  I'm in a SERIOUS slump.  It looked like the ceramics guy across from me was having a decent show.  The sculpture guy next to me from Miami said he did about $1000.  My beloved AFI-ers Carla Banks and Claudia Winters were neighbors on the next row and Carla was suffering too.  Claudia did better, but probably not as well as she usually does.  I met Amy Ikenn and she said she lost money there the year before.  I bet if I'd taken a moment or two I could have done some research instead of blindly applying for the damn thing.  Storms were a big part of the problem on Saturday, plus the wine tasting area was at one end of the event... if the tasting stations had been scattered around, we would have had more traffic.  All in all, it was a complete bust.  I sold cards and a couple 8x10 pieces.  Packing ALL of my larger frames back up was terribly depressing.  Fortunately, Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day, despite my miserable sales.  Plus my husband and sons showed up to help me tear down!  A two hour tear down was complete in less than an hour.  God bless three extra sets of hands.

I'm in Lake Forest, IL on Labor Day weekend and oh how I hope it gets better.  I've had more bad shows in a row than I've ever had this summer.  Trying to stay positive, but GEEZ.  To make matters even worse, yesterday I got a rather snooty rejection email from a wonderful Christmas show that I did last year.  I know many of you are struggling too.  We'll just have to get through this rough patch and try to learn from it. 

I get tempted sometimes by the cheaper, smaller shows close to my home. While I might be driving less, the setup and tear down is still just as time consuming.  In this economy, we really need to focus on shows that have been consistently successful for our fellow artists who recommend them.  If I'm still an artist next year, I'll be smarter.

  This is my first blog entry. I just experienced the worst show of my career and had to write about it. This is an example for any show promoter of what not to do.

  The art association sent us a packet including:

1.  where to park to unload (one exhibitor got a ticket)

2.  we will provide vendor services & sitting (no one came to the show except to check us in on the first day)

3.  the assn. was supposed to have a booth (none was there)

4.  we would be posted on their website (never done - almost tho' we didn't exist)

5.  banner for show (taken down at 1pm on 3rd day & we were open until 7pm)

    In addition:

    Only 14 artisans were registered, 2 didn't even show (they were the smart ones).

    6 exhibitors left the 2nd nite due to extremely poor traffic & sales (no advertising we ever heard of)

    I asked for some shade as I have problems in the sun (I got the sunniest, hottest spot in the park)

    The sprinkler system came on the morning of the 3rd day. Fortunately, the watercolor artist with a dbl.

       booth had left the nite before or her work would have been ruined. I was not in a sprinkler spot but the

       jeweler next to me was. The skirts of his display were soaked as well as some of the jewelry.

    The exhibitors that were left (6) decided to stick it out until the last bell. The show ran from Wed. thru Fri. We had even less people on Friday, if that were possible. Only people that came by during the 3 days were taking a "Walk to the Sea" route. Some never even glanced at our tents.

     They are running another show at same spot in September. I hope potential exhibitors see this and think twice about participating. I am a member of the assn., tho' do not live in the area, and I was embarassed by what happened.

Fitchburg is a growing city just outside of Madison, WI. One of the major employers in that area, Promega, sponsors the art show, since it started 3 years ago. It is located outside in a beautiful area. This show has been on my "back-up" list. (If you don't have an other show to do this weekend, then I will go to Fitchburg.) I did the show last year, with minimal results. I returned this year, with a whole new result. It is now my second best show of 2011. I did 4.5 times in sales this year vs. last year.

The weather started out dicey in the morning with 2 good downpours, before the show even opened. This caused everyone to run late. But the attendees seem to understand that we were not ready at 10:00. They started buying quickly. With large packages going out of the how before 11:00.

The organizers have done a good job to grow this show and bring out the attendees. They might be at the point of considering going to 2 days. (Right now it is Saturday only) They also run golf carts before, during and after the show. This is an added plus to artists and buyers alike. I needed to run back to my car for more stock. They had a cart at my booth and whisked me away with no problem. I had a buyer with a large purchase and they took the buyer and her framed art right to her car. Perfect. They are doing a lot of things right!

Here's the link if you are interested in getting info for next year: http://www.agoraartfair.com/