The Wrong Side of the Tracks

Quakertown was the worst of my shows and the best of my shows so far. Everything that can go wrong went wrong with it. Sales were low for me and the other artists I talked to. There was a main town square area where most of the artists were along with most of the crowd. That was on one side of the railroad tracks. I was down the street with a handful of other artists away from the main action on the other side of the tracks. After a few hours of good weather the sky darkened up and the wind started. I had to hold my booth down multiple times to keep it from blowing away (and yes I use weights with it but they were only ten pound weights. That apparently doesn't even faze a strong wind gust.) Then mid-afternoon they told us to pack up and go home because the weather was supposed to get really bad. It actually didn't but the show was over at that point.

But.... I had the highest percentage of passing people come into my booth of any place I've been so far. And I received a lot of very positive feedback from a lot of people. I also went through as many business cards in that period of time as I have for other whole shows. I went from seeing most people walk by my booth to seemingly as many come in as walk by. And my work was solicited for a local gallery. This show really had a different vibe to it- somehow my work seemed to resonate with a lot of the people coming through. I'm not sure why that was.

There were a number of times I was talking shop with some amateur photographers who were several decades older than myself. People coming through the booth would keep complimenting the older men I was talking to on the work. Age prejudice I guess.

I will keep coming back to this area also. This event reinforced my new show strategy- a very exciting development. More in the next post.

No Lighthouse Prints

I realized that this blog might have some new readers after last weekend who might not have the full context yet. I won't be selling lighthouse prints- I was only joking. And I wasn't trying to cast aspersions on Quakertown Alive this weekend. Just because it's a small show doesn't mean it's going to be lousy. There are decent small shows. I don't think it's going to be great but that doesn't really matter. It's part of my new strategy for tackling festivals that I'll post further about.

Milford CT Followup

I finally made more than the booth fee there but still lost money overall when travel expenses were taken into account. Losing money is such hard work. On the other hand I sold my largest piece to date- a $200.00 sale. I also won first prize for photography out of maybe a dozen or so photographers so that was very cool. This show had the largest attendance of any I've done so far- maybe in the tens of thousands. I wrote before going to Great Neck that it was going to be my biggest show so far at 50,000 but it was definitely under 10,000- maybe more like 5000. These show produces lie so bad when it comes to attendance numbers and I keep falling for it. Milford was in line with stated attendance though. I also went through the most business cards at any event so far.

Otherwise it was pretty much same kinds of people most excited about my work- more professors (I'm thinking Yale faculty make more than Bucknell people but I could be wrong), other kinds of art people (I've had two sales to other artists now) and other professionals of various kinds. There were more Europeans also- French folks this time. They seemed startled by my work. They were very inquisitive about it- asking what the various things in my pictures were and how I came to be photographing such things. They were very much victims of the lighthouse/bird-in-tree/ bear photographers and seemed to have very low expectations when it came to art photography. I wonder if they have art fests in Europe. It would cost a small fortune to go over there though with a boot setup.

I seem to be developing a following among landscape/nursery people and I have more prints on the way that I think they'll appreciate. I also had my youngest patron to do date. A boy around five or six was quite taken with my work for some reason. He was so cute in how he went about asking about the prices of my framed pictures- even trying to finagle one for free. But he only had a budget of $5 so he finally settled on my spider card. He asked if it only could be used as a card to be sent to someone. I told him that he could find a small frame for it and use it as a picture. So his dad is going to help him make a little frame for it.

I didn't have as much opportunity to get around to other photographers and artists to ask how the event was going for them because I was getting much more booth traffic than past shows. But one photographer who was able to get around dropped by. And I did talk to a couple of other 2-D people- all painters. From what I gathered there were only two photographers who were doing well there and they both sold more traditional/conventional work than mine. The painters I talked to said it was a show that you have to attend for a couple of events before it becomes financially worthwhile. The people there need to get to know you and they want to see that you're serious about what you're doing before they'll start buying much from you. The painters and most of the crafts people seemed to be doing well- primarily with established customers. And that's a positive sign for the overall art market this summer in contrast to the Sugarloaf events and Lewsiburg.

I'll definitely return to Milford. From the interest expressed I'm confident I can establish a viable clientele there with a few more shows.

I'll be doing Quakertown PA this coming weekend (small one) and then it'll be Mayfair in Allentown PA for memorial day weekend. Mayfair is a major deal at five days and large crowds.

But I gotta get back to making some lighthouse prints for this weekend.

Milford CT

Sorry about my lack of posts this week- it's been a crazy week. I will post about Great Neck last weekend early next week. I got a really big break and will be in Milford Connecticut this Saturday and Sunday for Meet the Artists and Artisans (http://www.meettheartistsandartisans.com/shows.htm) I really enjoyed the people who came through my booth in Hartford so I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Great Neck, New York

On Sunday I will be at a show in Great Neck on Long Island. This event had 50,000 attendees last year so it will be my largest event yet. The weather is supposed to be perfect. And it will be. I have no idea what to expect- it's not an event that's hard to get into so I'm sure there's going to be a lot of junk. But the crowd will be more affluent than Lewisburg and quite a bit larger.

There's a reason there aren't a lot of applicants for shows on Long Island- the drive out there is a nightmare. It also costs about $20.00 in toll fees one way. After the first time I did an event out there I vowed never to return because of the drive. But I think it's an area with great potential and so I've decided to keep working it.

My First Bird in a Tree Picture

A woman barged into my booth at Lewisburg and asked if I had any wildlife pictures. Nope. She turned around and left. I've finally caved in to market pressures and decided to try my hand at the wildlife thing. I know I'm going to get criticism for "selling out" and pandering and all the rest of it but I have bills to pay. Here's my first bird picture.



Something seems slightly off about it but I'm not sure what. Probably if I had a more experienced eye for wildlife pictures I'd see it right away. I guess I'm just not there yet.

If you are new to this blog you might want to read this post for context.

Lewisburg follow-up

The weather was lousy and the turnout was too. The woman next to me said last year was a gorgeous day and you couldn't see across the street for the crowd. That wasn't the case this year but some people did come out. It wasn't a great sales situation for me but I had good traffic through the booth and lots of positive feedback- even more so than the Sugarloaf events. But people weren't dropping much money. Lewisburg is home to Bucknell- it's a university town so that may explain some of that (educated people without a lot of disposable income.)

The jurying was definitely a notch below Sugarloaf. The woman behind me sold various kinds of kitchenware with sterling silver wire wrapped around the utensils- for example wine glasses with the wire wrapped around the stems. She had done this for spoons and knives- candle holders- all kinds of crap. It was really lame. And there was a photographer who specialized in lighthouses. There were some fine art painters there with some cool stuff but they didn't seem to be getting much traffic. I'll probably do it again next year just because it's local and inexpensive to do. And I met some interesting people and made some worthwhile contacts. But no relief from the starving artist lifestyle just yet.