Application Time (cont.)

Well the first of the results are in and not good so far. Festival of the Masters came in with a rejection and well in advance of their advertised notification date. Which means I didn’t even get a “maybe”? Darn! I really thought my work would do well there. And to get the rejection the very day I spent all day at Disney's Animal Kingdom taking photographs (Komodo Dragon above). Oh well. Now I’m doubly not happy with Disney. Several years ago I applied to be one of their artists at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. They responded with, “Pick a weekend in April that you would like to do and we will get back to you.” Then closer to the festival I got an email from them looking for plein air artists for the festival. I responded back with the “pick a weekend” email, inquiring about which weekend they wanted me to come, and got a rather rude reply. Basically it said “don’t you know what a plein air artist is?” Of course I do! (Had to look it up ;), it’s an artist who paints on site). Apparently the person who chose the artists for the festival during the year had changed and the previous person’s invitations were ignored. On a sour grapes note, a friend of mine went to the Epcot festival this year and, in her opinion, with the exception of Clyde Butcher, the photographs were not nearly as good as mine. So Disney – phhhtt. Of course I’ll apply next year. This is the Festival of the Masters (something about that name) we’re talking about. But I’ll also apply to Gainesville, and should I get into both, who knows?

So this leaves me with two extra days of vacation to spend on another art festival. A quick look at my spreadsheet of available shows gives me the choice of Bonita Springs or Cape Coral in January. Their bold listings in the spreadsheet tell me that both of them are in the top 200 art shows in the country. Of to Sunshine Artists magazine which tells me that Bonita Springs is #5 and Cape Coral is #48. That puts Bonita Springs ahead. But does that mean Cape Coral might be easier to get into? Now they’re even. A quick check of location tells me that they are both on the west coast of Florida near Ft. Myers. No deciding factor there. Off to the Art Fair Source Book. AFSB confirms my theory that Bonita Springs is going to be harder to get into, 1 in 4 chance, vs. a 1 in 2 chance for Cape Coral. But drilling down into the details, Bonita Springs, even with fewer exhibitors, has more photographers. Interesting. And AFSB is not kind, to say the least, in their comments on Cape Coral. The final deciding factor – Cape Coral wants all their money up front, and then they’ll refund my booth fee if I don’t get in. Three hundred dollars of my money would be out of circulation for several months. This is not the time of year I can afford that. Bonita Springs, here I come, hopefully.

Art show application time....

It’s that time of year again, the time of year where I puzzle over the spring applications. Fall is fairly easy. There are 9 shows all within reasonable distance. Two of them overlap with another show so there are two decisions to make. All the others are pretty straightforward. The only difficult decision was between the “Downtown Festival and Art Show” in Gainesville and the “Disney Festival of the Masters”. Gators fans are in Gainesville and my photograph “Morning in the Glades” is big with Gators fans. Someone taught me this saying at Lake Mary last year – God must love the Gators, too, because He made the sun orange and the sky blue. And “Morning in the Glades” has got it all, orange sun, blue sky reflected in the water, and, of course, the gator. They would love me in Gainesville, I just know it.

On the other hand, I’ve always dreamed of doing Disney. There’s something about that name, “Festival of the Masters” that just calls to an artist. In order to apply to Disney I have to have won a major award within the past three years. I qualify this year. I can’t always count on that. And on the practical note – Gainesville is further away and I would need a hotel. So Disney it is.

But I was going to talk about the spring season. What a mess! Three top 100 shows all on the same weekend. Luckily they are all on ZAPP. And then every single weekend from January through March has double, triple, and in one case quadruple shows on the same weekend. This is just shows in Florida!

The majority of art shows use one of two methods to receive applications. The first is by mail. You send in the application and two checks. The first check is for the application or jurying fee and the second is for your booth fee. If you are accepted, they cash your booth fee. Unless I’m willing to lose a booth fee should I get into both shows, I don’t double apply. That’s been the story with the three top 100 shows the past three years. Either apply to all three and risk looking at a $1200 deficit before I even get in the van or cross my fingers and pick one. The cross my fingers and pick one method has not worked for me so far.

But now all of the three are on ZAPP. ZAPP is a method of applying over the internet and you don’t pay the booth fee until you get accepted. So I spring for three jurying fees and hope for one acceptance. Of course, the downside of ZAPP is that I am not the only one who is going to do that.

Then there’s the show that I already applied for that I didn’t realize is on the same weekend as another show that I did last year and would really like to do again. The last date for canceling the first show and being able to get my money back is exactly one day before the second show will notify me of acceptance or rejection. That’s got to be a double apply.

The idea of double applying really bothers me. But I’ve learned it is a necessary evil. My first year doing shows, I had the choice to apply to a benefit show for a local wildlife rescue or a top 100 show. Because of who I am and what I stand for there was no question that the choice had to be the benefit show. And being so idealistic I didn’t even apply to the other show. They cancelled the benefit show. There I was, all dressed up with nowhere to go.

On another note, I just got my new flash purchased in preparation for a friend’s wedding. I’ve been playing with it and got a couple nice pictures of Tank, our Bengal cat.

I came home last night to find this guy on my front lawn. At first I thought it was a gopher turtle but a quick google for images of gopher turtles did not come up with anything looking like this one. Anybody know what kind of turtle it is?