Rejection and Acceptance

Some good news on the horizon at last. Disney turned out to be my best show ever. And I’ve been accepted for Images in New Smyrna and Naples National.

I did some talking to other artists at Disney about acceptance and rejection and I learned some things about myself. While I’ve always been an artist, it is only in the past few years that I have been displaying and selling my photography. So I’m a late comer to this world of acceptance and rejection. One artist explained to me that we wear out hearts on our sleeve and hand an ice pick to every customer that walks into our booth. A hundred people can come into my booth and tell me my photography is wonderful and one walks in and says something negative. Guess which one I will remember and turn over and over in my mind?

Although… Those negative comments have sometimes been very helpful. I remember one very clearly. I had been complaining about my poor sales on a photography forum I belong to and someone responded, “That’s because your work looks like everyone else’s”. That stung for a long time but it also caused a major shift in my photography. For the better, I believe.

On the other hand I found this quote about compliments by Chazz Palminteri -

“Oh, great reviews are the worst. They mislead you more than the bad ones, because they only fuel your ego. Then you only want another one, like potato chips or something, and the best thing you get is fat and bloated”.

I remember my first award. It was one of my first shows and the judge walked in the booth and pointed directly at one of my photographs and said “that one”. It was a complete surprise and I just barely found the awards ceremony in time to hear my name called for honorable mention. There was no stress, no pleas to God. I try purposely to get back to that place when the judges come by and the awards are announced but it is too late, I’m addicted.

Which leaves me with this quote by Ray Bradbury:

“You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”

A new day

Feeling much better today. Sometimes I am so ungrateful I wonder why God doesn’t come down and slap me. The Disney people are really nice. The setup is difficult though. I didn’t even bother to try to get to the unloading spot. You still have to dolly and if you’re going to dolly you might as well do it slowly. Some really nice work here. Looking down the names of the photographers showing here I can forget about winning an award here. I’m honored just to be among some of these people. There is a ten foot bear sculpture that is magnificent. Not sure where I’d put it though.

After this it’s a free weekend and then off to Virginia to see family for Thanksgiving. I should be able to get some photo time too.

Arghhh

Well, I did Lake Mary this past weekend and it was not exactly like the Lake Mary I remember. The location has changed but that’s a good thing. But they’ve increased the number of booths, almost double and decreased the number of awards, removing all of the honorable mentions. I wrote on the survey that they didn’t need to try and be a big shot art show, that they were doing just fine as Lake Mary.

And I’ve been thinking (dangerous words there) maybe that advice applies to me as well. I just got my sixth rejection in two weeks. Another big shot art show doesn’t want me. And I’ve had lots of work chosen for judging, almost every single show I’ve been in, and the last time I got an award at an art show is now more than a year. I’m discouraged, but why does some judge’s opinion bother me so much if I am truly doing what I feel called to do. I seem to have lost my purpose. This is the biggest dip the roller coaster has taken. On the bright side I seem to be selling pretty regularly. The public seems to like my work. But that’s not enough. That’s not why I started doing this.

I came home Saturday night very discouraged and I needed to send out my artist statement to a potential buyer. I stopped to read it. I wrote it several years ago, dreamy idealistic words, that I don’t feel I am living up to, but I’m not sure how to proceed.

Maybe this is just the economy talking, or five shows in eight weeks talking, and I’ll feel better in a few days. God will send the answer, just not on my timetable and like any good human being I want it now.

Stay tuned.

Discouraged

The roller coaster again…. When will it turn the other way? Four rejections in the past two weeks. It wouldn’t be so bad except this is the year I set up the booth in the back yard to get a booth shot instead of trying to do it at a show. I redid all my frames to a better presentation. I got the cool print bin that matches my walls. This was supposed to be my year. My horoscope even said so. And Ocala was pitiful this past week. At least it didn't pour down rain this year. If I count the horse picture that I made specifically for the show and sold just after the show I just barely broke even. But as of yet I have not been rejected for any show that I have been accepted to in the past. And I did get on the wait list for Artigras where last year I was rejected.

But I now have four extra days of vacation. Enough for an Everglades trip in the spring. There is a silver lining. I’m still working on that book.

The Almost Perfect Show

I did not know quite what to expect from Winter Springs. I almost didn’t apply. But it was an empty weekend until Maitland moved into that slot. I’m glad I did apply. It was almost the perfect art show. Considering this was the first year for the show, an almost insurmountable feat. Sure there was a little confusion but that is to be expected for a first year show. They did the big things right though and a lot of little things as well. I was told that the promoters did extensive research and it showed.

Booth space was ample. My booth looks so much nicer when I can have a table in back for all those necessary but not particularly aesthetic items. I did pay extra for some extra space but even the standard booth had plenty of space.

They provided breakfast and lunch both days. They also went around during the day handing out cold water. The breakfast and lunch is a “nice to have” but the water is so important.

They juried well. I don’t get to get out much during an art show but I didn’t see any “questionable” items. Everyone around me had high quality work. No Nerf arrows or clay flowers.

They arranged parking near the booth. What an incredible gift especially when the skies started threatening rain. It made breakdown so nice too. A record-breaking 50 minutes for me.

A general feeling of respect for the artists. A lot of shows seem to forget that without us they can’t have a show. This one didn’t.

I’m off to Ocala this weekend, then Lake Mary, and then Disney.

Our own crisis?

Another one came in my email today, a notice from an art show that they were extending their deadline for entries. I’m also seeing a serious increase in the number of ads in the forums that I read saying “getting out of the business, selling everything.” I have no proof, neither the emails nor the ads go much into details about why, but it appears we are having our own little financial crisis in the art fair world. It mimics every financial crisis I’ve read about in the past few days. Money was getting made, people wanted to make more money , things got bigger, people got greedy, forgot who put them where they were, pushed and sometimes stomped on the people who put them where they were, stomped people started to bail, less money got made, stomping increased, more people bailed.

I’ve heard stories of what it was like to do an art show many years ago. Artists showed up and were charged a minimal fee that generally went to some sort of fundraising endeavor. I remember that the two shows I did twenty years ago were in answer to an ad in the newspaper looking for artists to do the show. I called the number and was told when and where to show up. There was no application process, very few rules.

Somewhere along the way, someone said, “We need to organize this better.” It was a good thing. Security was added, liability insurance, stable display requirements. Artists were pre-screened, rather than being first come, first served. Quality was increased, but expenses of putting on an art show increased. Competition increased, not only between artists, but between shows. Again, this was a good thing. Shows that did things well attracted the better artists. Artists who did things well got into the better shows. All was good.

But then came more shows and more competition. Shows added big name performers and corporate sponsors to attract more patrons. Booth fees went up because expenses went up for the big name performers and artists still applied in droves because the show had prestige and they could count on sales. Booth fees went still higher and still artists applied in droves. More artists were doing art shows because there was money to be made from doing what we love. More artists meant more artists were willing to pay the higher booth fees in order to get into the good shows. Now apparently application levels are dropping.

Fewer artists are willing to pay higher booth fees to be in shows attracting fewer patrons because there are more shows. Why are booth fees going up? Because there are more shows trying to attract patrons with extras like big name performers and freebies from corporate sponsors. Some of the big shows have become more like carnivals than art shows in order to get higher attendance which they can report to the artists in order to get higher booth fees and more applications. More applications increase the prestige about the show. There’s something almost irresistible about applying to a show with a 15% acceptance rate. It must be great, everyone is applying. But the big name performers and corporate sponsors tend to attract people who aren’t serious art buyers. Sales for the artist go down. It used to be that for every artist who said “no way’ to an astronomical booth fee to be next to a corporate sponsor with a microphone hawking cell phone plans, there were two or three or said “I will, I will”. Maybe that is changing and booth fees will become reasonable again.

(As a full disclosure however, my application is still in for the show where the corporate sponsors are hawking cell phone plans with microphones and I’ll gladly do it, at least once.)

School Begins

Setup for the first art show of the fall begins tomorrow. Doing art shows in Florida is somewhat like being in school. I’ve had my long summer off and now it is time to start the new year. I’ve done some changes this year; bigger frames, and different mats on the framed pieces, a new classy looking print bin, some new panoramas, and a changed booth layout. I’ve gotten my hair and nails done and rethought my show wardrobe. The first day of school is Saturday and everything is ready – I hope….

I’m not too sure about the show I’m doing this weekend, Oviedo Butterfly and Nature Festival put on by Lukas Nursery. I’ve never done it before, never even attended it, which is a big no-no in the art show world. You’ll see that in almost every “beginners tips” for art shows – never do a show unless you’ve attended it first – yeah right. If I’ve got a weekend free and there is an art show going on, I’m applying. It is nature themed, which is usually good for me but it is also a small local show which means it is below the radar of the art show rating publications, Art Fair Source Book, and Sunshine Artists. At any rate, it looks like it’s going to be a fun show to do. I’m looking forward to seeing the butterflies and I’ll probably bring home a few plants. At the very least I’ll test out all the changes I’ve done.

Speaking of nature themed shows, I’ve decided to return to the Audubon Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in January. I like doing this show but haven’t been able to do it for a couple years because it runs from Wednesday through Saturday, which means three vacation days. You can see the rest of my fall schedule on my Upcoming Events page.

If you get a chance go by and see the exhibit at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery in Melbourne. There is some really great art there, including a couple of my photographs.

Another Word Photograph

I was at the opening for the 100% Pure Florida exhibit at the Fifth Avenue Gallery in Melbourne tonight and another photographer and I were discussing the differences between photography and painting. I saw the perfect example on the way home.

I was traveling down 46, which has just opened up again after the floods from Fay, when I noticed that the sky was lighter to my left. I thought it might be the last vestiges of sunset but a quick glance to my clock told me that the sun was long since down. It was the moon, only a quarter, but it made a wonderful reflection, lighting up the wetlands. I quickly thought, I have to come back here and get a photograph when the moon is full. And just as quickly though, yeah great idea Alison, let’s go stand by the side of the road on 46, a dark two lane road with no shoulder and a speed limit (or as we call them in Florida, suggested minimum speed) of 65, right next to the water, at night. Just me, the speeding cars, the alligators, and my tripod. Oh, well, I’ll have to leave that scene for the painters.

WooHoo

Wow, it’s been a long time since I have written in the blog. Sorry about that. I’ve been trying to get all the things done that don’t get done during art show time, mostly yard stuff. I did take a weekend to set up the tent and make a new booth shot. Remind me not to do that in August ever again. It’s a good thing I allowed myself two days because once I got finished putting up the tent and walls I was wiped out from the heat. I had to close it up and finish up the next day.

Good news came in the mail today! I’m in Disney’s Festival of the Masters! That has been a dream of mine for so long. I am so excited. I’ve realized for some time that this art show business is like a roller coaster. Last week I got the bad news that I did not make it into Winter Park Autumn this year. So last week I was bummed and this week I’m ecstatic. One day I will learn to roll with it.

Good Grief!

We have two fine men running for President of the United States. I believe that both of these men have undertaken this challenge out of a love and sense of duty to their country and the thought that they can make a difference. I applaud them both. I already know who I will be voting for but I will leave that out because what I am bringing up should be a bi-partisan issue. I would like to see our president chosen based on facts not smear campaigns, lies, and twisted truths. I have been getting an email lately from people I have thought of as reasonable, intelligent people. The email references several “quotes” from books written by Barack Obama. I did some very simple searches on the internet and found this: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp

Please people, do your own research and don’t believe everything you read in your email.

Personally, I would like to see our President chosen because he is the best candidate, not based on some smear campaign. Do your own research and vote on the issues please!

Gas Prices

Well, should we drill in the Arctic, the Everglades, get some more of our own oil and bring these horrific prices down? I don’t think so. We will only forget again.

I pumped gas in 1973. Overnight the price of gas went from 38 cents a gallon to an astronomical 75 cents a galloon. People panicked, Gas lines formed. I would arrive at work to see a six block line of cars waiting for me. Tempers were short. We could only give each car 10 gallons. People tried to bribe me, threaten me, beg me for more. I wasn’t a terribly principled person then. I would have probably given more to some people especially the ones who offered me ten or twenty bucks. “Just fill the tank up,”, they’d beg. But the person behind them always had their eye on the pump and would have turned me in, in a second. It was a lousy way to make a living. The only perk was getting to fill up my own car before the station opened without waiting in line.

Changes happened though. Cars got smaller. The Mustang was replaced with the Mustang II, a shadow of its former self. People started using mass- transit, riding bicycles. Cars went from 10 mpg to 20 and more.

Then slowly people forgot. Look at us just before this latest price hike. SUVs all over the road, new roads built instead of mass transit.

And now we start again. The SUVs are sitting on the lots. The car makers are all touting mileage. But in time we will forget again. And if we drill in fragile places we will ruin them forever for a few more years of low prices.

Riding the Train

This is the life. I don’t think I shall ever fly again, well probably, but I will definitely nbe back on a train again. I splurged at the last minute and got myself a roomette. I am sitting here in perfect privacy, with my own toilet even. I get to look out this great big window. I can’t see too much since it is dark outside but it will be great in the morning. I just had a very nice dinner in the dining car and the sleeping car attendant will be here in an hour or so to set up my bed for sleeping. I’ve only traveled in a roomette once before but the sleeping that time was heaven. The train just rocked me to sleep.

Unfortunately I’ll be going coach on the way back unless I can find myself a deal so it won’t be quite as comfortable but this is definitely the way to travel.

Perfect Florida Day

I just had the perfect Florida day. I spent the morning at Hontoon Island State Park. It’s a small park with some hiking trails. I didn’t get a lot of pictures but the walk was nice. I figure I did about 5 miles. I enjoyed the solitude. The drought here has left its mark. While walking through the nature trail I got a sense of Florida how it must have been to the early settlers. Rather forbidding seeming. I found my way to the shoreline and got a photograph of a Great Blue Heron. Not a lot of wildlife out, three squirrels, the Great Blue, and an Ibis. But still a nice walk.

After my visit to Hontoon Island I came home and spent an hour floating in the pool in the sunlight and then headed toward Merritt Island to see the space shuttle off. Since I’ve been in Florida I haven’t missed a launch but this was my first sight of the space shuttle taking off from closer than my own backyard. Long ago when I was in high school I talked my way into president of the science club by promising a trip to see a launch of what was then Apollo. Unfortunately personal and family problems prevented me from making good on that promise or even assuming my post as president. I feel badly about that. But I finally made good on the promise to myself.

I arrived about 3 hours early, plenty of time to get a great spot and I alternated reading with talking to people until it was time. It wasn’t quite as loud as I expected or as close but a great experience nonetheless. I need to do it again and next time I need to get one of those special tickets I hear about that get you closer. I promised myself I would look at the launch rather than photograph it but I couldn’t resist a couple of shots.

After seeing the launch I headed up to Daytona Beach and had dinner with my husband. I capped off the evening with a quick dip in the pool and slept soundly.

I love living in Florida.

Mayfaire, etc.

Let’s see, how can I describe Mayfair – How about 15 bottles of water during the show and only needed two bathroom breaks… Yes, it was hot, and windy, and buggy, but a good show nonetheless. A nice end to the Florida season. Here in Florida, the season is ending. There won’t be another show until the end of September.

So I’m taking this time to revamp and rest. A new printer, a new print bin, and a new booth design for the fall. I may even take Monday for a photo trip. In the meantime, Florida is hot and dry. Rain was promised for today but I haven’t seen any yet.

In the meantime here’s a new featured photograph from my Everglades trip earlier this year. This is from Shark Valley and I call it Blue Heron Perch. I hope to be sharing more with you in the coming days.

Speaking of parks and wildlife I was upset to read an article this past week on how our wildlife refuges have become so under funded that criminal activity is starting to take hold and many of our refuges are completely unstaffed. How shameful that we are letting this happen. How sad that our grandchildren may not have these places to enjoy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17634561/

http://www.funoutdoors.com/node/view/1432

Overdue update

It has been pointed out to me that I have been rather lax in letting you all know what’s going on with shows lately. So here goes…

Leesburg has always been a good solid show for me and did not disappoint this year. The weather was picture perfect, the crowd was good, and the promoters were well organized. Like a lot of shows lately though, I wish they would give awards based on category not overall. Photography always seems to fare poorly when they do that although Sheila Crawford won a first place (and highly deserved it). I was able to park very close to my booth which is always nice. It’s a nice laid back show to do which after the two visits to Naples and St. Stephens I sorely needed.

That was followed by Ponce Inlet, another nice laid back show. It’s usually one of my best shows. It was down a little this year but my new panorama pair sold almost immediately. No complaints here.

Port Orange is put on by the same people who put on Ponce Inlet so I had somewhat high hopes. It’s up against the Maitland spring show and by the artists who showed I would say that more people than me are frustrated with Maitland spring. It was a very well done show. I especially liked that at the awards ceremony they actually displayed photos of the work that won the award. That’s a really nice touch that I’ve never seen before. Breakfast was also the best artist meal since Ocala. Unfortunately sales really weren’t there. I made one sales to a very nice couple from out of town. At the very end of the day on Sunday, representatives from Port Orange came through and bought again the panorama pair for one of the public buildings in Port Orange. Only complaint here is that the show has a section for buy-sell type merchants. It’s nice that it is in a separate section but they really should put the artists near the parking lot where people come in and the buy-sell on the other side. People who made it around to the artists booths had already been through the buy-sell, and generally much cheaper, booths and I think there was a little sticker shock when they got to the real artists.

Apopka was bad. I’m not sure why. It was a beautiful weekend. Artists who had done the show before kept saying it had always been a decent show. Maybe it was the economy or maybe the early Easter this year but patrons just weren’t there. Another show with entertainment that pulls all the customers away from the artists and into the seats watching the show. I managed to break even with a late sale on Sunday but I think I’ll sit this one out next year. There were a lot of good artists. I’m not sure what happened with Melbourne jurying this year but a lot of really exceptional artists did not get into Melbourne and did Apopka as a backup show. Judging was awful. The first judge introduced herself, did a quick look around, missing an entire side of the booth and left. She seemed bored and flippant. The second judge was nice and thorough but had the completely wrong definition of a giclee, thus inspiring my last blog. I can almost forgive show promoters for not having a clue about what is and is not a giclee but a judge should know.

I’m here now in Lakeland for Mayfaire. Last show of the season for me. I’m looking forward to the break and hoping to sell enough this weekend for a little cushion for the summer. I just bought a new printer and next week my studio gets entirely redesigned to make room for it.

What is a Giclee?

The word giclée seems to be one of the most misused and misunderstood words in the art world today. It doesn’t help that the word itself has been through an evolution of meanings itself and still has a wide range of meanings. Ask an artist, a show promoter, or a person on the street and you will get as many definitions as people you ask.

Some random examples from the web – My comments are after the quote in parentheses.

From http://www.giclee-information.org/
“Giclée is a term coined to describe inkjet printing at its highest level.”
(Well there’s a real precise definition, highest level of what?)

From http://www.greatgiclee.com/art_printing.html
“The cost of a giclée printer as well the price of pigments and papers, is the reason why fine art reproductions using this method are expensive to produce. Also, because of the resolutions these printers have, it takes a lot of time to make the giclée. The new machines took the leap of beating the art printing color rendition limitations of 4 colors and added 2, 3 and sometimes even 8 to the mix. The results are stunning and no description does justice other than seeing a giclée print! “
(This appears to me to be just marketing hype. Depending on the settings I use I can print a panorama in 15 minutes; 1440 dpi, high speed printing, or an hour; 2880 dpi with high speed turned off. I always use the higher quality setting but very few people can tell the difference without a magnifying glass. So is one a giclée and the other is not – the paper is the same, the printer is the same, the ink is the same?)

From Wikipedia
“The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.”
(There’s that subjective term, high quality again. Who and what determines this? Is it the type of printer, ink, paper?)

But also from Wikipedia –
“to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art.”
(And we wonder why people are confused?)

From http://www.giclee-canvas-art-in-trinidad.com/Giclee.html
“Regrettably, no official or legal standards have been laid down for this duplicating and printing process.”
(Woo hoo, somebody gets it)

And

“However, if a "Giclée print” is taken to mean “any printed, scanned image” then such a print can be called a Giclée print.”
(And if a “dog” is taken to mean any four legged animal then a cat can be called a dog. Of course by this definition a digital photograph is not a giclée because it is not scanned, confused yet?)

From http://www.harryadamson.com/giclee.html
From the French verb "to spray", the word Giclée (zhee-clay) is used to describe a digital fine art printmaking process. Giclée prints are created using a high-resolution inkjet printer. Images or paintings are carefully scanned and reproduced using stable pigment-based inks.

From http://giclee.netfirms.com - a page titled quite appropriately lies, dam lies, and giclée prints
“Just as they will tell you, giclée printing is ink-jet printing, the same process used by the ink-jet printer hooked up to your computer right now. The cheapest computer printers commonly used today.”

And a comment on why an ink jet print is called a giclée

“For the same reason that they would rather sell you lingerie in a boutique than underwear in a store.”

From http://www.artreproservices.com/Advantages_of_Giclee_Prints.html -

“If it will take ink, and go through the printer, we can print on it.”


So a giclée is either
a) any inkjet print or
b) a “high quality” ink jet print with no definition of exactly what is high quality and what is not.
c) An inkjet print using pigment inks only

The original meaning for giclée however was an inkjet print on a specific printer with specific ink actually meant to fade, for use as a proof for a photograph. This is probably where the idea came from that many people have, that a giclée is a cheap, non-durable, print.

It is interesting to note that a google search on “giclée history” is well into 6 pages of results before photography is even mentioned and after that it is still rarely mentioned. But photographers are the ones suffering. The definition that has become prevalent in the art show world, at least among people putting on and judging art shows, is that a giclée is somehow of lower quality, and /or that a giclée is a print on canvas only. By the definition that a giclée is any inkjet print, a giclée can be a cheap way of printing. It can also be a very expensive, long lasting way of printing. The process, the printer, the ink, the paper; all are components in the level of quality of an ink-jet print. What is more prevalent in the art show world today is the idea that prints on canvas are the only giclées and that is false by any accepted definition. As I already talked about, a print on canvas can be high quality or low quality and while it is almost always an ink jet print, it is not the only type of ink jet print. And why shouldn’t a high quality photograph on canvas be judged among its peers as art instead of being judged with one strike against it.

I believe that the term giclée should be retired and standards for photographic prints should be defined in terms of the archival quality of ink, paper, and printer; not loosely defined terms like giclée.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

My plans are made to go see my daughter and the grandbabies, and also to meet her new significant other. I’ve chosen the method of travel that seems the most sane in this world – train. I can go round trip on the train for what it would cost me in gas to go a little more than one way and I get pretty good gas milage. The only way I’m flying these days is if the trip is too far to do any other way.

I started out loving flying. I saw the ocean from the air before I ever saw it on the ground. In fact, the first time I did see the ocean on the ground I wondered where the white fluffy things that sat on the water (clouds) were. I remember nothing but enjoyment when we flew back from Korea, 33 hours in the air, my poor parents. I do remember feeling a little miffed because everyone told me we were going to stop in Hawaii and the only thing I saw in Hawaii was the inside of a windowless room where all us children were herded while our parents went through customs. I loved flying when I took a bus to Boston and then discovered I could fly back for just a little more money. Sixteen hours on a bus plus 2 hours in the New York terminal vs. an hour and a half in the air. It was heaven. It was pure decadence. When my first husband and I moved to New Hampshire we flew back home regularly. I’d bring my camera and fight for the window seat, taking lots of non-descript cloud photos through scratched plane windows.

Perhaps it was the time the plane hit turbulence, the seat belt sign stayed on for the entire trip, and I needed to visit the restroom in the worst way. Maybe it was all those small planes that I flew in when I worked the northeast installing and teaching software. I especially remember the one into Pittsburg where the seats looked like school cafeteria seats bolted to the floor and we bounced and rolled like never before. Maybe it was Air Florida hitting the 14th street bridge. Somewhere along the way flying got a little scary.

I went through a period of being afraid to fly and that slowly mutated into just not liking it but doing it anyway. I came to acceptance that when it is your time to go, it’s your time to go and quit being afraid of crashing.

Now there is a whole new fear, getting stuck on a plane for hours while it waits to take off. I’m not so afraid of getting stuck in a terminal. I’m pretty resourceful and I always have my camera with me so the idea of getting stuck somewhere interesting sounds kind of fun. But getting stuck on a plane for hours on end, stuffed into a tiny seat, with the bathrooms slowly becoming unusable, sounds slightly terrifying. And it is so much more inconvenient these days. I can’t check my camera and laptop because they might get stolen but they’re bulky and dangerously close to the carry on limits. I end up only carrying one camera and stuffing it into the laptop carrier with my purse and now I’ve got so much delicate electronics rubbing against each other that I’m afraid to put it in the overhead bin. Not to mention trying to take off my shoes, keep an eye on the laptop, the other eye on the camera, and get through the metal detector.

The train – it sounds so civilized…

Patience (or not)

“I never know in advance what I will photograph, ... I go out into the world and hope I will come across something that imperatively interests me. I am addicted to the found object. I have no doubt that I will continue to make photographs till my last breath.”

Ansel Adams


A lot of patrons remark that I must have a lot of patience. Actually I don’t or at least I don’t think I do. I search out the wild places because of a spiritual hunger that needs the peace and tranquility they offer. Any photograph I get is an extra gift. I don’t generally lie in wait for a specific shot. I walk and look and wait for beauty to reveal herself. When I am out taking photographs I will raise the camera to my eye a hundred times without pressing the shutter. If I like what I see however, I enter a different mode. I will take 30 shots in the space of 10 minutes or less trying to get that perfect representation of what I see before me. Unlike what some say, the camera can and does lie. It darkens the darks and washes out the lights. Sometimes the camera, most frustratingly, tells the truth. Our eyes compensate, turn the pole straight even though it is leaning when it becomes two dimensional. Our eyes miss the piece of trash in the foreground, until it shows itself in the photograph. It’s not just the art of seeing that makes a good photograph. It is the art of seeing and anticipating the way the camera sees.

Sometimes I just stop though, and breathe in the air, feel the solitude.

Photography Invitational and More on Canvas

I am looking very forward to the Photography Invitational at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. They will be displaying four of my photographs. They even put “Morning in the Glades” on the postcard advertising the event. I was there today dropping off work and got to see some of the other work that will also be displayed. Some very nice quality work and well worth the trip to see it. Please stop by if you can. I will be at the opening which is on April 11 from 6 – 8 PM. This is the same time and in the same area as the Mount Dora Art Walk. If you cannot make the opening the exhibit will be up until May 9.

On another note - Another attack on photographs printed on canvas and it’s coming from photographers themselves. It’s come to my attention that some photographers are having their canvas gallery wrap prints made in China very cheaply. I will be the first to admit that I don’t do my own gallery wraps. Trust me, you don’t want me to, it’s not a quality product if I do it. I can eyeball a print inside a mat to see that it is straight but I can’t get my gallery wraps straight or neat. I’ve also tried several suppliers to do gallery wraps for me until I found my current one. They just weren’t right either. Too tight and the canvas cracks, too loose and it looks sloppy. The coating put on the canvas is important as well. Canvas gallery wraps do not have the benefit of UV resistant glass to protect them from the elements. The wrong or improperly applied coating will cause the photograph to fade prematurely. The bottom line is that quality is very important on a canvas gallery wrap.

If you buy from me I can guarantee that my canvas gallery wraps, and all my work, is done to the highest quality possible and done in the US. If you buy from somebody else and the price seems quite low, please check and make sure you are getting a quality product. If you’re looking for a canvas gallery wrap made in China – Wal-Mart sells them.

Check out the new picture of me. A friend and I photographed a wedding this past weekend and he took this very nice photograph.

Sunrise...

Sunrise, my favorite time of day, as the world around me starts to wake up. I head out early, in the dark. I arrive in the dark because the best sunrise photographs are taken before actual sunrise. I sit in the dark and listen to the night. Then it starts to happen. The first shots are on the tripod with a long exposure. The light is constantly changing. The shutter speeds get shorter and shorter, starting at minutes and ending with fractions of a second. Sometimes the clouds are low and nothing happens for awhile and then suddenly it is very light. Sometimes the clouds and the vantage point are just right and the sun comes up like a huge orange ball. Sometimes there are no clouds at all, just orange. But each one is different. Then when it is finally light I head out, either to take more photographs or home to grab a quick nap. The trip back is very different than the trip out. There are more cars on the road, the world is starting to move around. Pretty soon, it’s just a normal day but I feel slightly different, a little more connected to the universe, a little more serene.

The photographs above were all taken at the same place, at approximately the same time of year, but different years. If you look closely you can see the same tree line. The same, yet different.

Catching up - Everglades and Naples National

Well I’m quite a bit behind… Three shows in a row plus a trip to the Everglades will do that to me. So to catch up:

Wilma did quite a bit of damage to the Everglades National Park on the east side. The Anhinga trail is missing quite a few trees which means many of the birds seem to have moved elsewhere, although I was a couple weeks before prime time at the Anhinga Trail. I did see some great blue herons, a green heron, the resident egret, and the usual cormorants and anhingas. The woodstorks have moved to Paurotis Pond, on the other side so they are very hard to see. I also saw a couple pink dots so there are roseate spoonbills there as well. Eco Pond looks rather decimated. I'm not sure if that is drought or hurrican effects although there are a lot of down trees in the area. I saw and photographed some plovers but that was it. The old Flamingo hotel is boarded up and there are a lot of trees missing. There was an immense group of alligators at Anhinga Trail, probably a mother and offspring. The mangroves at West Lake look like they took a beating as well. But hurricanes are nature’s way and nature doesn’t answer to people.

There was a lot of activity at Shark Valley though. I even got to see and photograph a yellow crested night heron. It looks like a dull great blue heron. It’s going to take me a great deal of time to go through all the photographs, especially with another show in a week but keep an eye out over the next month or so and I’ll try to post here as I put them up on the website.

My sister and I took a side trip to the Alligator Farm and I finally got to see and photograph a Florida Panther. It was in a cage though. I’m still working on a couple leads I have to get some photographs of a Florida Panther in a rescue setting. Of course I’m also keeping a lookout in the wild but the changes of seeing one, with the right lighting and conditions is pretty slim. We also took a great airboat ride. I don't much like airboats for photography, the noise keeps the birds away, and it's probably not too environmentally sound but it was fast and fun and a great break.

After that it was on to Naples National. A much more pleasant show to do than St. Stephens but I was also able to stay at the vacant home of a relative and didn’t have a hotel to contend with. It was HOT. A welcome relief from the rain but I was lucky to have a booth location under some trees with a slight breeze. Other locations, I heard, were not nearly as pleasant. That evening I called my uncle, who is in Virginia, to see if he thought it was okay to get into their pool. They were expecting snow, he was not amused. The show was okay, so far my best show of the year, but definitely down for me. People were buying, but they were buying small. I sold a framed panoramic and everything else was matted pieces. I paid $3.41/ gallon for mid range gas….. I also managed to back into a tree and break a back window, not a mark on the tree. And my car was broken into while I was gone. All in all, I was glad to get home.

So this weekend I’m at Leesburg. The weather is absolutely beautiful and the people are pleasant. The hotel room (Days Inn) is nice. Actually, except for my aunt and uncle’s and of course home, the nicest (and cheapest) place I’ve stayed for the past three weeks. Sales are going fairly well and I think it’s going to be a good show. I’ll let you know in my next post.

Grrrr

You know, Florida is in a drought. Despite the rain of the past few days we are still hurting for rain. And the Everglades is an environmentally sensitive area. Florida City hotels cater mostly to people who are visiting the Everglades. People who visit the Everglades tend to be environmentally conscious.

So why on earth would a hotel in Florida City not offer the opportunity to conserve water and energy by re-using the towels in the room instead of giving new towels every day? Not only, not offer the opportunity, but force the occupants to have new towels every day. That’s right folks, force. Not only do I want to be environmentally conscious and re-use my towels I prefer to not have my room made up. I travel with camera, computer and this time with artwork. With all the signs around that they are not responsible for anything stolen I prefer to not have anyone see what I have in my room. Note, I always tip the maid anyway, seems the right thing to do. So I left my room on Tuesday morning and put out the “make up room later” sign. That should have been my first clue. There was no “Do Not Disturb” sign. When I returned my room had been made up, new towels replacing the previous barely used ones and the curtains left open for everyone to see my laptop sitting on the table. When I complained, I was told that it was the owner’s policy. I COULD NOT request that my room not be made up. I offered to bring the trash out to them. I offered to let them inspect the room to see that I was doing nothing illegal in there. No dice. The manager wouldn’t even tell me the reason for the policy so I could explore some sort of compromise.

Why would a hotel want to treat a customer this way? Why would they not want to accommodate a simple request? I’m still waiting for an answer Best Western.

Wet and Tired!

Everything was going great until the skies opened up Sunday. It was miserable. One of my print boxes leaked and I lost about 10 small prints. I forgot and left the box for my canvas prints out in the rain so I'm not sure how well they will fare being transported. I probably will not hang them at Naples anyway since "Water's Bend" was well received. It didn't sell yet but a lot of people liked it. Framed work seems more fitting for Naples anyway. From Sunday afternoon on having a corner booth was useless. The majority of the time the sides were down and the photographs on the side could not be seen. There are little brown leaves all over the tent. I had planned break down as a slow, patient thing since everything is wet but my location was in a spot where they needed to bring in other vehicles so I was requested to break down as quickly as possible. Thank God for the gentleman that offered to help as I think my sister was overwhelmed by the whole experience. Truth be told, so was I. I was glad to get out of Coconut Grove. No fault of St. Stephens. They were very nice and helpful. They even came by with incense to bless everyone's artwork. But I'm going to hold out for the Coconut Grove show in the future. St. Stephens was not enough profit for the stress level.

But we're in the Everglades now, or close by at least. We had a nice dinner and have decided to forgo sunrise tomorrow morning for some extra sleep. There's a place I want to try for sunset anyway. Hopefully I'll have some new photographs to post tomorrow.

St. Stephens Art Show

If I ever say I want to move to Miami, shoot me, I have lost my mind. Coconut Grove, at least, is a combination of New York and Boston with no public transportation. Perhaps it is worse because of the two art shows and the required closed streets but driving here is a nightmare. So is parking. The economy in Miami is alive and well. Every restaurant is mobbed, people are out on the street. It's nice to see but not too pleasant when you just want a quick meal and back to the hotel.

The show however is going great. It started out kind of slow but I ended the day with quite a few sales. If it keeps going this way I will definitely return but I think I will stay further away or come better prepared. The hotel room has a kitchen but finding a grocery store... Well we did find a Quik Stop to get some milk but that's it.

I'm looking forward to peace and quiet in the Everglades next week.

Ansel Adams and digital

"I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practioner will again strive to comprehend and control them" (Ansel Adams, March 1981, "The Negative") Introduction, page xiii.



Would Ansel Adams have used a digital camera? I have no doubt that he would have embraced the concept. Yet many artists, patrons, and even photographers look upon digital photography as some sort of red-headed stepchild of photography. They say it is not art, that the pictures don’t last, that we are “cheating”. They think that digital photographers are corrupting the art of photography with such tools as raw processing and Photoshop.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Ansel Adams did a great deal of modification of his images in the darkroom. Indeed, most film photographers who process their own film do a great deal of modification in the darkroom. The vast majority of digital photographers use Photoshop for the same changes that could be made in the darkroom. Yes, there are other capabilities of Photoshop that could not be done in a darkroom. But they are not push-button operations.

As for the “pictures don’t last” argument I carry two “visual aids” with me to shows. One is a color enlargement made 20 years ago. The Kodak logo, the symbol of quality in color processing at that time, is visible on the back. It had been stored in a box for the majority of those 20 years, never put in the sun. It is visibly yellowed and faded. Independent tests have shown that a pigment on archival paper ink-jet print will last 200 years with no visible fading or yellowing if stored in a box. The other one is a print that I made in my early darkroom days, when I did my darkroom printing in a walk-in closet of my apartment. It has a very visible smudge on it as a result of improper technique. Just because someone does their own darkroom processing doesn’t mean it is good and just because it is digital doesn’t mean it is bad.

So when you are walking the shows or looking in the galleries this year, please ask yourself, does it move me?, do I love it?, and even does it match the couch? Ask about the process used because you should make sure that it is done with quality but don’t turn away because it is digital.

Naples Invitational

I know you’ve been waiting for this. Sorry, I managed to injure my back sometime at the Naples Invitational and I’ve been spending a lot of time at the chiropractor. I think it was the drive, not setup or breakdown, but the setup was very windy and it’s possible I twisted something then. Enough to remind me that doing art shows requires either help or keeping myself in good physical shape. The good news is my knee didn’t bother me at all.

Anyway it was a good show but not great. I made an acceptable profit but it would not have been worth it if I had needed to pay for lodging. My aunt and uncle have a home in Estero where I stayed but it is up for sale so it probably won’t be available to me next year. The promoters were wonderful, very organized and nice. Naples people seem to be very, very careful in their purchases. Perhaps it is the economy but then again, there was no quibbling over price. This is one show where, when people said they were going to think about it and come back, they actually did. I didn’t keep track but I would guesstimate that 75% of my sales involved people who asked a lot of questions, left, and then came back and bought. Quite a few people asked me when I would be back to Naples, wanting to consider their purchase a little longer. I’ll see if they come back and buy when I do Naples National later this month.

I’m now getting ready for St. Stephens. I’ll have a corner at St. Stephens so I’ll get to display the large version of the photograph above for the first time.

Thornby

Thornby is a beautiful piece of property on the St. Johns River. It is the remains of an old estate. It is the last undeveloped river front property in Deltona and it has been the subject of controversy for as long as I have lived here. Deltona has many places for kids to be competitive, but no real place for kids to be contemplative. And no real place for us older folks who just like to walk in the woods. Sure there are parks, but no real place for a quiet walk in the woods to get away from it all. And there are no woods like Thornby that I have seen here. Centuries old Oak trees and Magnolias and pieces of old Florida history. I had only heard about it and driven by it until today. Numerous “No Trespassing” signs kept me from exploring although I’ve always believed in saving green spaces. Today the Friends of Thornby - http://www.savethornby.com/ - arranged a tour for anyone interested. The photographs on the blog today are from that tour. I went out with the first tour and they allowed me to stay behind to photograph and experience Thornby. I saw eagles and flowers and majestic trees, too large to adequately photograph. I couldn’t help but look at the overgrown landscaping and know that this place was once loved and cared for by its owners.

Some things are worth tightening the belt for and I believe this is one of them. Deltona stands at a turning point here. I hope we make the right choice.

Nervous

Well it’s the day before setup for Naples and I am nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Okay, I know it’s a cliché but I’m a photographer not a writer. This is probably the highest rated show I’ve ever done and I’m hoping for big things. I know the economy is down and sales might be down but I’ll still be a little discouraged if I don’t do well. Plus my knee is hurting me some today. This is the first show I’ve setup since my surgery so I’m hoping I won’t have any trouble with the lifting.

So I’m trying to think calm, positive thoughts. Nervousness is bad at an art show. It makes me say stupid things to judges like at the Winter Park show. I was so excited that I had just sold three framed photographs in quick succession that when the judge entered the booth I blurted out – “all the best stuff is gone”. Arggghhh! Palm to forehead.

Above is one of the new shots that will be at the show.

Wish me luck!

Back to Today - Puttering

It’s one week before the first art show of the season and I’m doing my last minute puttering today. The van has had its oil changed and is gassed up. Pictures have been printed, sorted, and placed in their boxes. Tank the cat has been supervising. The van has been straightened up and organized. It won’t look this neat again until June. The water jugs that I use to weigh down the tent have been filled and put in the van. All I need is pictures and I’m ready to go. It’s going to get crazy in the next few weeks (actually until May) so tonight I’m having a quiet evening at home with my husband.

I did not get into the Northern Virginia Reston show. Maybe next year, but that gives me a few more vacation days to play with so two more applications go out today, Mayfaire by the Lake and San Marco spring. I know I said I’d never do San Marco again but Howard Alan has taken it over and while they may be a bare bones promoter they are organized and professional. It’s worth another try.

Hope to see you in Naples!

Reminiscing 6

And then came Lake Mary – Heathrow Festival of the Arts. This is still my favorite show. Steve greets me with enthusiasm when I show up pathologically early for setup. All of the staff is friendly and helpful. The customers are friendly and the location is beautiful.

A friend comes to help me with setup. This is my first time setting up the tent without Clif and the pieces seem to have multiplied but we manage to get it up after a couple errors. The only potentially serious problem we have is where to find water for the water jugs which hold down my tent. Despite the name there is no lake near the Lake Mary show and the water has been turned off because they don’t want the lawn sprinklers to come on inside people’s tents. My friend comes up with the idea of buying ice from Publix and putting it in the jugs. Thank God when she goes to buy ice she finds that Publix also sells water. I can just see us trying to feed ice cubes into the jugs. There have been some comedies over the years about filling those jugs. My favorite is another friend crouching on a two foot wall by a lake leaning over trying to fill the jugs from the lake water. The next time that same friend helped me set up he suggested heartily that I fill the jugs at home and put them in the van full. I do that every time now and it makes that part of setup a lot less stressful.

By the time I got to Lake Mary , I had done several shows and none of them could really be called successful. But I had learned a lot and made a lot of changes. Lake Mary is where everything seemed to come together for the first time. I even won my first award, an honorable mention for “Sunset at Lake Magarity.” I’ve made small changes since then; added large pieces, changed the booth layout, taken out the table; but Lake Mary is where I moved from wide-eyed beginner to actually being able to give a piece of advice now and then to other artists.

Reminiscing 5

Ironically enough, after all the tent hoopla, my first real art show is inside. It’s the Clearwater Fine Art Festival. It’s really the second year but the first year was cancelled because of Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. In case you didn’t live in Florida in 2004 those are the three hurricanes that hit central Florida in one very strange summer. I spent my birthday that year in a boarded up house with Frances blowing around us but that’s another story.

It was a well done show, put on by another artist but set up was still brutal. Who’d have thought that setup would be bad for an indoor show but I didn’t realize that all of the stuff had to be brought in from the outside in the brutal August heat. I was prepared with all the setup type stuff but I didn’t have a decent hand cart that would carry the propanels. Clif had set me up with a sort of rolling thing that probably would have worked if it had been longer but it was pretty comical on a slant with the propanels going every which way. I ended up having to make one trip per panel (10) plus the hand cart I did have carried very little. It’s amazing how much stuff is needed for a show. I ended up dehydrated, exhausted, and 5 pounds lighter.

At any rate, my display is looking much better. My frames all match. I’ve gotten rid of the WalMart plastic bins. And I’ve already been accepted into Lake Mary – Heathrow. When I get home I order a new hand cart.

Reminiscing 4

The search for a tent is on. I scour ebay with no luck. I finally decide on a Craft Hut mostly because the company is located just 4 hours away from me and I can save shipping costs. By now I have joined the Yahoo group artshow_photo which is a wealth of information. The tent with the options they tell me to get is significantly more expensive than the base model but I remember the words from the artist at Winter Park and get everything I’m told to. I make arrangements to pay for the tent by the end of the year for tax purposes but not pick it up until spring. Little do I know I have bought the last Craft Hut made by Craft Hut. I figure this out come January when the Craft Hut people call me and tell me they are “moving” and they will ship the tent to me free of charge. Soon after that I hear that Craft Hut has sold out to Flourish.

The tent arrives and Clif and I put it up in the driveway. It’s got an amazing number of parts, takes an hour to put up, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to put it up by myself. But I’m somewhat ready for the next step.

When I first moved to Deltona I saw signs for Springfest. It’s an outdoor two day festival and I set my sights on that for my next show. It’s not a real art show but it is outdoors and I get to put up my new display. I’ve learned a lot from artshow_photo. I’ve got print bins, a new chair, and a card rack.

I’m also about to learn about the awful experience called Saturday morning setup. Clif, a friend of ours, and I arrive at the appointed time – 5AM. It’s dark and there are no lights. The only booth markers are a series of flags with numbers on them and it takes us a ½ hour to find them. No one is in a good mood and I am totally stressed. I’ve since learned that, with help, I can put up a booth in 3 hours, but I still hate Saturday morning setups. Once the booth is up, there is decent weather for about an hour. Then it pours, all day long. I spend pretty much the entire day inside the tent with the sides down. I sold one card. But Sunday was better and I sold two framed pictures to the mayor, some matted photos and cards to friends, and I got a lot of compliments. There’s a lot of joking among art show artists about compliments. No, they don’t pay the bills, but they do feed the soul.

The booth is not quite there yet though. It’s way too busy, my frames don’t match, and it’s still not very professional looking. But it’s enough to get me into the next show, my first real art show.

Reminiscing 3

My next show was the Audubon Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival. I actually do pretty well. I’m still having trouble finding my place though. Buckler is out and with Buckler my original idea of doing local home and garden shows. The work I want to do is not the work that does well at that type of show. A bonus from my job has allowed me to buy some walls. The tent is still a problem. My husband has heard of something cheap called an EZ-up and suggests I go visit the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival and talk to the artists there and see what they suggest. I generally like people who tell me the truth and don’t sugarcoat it. The first person I talked to definitely met that criteria – “EZ-up”, he sneered, “EZ-up is easy down. I spent $3800.00 on my tent and walls alone. If you’re going to do it, do it, don’t dabble at it.” I am grateful for those blunt words today. There were some difficult times ahead of me and more than once I think I would have thrown in the towel if I didn’t have so much invested. At the time though, those words were just a tad bit discouraging.

Shortly after that, I found the Bird and Wildlife Festival and I guess God knew I needed some encouragement. I made a modest profit. My display still needed work but it was looking much more professional. The only problem was the festival was only once a year. I had to have a tent and it had to be a real art festival tent.

Reminiscing 2

So my second show was a Buckler show. Buckler does shows all over Florida and they are great, if you’re looking for country crafts. Not so good for photography. For the first time I realized that people were traveling around the country, actually making a living at this. And they were polished and had beautiful displays, mini stores really. And I was lacking a lot of the basics, walls for instance. Note to any aspiring art show people – easels don’t work. I have seen displays with one easel out in front holding an especially eye-catching piece. That works great, but more than one easel, forget it. They take up a lot of room, people trip over them and the table easels are really easy to knock down. The chair is really tacky but check out the tablecloths… My first major display purchase.

I learned things though. I learned that it is not a good idea to have my husband help me with setup. I learned where to get plastic sleeves that fit my mats instead of overlapping. I learned that I needed to find a different van rental place because .75 / mile really adds up. I learned that if I wanted to survive doing Buckler shows I needed to take my photographs and put funny sayings on them. I learned I really like country crafts and I made a modest profit which I promptly spent at the show buying things with cute sayings on them. Four separate groups of friends came to see me at my great debut. In the following week, each of those friends came to me and said “this is not your venue”. I had signed up to do two Buckler shows. After a week of thought, I cancelled the second one.

Back to the drawing board…

Reminiscing 1

Since I’ve made a resolution to write in my blog more often I’ve decided to do a little reminiscing. The above photo is of my first booth ever, complete with plastic tablecloth and WalMart bins. It was at the Deltona Arts and Historical Center grand re-opening and I was so excited and so clueless. I actually did pretty well considering that I was only there for three hours and a lot of that time was taken up with speeches and ribbon cutting stuff. I will always be grateful to Lloyd and Deltona Arts for giving me that start.

Whoops, I’m wrong about that. Many, many years before I did have a couple forays into the art show scene up in Virginia. Now that was comical. Talk about being clueless. The first one wasn’t too bad except for the fact that the show promoter provided pegboard to hang your work and I came with none of the pegboard things that you use to hang things with. I had to scurry around and borrow some. I sold one framed picture for fifteen dollars. I was a little disappointed but I did trade one picture for a nice pencil drawing of an otter by another artist. I still have that picture.

The second one – well it’s no coincidence that I didn’t try to do shows for another 15 years. This was an outdoor show. In those days, no one had the tents we have today. The week before the show I started thinking about how I was going to display my work. Plenty of time right? Since pegboard had worked before I had the brilliant idea of getting two pieces of pegboard and hinging them together so they would stand up. Great concept, if there’s no wind…. I remember leaving my then husband in charge while I went to get something to eat. All the artists were in a big circle and the food vendor was directly across from my setup. I was walking back across with my hot dog. My husband was sitting in a chair reading. The wind started to pick up. The pegboard started to sway. My husband is still reading. I’m yelling his name telling him to pay attention. He doesn’t hear me. I start to run. Too late, the wind picks the display up and crashes it down. Needless to say I sold nothing. The marriage didn’t last either.

I did learn something though. The photographer next to me was selling matted pictures in clear plastic sleeves. He also had a magnificent picture of an eagle sitting on a glacier. He was selling like hotcakes. I resolved I would go to Alaska someday. And I would get some of those clear plastic sleeves.

Updates

Well, as expected, I did not get into Vero Beach. I’m disappointed of course but my schedule for winter and spring is already pretty packed. Also, doing Vero Beach would have meant missing all of Bike Week since I did get into the Leesburg show for March 1-2 , the first weekend of Bike Week. My knee is healing nicely and I expect to be back on the bike by then. I’m still a little nervous about Naples Invitational setup and breakdown but they were nice enough to give me a close in spot so I won’t have to do a lot of walking. I have two weekends left to get ready so I’ve been printing and framing like crazy. I’m surprised at how much new work I have. It’s always hard for me to judge my own work so if you have a favorite you want to see this year, let me know.

I’m behind already. I haven’t done my New Years ritual yet. Each year I write down on slips of paper the character defects I want to be rid of for the coming year and then burn the slips of paper. It’s worked so far. A friend is coming by this weekend and we will do it together.

I use a mailing list generator to send out some postcards before shows. Some interesting numbers – Number of people within 10 miles of Coconut Grove who are married, own their own homes, and make over $200,000 a year – approximately 10,000. Number of those who contribute to conservation causes – 49! There is something seriously wrong with this picture.