Some of you remember my post about my "trend" of people not buying higher priced (relatively) 2-D work. (I am a pastel artist with a higher price range). I made a comment about the spewing oil well, and maybe that was depressing patrons.
Well, the well has been capped for almost 3 weeks, and I made the very long trip to Bellevue, WA to do the BAM Artsfair with much trepidation.
In my case, the fear was for naught. First, about the show. It is held in a parking structure, with some more expensive booths outside on the street next to the mall. It is a little tight, with most of us having no storage behind the booth. The advantage to being in the parking garage (where I was) is that you don't have to worry about weather of any kind. After many windy shows this Spring, this was nice. You have to ask for a 8' space if you need it. I did, and I was between massive concrete joists, which knock the space down to 6' 8". For many artists, this was okay, but I have an 8' Finale from Light Dome, and this fit, sans canopy. Actually, I didn't even need the structure, 'cause we were totally protected. Just propanals and a cover for the front would have sufficed. If you are in the structure, this is good to know, for the following reason;
If you have a regular van, or a mini van, and you have a car top box, you will have to dolly in. I could have left mine at home, and pulled much closer to my space. A lot of the load in occurs from the rear of the show, and if you can fit under 6' 8" ceilings, your life will be easier. Dollying worked okay for me, load in and load out were fairly pain free.
It seemed that the street was busier than the booths in the garage, but that could have been the mall traffic, out on what I understood was one of the first great weather weekends of the Northwest. The serious buyers walked the whole show. There was a spurt of wealthy ladies on Friday morning, and they seemed to be making bee lines to their favorite returning artists. This was my first time there, and I had no repeat clients. Nevertheless, I equalled my best show ever (Fort Worth). Price sensitivity did not seem to factor for me. Now, I must say not everyone around me had a good show, but I talked to enough artists who told me the show was excellent for them as well. The Museum people were around all weekend, offering encouragement to the artists. There were tons of volunteers to booth sit through the entire show. They did not disappear at 3PM, like most shows. They are a great lot!
My one big beef was the artist parking. The lot was 2.5 miles away with a shuttle. I did not bother, with a priceline hotel less than a mile, I just walked. There were so many parking lots in Bellevue, many empty, and we had to park 40 blocks away? With no storage behind the booths, this is a problem.
I did hear that they had a lot of cancellations, and that they had to work their wait list, and I did see a couple empty spaces, but I, for one, am glad I made the trip.
I am glad that oil well is capped.
