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This was my second time at Las Olas. I did the October Las Olas last October. I only made almost 2x expenses at that one, but it was before many snowbirds were down. This was my third HA show. Despite the early same-day setup, I like his shows so far. No frills, but they bring in the people.

Weather was the big concern for the weekend. There were chances of off-shore rain on Saturday and the cold front on Sunday. We received rain both days in the mid-afternoon. At a small show, this would killed the show, but not this one. I actually made over half of my sales while it was raining or sprinkling. I am an abstract digital artist. If I can get people to actually stop and find out what it is, then I have a much better chance to make a sell. When the rains hit, people would duck in for cover and then start looking around to see what was on the walls. I made sales to every third person during that time because they actually took the time to understand my art.  This was great, especially after I discovered that my booth was located were water pooled across 2/3rds the front of my booth. After the rains hit on Saturday, my booth was flooded for the rest of the time. The artist beside me had his electrical cord running to his generator across the street right through part of the pool, so some people were very reluctant to step anywhere near the 2-4" deep pool. At least we were on the street and not in mud.

Despite the rain and pool, I made almost twice as much as the October show. I tried a new technique a fellow artist recommended to me a couple weeks ago. I visualized what I wanted to make at the show to be happy. I visualized already having it in my pocket. At closing time I was with in $300 of my goal. Twenty minutes into breakdown, a gentleman came in my booth and wanted a $300 piece. He had walked by our booth earlier in the day, but just did not notice my work until breakdown. I guess my visualization worked after all. I made as much here as I did last year at Gasparilla, which had been my best show to date at that time.

Load out went well since the rain had passed. My tent is wet, but my work and me remained dry during teardown.

I only heard from one artist that said they did poorly. Most said they did average or great.  Definitely one to consider again.

After a Saturday of nice weather and light but steady crowds at this promising second-year show, the Sunday forecast was dire: clouds, gusty winds, and showers throughout the day, topped off by a 60% chance of thunderstorms at tear-down.  

But the rain stopped just before the show opened, and as the weather improved, so did attendance.  Sunday turned out to be the best day of the weekend, as weather was a bit cool for the beach but perfect for an art show. 

This show is the Naples Art Association's followup to the Naples National event downtown.  Ranked #75 by Sunshine Artist readers in its first year (2010), it looked even better this year.  Well-advertised and with a high caliber of artists, attendees were knowledgeable and, for the most part, buying.  I spoke with about 10 artists in my vicinity, and all were at least satisfied with their sales...as was I.

The show was very well managed.  Show director Marianne Megela and her staff provides all the information you need in advance via email and website, and expects you to know what you're doing.  But in contrast with last year's inaugural, the staff had a much more relaxed (but still thoroughly professional) vibe. 

The show was nicely laid out, in keeping with the Mercato center's spacious design. There was ample storage room behind your booth and some welcome space on either side.  (That wasn't for storage, but it made for a nicer visual than having booths pole-to-pole.)  Show visitors (who paid $5 to attend), walked wide, brick-lined avenues; patrons of the center's shops and restaurants had ample sidewalks behind the artists' tents.  

Booth-sitters, decked out in bright yellow vests, were there when you needed them, and the parking and security teams knew what they were doing, too.  Setup and tear-down were well organized and efficient: you could drive right to your booth location to unload; the parking was in a grassy field just north of the venue, less than 5 minutes' walk from my booth. 

Breakdown procedures were communicated to each artist individually by a staff member (as opposed to being shouted out by a show official as they walked down your row).  Classy.  The staff actually checked off your name on an artist roster to make sure that they'd communicated the instructions to everyone.  I admire their thoroughness, but asking artists also to sign their name to acknowledge receipt of the instructions seems a little over the top. I'm not sure what problem it was designed to avert.

That little oddity was more than counterbalanced by the great job the parking/security staff did in courteously directing the Mercato's visitors from the streets to the sidewalks during breakdown, so they'd be out of the way of incoming vehicles and the hubbub of dollies and descending tents.  Failure to manage crowds in these situations is a pet peeve of mine: I nearly impaled a jogger a few years back who darted between my vehicle and another as I was pulling out of my space, and I've done many a show where folks stroll aimlessly, beers in hand, through the streets while carts and tent poles are moving in every direction.   It's amazing to me that most promoters and site venues don't manage this, and I give kudos to Naples Art for doing so. 

From my perspective, this is already a first-class show, in a beautiful and classy venue.  Definitely one I'll hope to attend next year. 

Several of us were delighted to meet Ms Wegner this weekend.  She is a devoted Art Festival fan and AFI reporter.  Her generous contributions to this site are extremely valuable for providing a Patron's viewpoint.

Florida is rife with spring art events, and even with all the focus on Gasparilla this weekend, believe it or not there was another event worthy of mention. 

Bartow is about an hour or so east of Tampa.  A sleepy little town that time forgot, there are the standard closed businesses and empty storefronts throughout the heart of downtown.  The magic happens on Friday when the artists and crafters arrive and fill the streets.  In addition to the seven blocks of arts and crafts, these folks also hold and antique fair at one end of town, a quilt show in the center courthouse, a flower show in the local bank, and a classic car show at the other end of the main street.  There is a tent for children's activities as well as a local potter doing demonstrations.  It's a family oriented event, but I was a good distance away from the children's section and didn't see much in the way of families with small kids. 

What I did see were great arts and crafts.  The local art guild screens very carefully, and while there may have been one or two questionable exhibitors, the quality was excellent from one end to the other.  The guild supplies coffee and locally baked muffins each morning.  Volunteers come around with water a couple of times a day.  Boothsitters are readily available.  The guild members are attentive and helpful and a delight to work with.

Prize money was generous and mostly went to 2D artists with only one jeweler receiving an award.  I didn't note an AFI artists (probably all at Gasparilla), but I didn't get a chance to walk around much, either.  This is an area of old cracker houses and farm houses that are being purchased on the cheap by young (well, young to me) people to "fix up."  While they do have money to spend, they are very careful with their dollars.  I didn't see a lot of $7.00 bags of kettle corn, but I did see bags of fine crafts and art. 

Saturday was Chamber of Commerce weather, warm with a slight breeze, a bit overcast for me but fine for most others.  Sales started early and continued strong all day.  Sunday weather was worrisome for rain then wind but ended up another fine day with sales picking up where they left off Saturday.   It was a great weekend for me.  The acrylic painter (nature scenes) to one side also did well while down the street another acrylic painter hadn't sold much by Sunday noontime.  The jeweler on my other side (really exquisite gemstones) was quite unhappy while across the street (more costume feel) had a smile.  A fabric artist immediately across from the food court barely made expenses, and there were three booths on my street that actually packed up Saturday night and left (expecting bad weather?).  Of the two hot glass artists, one was quite pleased, one didn't sell a major piece all weekend. 

Maybe a niche market that happens to be my niche, this is one fantastic show!

July 16 & 17
Evergreen, Colorado

Presented by the Center for the Arts Evergreen

Buchanan Park

125 artists

Deadline: March 14



You are invited to apply to our annual Summerfest Arts Festival. It is a juried exhibition of gallery quality fine art and fine crafts. Being only 30 minutes from Denver, Evergreen is a day trip destination for city dwellers to beat the heat in the middle of the summer and enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains.


The Summerfest Arts Festival is fast becoming the community event of the summer with a fabulous selection of gallery quality fine art and fine crafts chosen by a jury process, a Global Children's Village to engage the younger visitors, performances by local favorites to add to the festival spirit, and a Beer & Wine Garden to compliment the wonderful food selection.


The Summerfest Arts Festival is joining up for a second year with Arts Alive Evergreen, a 16 day showcase event featuring the best of Evergreen's visual and performing arts. Ten different organizations have come together to market and promote Arts Alive, which starts with Summerfest and ends with the Evergreen Jazz Festival, to the Denver Metro Area.


Summerfest is hosted by the Center for the Arts Evergreen, a nonprofit organization whose mission is "To promote and cultivate artistic excellence in the visual and performing arts in order to enrich the art experience in our mountain community." Proceeds from Summerfest go to support arts programming year-round.


Why Summerfest:
 

• Beautiful mountain setting

• Outstanding artist hospitality: great volunteer help, artist dinner, water and snacks for artists, booth sitters

• Sponsored by a nonprofit art center

• Overnight security

• Affluent community in Evergreen

• Great visibility from main access routes

• Collaboration with area arts organizations

• Clearly Evergreen's premier summer festival


Apply today: www.zapplication.org or get a paper application at www.evergreenarts.org
 
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Looking for more art fairs for 2011?  Visit: www.CallsforArtists.com - updated daily

John Wrenn, 61, known throughout out the art fair world for his fine raku pottery died in Madison, Wisconsin, on February 28 as the result of injuries from a fall.

He participated in the nation's art fairs for 20 years and had recently retired. He was considered a master of his craft and he could be found at the top shows and in galleries throughout the country.

He was a founding member of the Wisconsin Pottery Association.

From Leslie Genszler: John was a wonderful Raku artist from the Janesville/ Cottage Grove area in Wisconsin, who recently retired. He was such a sweet and kind man and will be missed by so many of us.

More about his work: http://www.khnemustudio.com/John_Wrenn.html

Obituary at Madison.com: http://madison.com/obit/183300

A Memorial Mass will be held at 3 p.m. at ST. WILLIAM'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 456 N. Arch St., Janesville, WI, on Sunday, March 13, 2011.

As bad as last year's weather was is how good this year's weather is.  Even a brisk breeze out of the east isn't a bad thing because it keeps people off the beach due to rip tides and at the art fairs.  

This was only my second time at Part II of Howard Alan's extravaganzas in Ft. Lauderdale.  I thought last year was good but this year seemed even better.  The quality was some of the best I have seen at a HA show.  I didn't spend a lot of time looking but I did see people with bags, the streets were fairly crowded within the first 30 minutes of the show starting and a lot of the booths were crowded.  

We have some incredibly talented people at this website and today I was fortunate enough to meet 4 of them.

 Patti and Bob Stern have wicked senses of humor that are reflected in their work.  (ok, I admit it, I have a bit of a crush on ED) Their clocks and tables are made with so much imagination I am in awe of them.  And they are just the nicest people.  I'm glad I'll get to see them this summer as they do almost more Amdur shows than I go to!

Three booths down was Teri Causey with her wonderful paintings. While I visited with her, a lot of people stopped by her booth and said how much they enjoyed her work.  It is easy to see why.  She said she was having a good show already.

And a few booths down from her was Travis Lindenbaum.  Wonderful earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  In addition to talking to him, I could have spent hours at his booth looking at all the jewelry.  (Please remember that true beauty does not photograph well)

Back to the show--It is laid out in the middle of the street with the booths back to back and while this may make the store owners happy, the show gets crowded very quickly.  We got there fairly early but by noon, getting down the street was difficult so rather than taking one last swing through the festival, we decided to go home.  There is plenty of parking close by at a reasonable rate and we even sat by the river for a while taking in the cool breeze under some trees.  

The art was good but this weekend, for me it was more about the artists.

For those of you who are intrigued about what happens in cities before the big shows descend on them you'll find this article from the Royal Oak Tribune interesting. It is all about where residents and visitors will park during Arts, Beats & Eats, which is held on Labor Day weekend and draws 100's of 1000's of people to Royal Oak's downtown. Not only is the show promoter, Jon Witz, involved in the street layout, so is the Oakland County Executive, the mayor, the residents, the business people...this is a big deal.

• Who wins?
• Where will the show be this year?
• How much will the parking tickets cost?
• Who gets the revenue?
• What streets will be used? ...makes you glad to set up and get out of town with some fat pockets, doesn't it?

Residents defend festival parking: http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/doc4d7054514fc76792252001.txt?viewmode=fullstory

    Last year's setup for Gasparilla 2010 was by all accounts a disaster.  It was their first year in the park and the fire marshall threw the staff a curve at the last minute by restricting access to the setup area.  Some artist even left before setting up and did not return.  

    The staff took the complaints very seriously and and this year the situation could not have been more different.   In past Gasparillas, the sign in time was seven in the evening (or was it six?).  Lines of people would be waiting, ready to go, staring at the volunteers sitting behind the packet boxes, who were staring back defiantly until the second hand hit seven.  Then the rush was on.  

     When the show was moved to the park the setup window remained the same.  Combined with the above described variables it turned out to be a mess.  So I'm told.  

     This year, instead of opening the setup on Friday evening, it was started two full days ahead of time.  Since all the spaces are off the street and out of traffic, there is no reason the tents can't be set up that far ahead of time to spread out the setup traffic.  As a result this year's setup was like being on a different planet.  

They had given an actual address for gps that got us right to the sign in and staging area where we were supposed to meet.  it was roughly an acre field (about a mile and a half drive from the show) on the edge of a neighborhood where they had the sign-in tent set up.  There was plenty of parking and everyone lined up ready to pull out and take their spots in the convoy to the show site when called.  When it was time to go they lined us up (it was easy and quickly done) and the lead car pulled out.  Unlike Atlanta Dogwood, which had a similar system, there was no motorcycle escort.  That seemed a recipe for disaster since our convoy would certainly be broken up by traffic lights.  It was.  As soon as we cleared the light, however, there was a big blinking rental sign that directed us to the next turn.  Then there was another sign at the next turn.  After that there were live people positioned to direct us.

     When we got to the park, it was obvious why this could not be done without close direction.  Although the lanes leading into the park were two way, the lanes leading out weren't.  The staff had to work with fire lanes laid out by the fire marshall and the loss of a loading lane that was left open for rush hour traffic.  We came in on a single lane reserved for artist traffic.  It would have taken only one stray van to cause massive traffic jams on Ashley.  One more stray van would have blocked all the other artists from setting up. In many shows having all the vans stray works itself out nicely.  This ain't one of them.

    We stopped our vehicles next to the grass area (NO vehicles on the grass, thanks) and started the land rush.  We had two hours on Thursday to dump and remount for the drive out (Friday you get an hour.  Its enough.)  We even had time to get unloaded and get our tent and panels set up before they called for us to move out.  The staff members helped some of the artists with unloading and setup(!).  They were at all times courteous, professional, and downright friendly.  They kept us posted on how much time we had left. It was the most relaxed, stress free setup we have had in recent memory.

     As soon as we were pulling out another line came in right behind us.  The precision with which the whole thing was done would have been amazing for a tenth year show.  This was the first time they had used this system.  Setup itself was relaxed, uncrowded, and there was plenty of room to spread your stuff out around your spot before organizing it into a show ready booth.  Spaces were twelve feet wide.  Storage space seems generous.

     You'd better make sure you have everything trucked in that you can't carry because artist parking is not very close and you only get one shot bringing your vehicle in before the show.  The lot we will be parking in is a fifteen minute walk away.

      Now let's hope the crowds are ready to buy something besides corn dogs.

Hope I am not too late in getting this out to all of you doing Gasparilla this weekend.  In Ybor City where I live is a great restaurant that does $2 martinis from 11 am-7pm daily.  They also do 50% off all entree prices from 4-7 pm daily.  The restaurant is called Berninis.  It is one block from my house on 17th street and 7th avenue, which is the main drag in Ybor.

Jason Fernandez the owner has been running this recession-fighter deal for almost two years now.  Any drink made with Finlandia vodka is only $2 from 11am-7pm daily.  It can be a martini, a screwdriver, a Black Russian, if Finlandia is in it it is only $2.

This is a primo high end Italian restaurant that does everything perfect and yummy.  So, all entrees and pastas are half price from 4-7 pm daily.

For instance, you can get a veal chop for $14 instead of $28.  A filet would be $14, a pork ossobuco is cheaper than that.  You can't go wrong with this place, and they take reservations.

Just thought this might be a great place for some of you.  Ellen and I eat lunch there three times a week.

Oh, by the way, I just got a call to do the show this weekend.  Gee no golf tomorrow.  Boo hoo.

This is a very useful, down to earth, letter from a woman who runs an art fair in northern Michigan. What I especially like about it is this:

• this is not a nationally ranked show, much like most shows around the country
• the tips are very pragmatic
• it is a great example of what many smaller art fairs should be saying to their applicants

READ ON and LEARN:

I'm sending this to everyone who applied this year, so don't take it personally unless you think you might need to.

We did our jury last night and I have a few comments about image quality.   The whole jury process is very competitive and this should probably go without saying, but I'll say it anyway.  IMAGE QUALITY MATTERS!

Some of you have been sending the same images for quite a few years.  If you have new work, we'd like to see it. 

A few of you sent images that were the wrong size.  Pay attention.  If you send us things that are too small to be seen, it's not helpful to you.

A few of you just sent bad images.  Getting professional photos of your work done is very expensive, I know.  It may not be necessary, but you do need to make sure that the things you send are of good quality.  You have a lot of competition.

I'm going to talk mostly about the booth slides.  I sent out an email to many of you last year and it was obvious that you listened.  Thank you.  It's not important to me that your booth shots be good, but it's VERY important to you.

If you have new work, we need to see a newer booth shot.

The booth shot represents your whole body of work.  If your booth shot is blurry or messy looking...
We try to do a blind jury, so would prefer that neither your name nor your face appear in the shot.
The jurors see four images.  If they see three amazing pieces and then something different in the booth shot, it WILL affect your scoring.  Perhaps you did three really great things in grad school or three great pieces this year.  We need the booth shot to be representative of the work you will be bringing to this year's show.  If there is a disparity between what we see in the booth and the other images, the jurors can't help but wonder.  Some of you just need to update.

The prize for worst booth shot this year goes to someone named David.   Perhaps you know who you are.

We really want to see you do well - we care.

Good luck to you all - responses should go out next week - Donna

Many thanks to Mike Barnes for forwarding this excellent letter to me. He gets the first AFI bumper sticker!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV5QyrqNjII

This year was our 15th year and Jon Hecker put together this video using my little non-video camera. Without our artists there wouldn't be a show!!!

Visit: www.CallsforArtists.com today!

BEST OF THE BEST WINNERS - Coconut Grove Arts Festival

BEST OF THE BEST - Duncan McClellan (Glass)

BEST BOOTH - Kimberly Coy

BEST POSTER DESIGN - Guy Harvey (Painting)

CLAYWORK
1st - William Kidd
2nd - Elisabeth Maurland
3rd - Michael Schwegmann

JEWELRY & METALWORK
1st - Fred Tate
2nd - Kate Rothra Fleming
3rd - Sue Brown Gordon

DIGITAL ART
1st - Carolina Cleere
2nd - Beau Tudzarov
3rd - Daryl Thetford

MIXED MEDIA
1st - David McKirdy
2nd - Chris Bruno
3rd - Kathrine Allen-Coleman

FIBER
1st - Starr Hagenbring
2nd - Amos Amit
3rd - Kate Bishop
3rd - Xiao Song Jiang

PAINTING
1st - Yu Zhou
2nd - Christopher Castelli
3rd - Xiao Song Jiang

GLASS
1st - Scott Gamble
2nd - James Wilbat
3rd - Todd Cameron

PHOTOGRAPHY

WATERCOLOR
1st - Marylin Valiente
2nd - Jim Holehouse
3rd - Vonnie Witworth

PRINTMAKING & DRAWING

1st - Leslie Peebles

2nd - Chia Haruta

3rd - Lynn Libby

WOOD
1st - Mark & Carolyn Reynolds
2nd - Joel Hunnicutt
3rd - Grant Ward
3rd - Gino Miles

SCULPTURE

1st - Nnamdi Okonkwo

2nd - Paul Freundt

3rd - Gino Miles

2011 NAPLES NATIONAL ART FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS

Best of Show – Mark Sudduth, Glass
Best 2D – Ron Phillips, 2D Mixed Media
Best 3D – Marc Sijan, Sculpture

Award of Distinction 2D
    Jon Smith, Painting
    Cali Hobgood-Lemme
    Clifton Henri, Photography
    Michael Chen, Photography
    Yu Zhou, Painting

Award of Distinction 3D
    Don Nibert, Ceramics
    Tom Ahern, 3D Mixed Media
    Mark Reynolds, Wood
    Kristine Holeman, Jewelry
    Michael Gard, Metal

Congratulations to our members winning the prizes in February!

The Key West Art Show has been ably covered in recent posts, so I thought I would add some photos to share with you all.  Enjoy.  Below is a mural on a coffehouse there.  Then a shot at the show.  Then a bougenvillia shot, they are blooming everywhere.  Next, inside Pepe's, my favorite restaurant.  Across the street is BO's where his truck always sits.  Then, how much is that dog in the window?  Then up to Islamorada for palms and sunset.