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.
