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.

Hello

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

It’s a quiet Christmas for us this year. I had knee surgery last Thursday and have been busy recuperating. I’m back on my feet now and while I’m not completely back to normal, the pain of the surgery is less than the knee pain I had for quite a while. So it’s all good.

I’ve been experimenting a little with high contrast black and white – what do you think?

Creating Again

Well I have been busy. The creative juices are flowing again and I’ve been creating all sorts of great photographs. At least I like them. I hope you do too. I guess I needed something new to photograph. I’m going to have to branch out a little bit, try some new places. The next big trip is the Everglades in the early spring which I don’t get to visit near enough. It may be a couple weeks before you see the new ones on the website, there’s Christmas presents to make, show schedule postcards to design and order, and generally getting ready for the next show season which starts the end of January. If you want a postcard, be sure to visit my website and send me your address.

Back home

Well I’m back home safe and sound in Florida. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my daughter, sister, and grand babies. At times I wish I lived closer to them but my daughter is doing a wonderful job. There’s a lot to be said for letting your grown children work out their own lives and I’m not sure I could have stepped back far enough if I lived close by. I also had a nice visit with my mother-in-law. We did something that I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done until now, having spent so much time in Charlottesville over the years. We visited Monticello. I’m sure the photograph I took has been taken my many others over the years, but it’s a nice memory and I like it.

Check out my website, http://www.serenityscenes.com/ for some of the photographs from the trip. I’ll be adding more as I sort through them.