We would like to pass on two pieces of information that came to our attention after the Festival. First, for any artist that had losses severe enough to be considered career-threatening, please contact the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF). While CERF generally cannot respond to all weather related claims at outdoor shows, they will certainly consider applications from those most severely hit by the storm. Please contact CERF directly at (802) 229-2306 or at Craft Emergency Relief Fund for more information.

Creative Energies from Ocala, Florida, is offering discounts up to $100 off a new canopy. Please mention your booth was damaged at the Omaha Summer Arts Festival to receive the discount. You can call (800) 351-8889 and ask for Wendy or log on to www.lightdomecanopies.com for more details.

So here is my story in all it’s harsh reality.

Is it ever going to stop raining?
These photos were taken with our cell phone. Not the best but it gives you an idea. Basically that big barren spot in the foreground where the people are standing, is where my both was located just one short hour before this pic was taken.

It was Friday night and it was rather unexpected. Even though it was still sunny, I began getting antsy somewhere around 3:30 and went over to the artist information booth and asked what the weather was going to do. They promised it was going to miss us but perhaps we may graze the edge and get some rain out of it. They were wrong.

Sometime around 5pm the tornado sirens went off. We had already begun packing things away because I didn’t really trust the info we had been given so far. But it was too little too late. We got all the originals and large framed prints indoors (with help from some of the volunteers.) Most everything else was put into totes and we zippered down the tent. I was told several times to get inside by the time I was actually heading indoors.

It had been eerily still and then you could actually hear roar of the wind before you felt it or seen the trees move. We got inside the Landmark Building and were sent to the basement. The lights went out breifly and a generator kicked in. Lights were restored in minutes. We remained in the basement for around an hour.

When we finally came up it was shocking to see the mess. Booths were completely gone. Our neighbor did silk clothing and their clothes were scattered all over. Their daughter was crying. They packed up that night and left. Of the 135 artists, less than 20 left on Friday. All others, even those who lost their tents, went to Sams Club got replacements and carried on. Fortunately we almost always carry two tents anyway, so we just set up again on Saturday.

My totes had literaly been blown all down the street. Most had their lids popped off and were filled with water. Nearly everything that had been left outside was destroyed. An artist friend of mine who was farther down the street and in a more sheltered location was in good shape. She stayed with me until the wee hours sorting through the wreckage to salvage what we could. (Big Hug! Thank you Belinda!) Mike was dismantling the tent parts and doing general cleanup.

I haven’t even yet completed my inventory to figure out how much was lost, even though I have been working on nothing else since our return. I am guessing it is about $5000 worth of small prints and notecards. All in all it could have been so much worse. There was a wildlife artist whom Belinda and I had visited with earlier, (totally stunning artwork) who lost everything. An estimated $30,000 worth. No insurance. I cannot truely convey the loss some people sustained.

The artfair folks lept into action. They immediatly got extra police down to the site to prevent stealing from the public. They had a workforce of volunteers who assisted in the cleanup. Their goal was to continue the event and have it look as if nothing had happened at all by the following morning. And they succeeded. Just check out the photos in the previous post. (looks pretty normal) Artists were moved into empty spaces and most artfair goers were surprised that we had anything happen weather wise.

As for the artists. Well anyone who had a booth in the hard hit area, for the most part was in a kind of shock. We were all really nervous the remainder of the weekend because it was windy and we never really had time to relax. But we (artfair artists) are in general a hardy breed. We carry on. We all know that this kind of weather is always a possibility. We are always living on the edge. But for most of us, the rewards are worth the risks. Not sure if the wildlife artist I mentioned earlier will think that in the future though.

The Storm
We didn’t actually have a tornado on site, (though there were some in the area) but had anywhere from 80-120 mile winds. That was enough power to move a food tent that had over 2000 pounds of weights over to wipe out 3 other booths. A window of the landmark building was damaged by flying debris. In parts of Omaha they had quarter sized hail and semi trucks and cranes were toppled by the wind. And of course it rained with considerable flooding.

Note: We had over 500 pounds on our tent. This is a ridiculously high amount for any other event. We normally have 300 pounds at all other events, which is far more than most artists use. The artfair actually has an architect and a engineer inspect every artist’s tent to make sure it has sufficient weight on it. The artfair also supplies free sandbags for any artist wishing to add more. This is the only event that does this. It’s the little things like this that show that they really do care about the success of their artists.

This event is the most grueling of all the events we do, in that it is 3 days long. It has long hours (Fri & Sat) it is 11-8 and Sun it is 11-5.

Now I realize that doesn’t sound too bad, but when you take into consideration that you want to be open for the early shoppers which usually arrive around 9:30. (this is a throwback from when the event was 10-9) It usually means you arrive on site by 6:30-7. Also you often don’t actually get off site many times until 10 pm. You do that for 3 days in a row while maintaining a reasonable amount of social grace (like not shouting “Buy something or get the hell out!” at the customers just hanging out in your booth well after closing.) Your butt will be dragging.

This event is also known for having the worst weather. I have been doing the OSAF for about 10 years now and most times we get a storm on at least one of the days. (This year was no exception, perhaps only in its intensity.) It is usually windy and not uncommon to have temps around or above 100 degrees. That kind of heat on pavement is brutal.

On the plus side though, it is also the biggest money maker for me every year (with the exception of this year.) Why else would we keep going back.

Also they have great artist amenities like a large workforce of volunteers to booth sit and bring you bottled water. The boy scouts offer any help you need and keep the many trash cans empty. They provide an air conditioned artist lounge open all the hours of the event, well stocked with fruit and donuts and drinks. They provide 2 free hot breakfasts (which are catered) and one free lunch. Nobody treats artist as well as these guys.

They actually care about what artists want. During their breakfasts they hold open meetings asking for input. They send around board members to each artist’s booth to ask questions about how it is going and what they can do to make things better. And not only do they ask, they listen and they take action to make it happen. Again I have yet to find any other art event that does all of these things.

They offer nice award money. At most art events you are not even sure if a judge has been to your tent. They tend to hide and view your work from afar. OSAF actually have the judges introduce themselves to you, give you a little slip of paper stating their name, and make them actually talk to you.

And lastly they have an excellent emergeny plan in place. And yes we got to see it in action this past weekend. I will write about what did happen at OSAF 08 in my next post.

All of these good things make up for a loyal artist following, myself included. It is the most difficult event we do every year, and there are many other quality events happening on that weekend in the 5 state area. But it is the excellent staff and volunteers that keep us coming back.

We’ll be back on Monday. Wish me good weather . . . better yet great sales.

I am actually threatening my husband Mike not to take the picture. (Perhaps it would have worked better had I not been smiling. Hmmm.) I went ahead and posted it because I thought what the heck, your amusement is worth more than my humiliation.

The Land Whale
So we have yet again packed for another adventurous art fair. This time we are going to Omaha, NE. This fair generally gets anywhere from 60,000+ fair goers.

Here’s a photo of our business van. Isn’t she a sexy beast? Okay it’s a land whale, but it holds an unbelievably huge amount of stuff and gets between 20-21 miles to the gallon, fully loaded for an event. By todays standards that is hardly high recommendations, but for a vehicle of this size, with an 8-cylinder engine and towing 1500 to 2000 lbs. It’s phenomenal. And I love her for it.

Important Van Features

So for those of you thinking about getting into doing artfairs, (with the exclusion of jewelers, they can show up in a compact, if they know how to pack it.) Here’s a few pointers for choosing the right vehicle.

• Square is good. The boxier the better. Before this van we had a GMC Safari. Also boxy in shape. The reason for this is you can pack more stuff in square than you can in a round type of curvy van, say like a Ford Windstar.
• Tinted Windows are nice. They not only keep the interior cooler, but they also kinda hide the fact that your vehicle is packed with “stuff.” Unfortunatley this van does not have that feature. Our old van did have tinteds and we really miss that in this one. But this one only had 39,000 miles when we bought it, which makes up for the windows.
• Measure your interior and the space between your wheel wells. This is really most important when it comes to your display panels. Whatever kind you’ve got, homemade or pre-made, generally they are largish in size. Most pre-made panels run approximately 3′x 6′. Display panels are really the most difficult object to pack and make fit.
• Note the doors that fully extend open (both on the back and the sides) allowing you the maximum space to put large objects inside.
• Bigger is better. As I said, our previous van was a Safari which was considerably smaller. We got almost as much in it, but we had to pack it in a specific order, in order to get it all to fit. Which meant we generally had to tear everything completely down so we could put our tents in the bottom, then the display, then artwork, totes, etc. If the weather is nice, this is no big deal. However, if it is driving rain and lightening, having to pack in this way, becomes a noticeably a bigger pain in the arse. Also with the larger size van, we can now do two booths at an event with plenty of inventory for both.
• This is the typical art fair artist vehicle. This and trucks towing trailers.

Cargo Vans
This is actually a passenger van that we have removed the seats from. It is essentially the same as a cargo van with some important, comfort related distinctions.

• Cargo van are often an empty shell on the inside. Literally the raw metal of the vehicle make up the interior. This means the van gets colder in the winter and hotter in the summer. Many artists custom build in an interior for comfort.
• Also often cargo van do not usually come with air conditioning (and possibly cruise control) standard. Be sure to check that out if your looking at one.
• And lastly most cargo vans have very few windows. This may not be a big deal if you pack it to the ceiling. We pack most of the time so we can see out our windows. This really helps when driving in unfamiliar cities.

Okay, so here they are in all their revolting cuteness. They have a rather nasty gray green color in my raw scan (shown here) that doesn’t exist in real life. The painting actually has lovely pastels of yellow, pink, green and blue in the shadow areas. I swear if they got anymore Easteresque, they would have to come with their own bag of candy. At least to my credit, I stopped short by not adding clover and butterflies.

All I can say for myself is apparently I needed a little of the Too Cute, or they wouldn’t have turned out this way. I bravely posted the finished painting to remind myself what can happen when doing baby animals that are too cute by nature. So please, dear readers, when next I say something like . . . I think I’ll do some baby bunnies, little duckies or romping kittens. You’ll remind me of this moment. All you’ll have to say is “remember the lamb incident.”

Hmmm. Maybe I should make Easter cards with image? Always thinking about marketing.

Personal Note: Since I have spent soooo much time talking about marketing, I thought I should mention the content of this post is NOT how you sell a painting. Never, (ever, ever) talk like this about your own work. I pondered whether I should even write this, but it amused me to do so. Plus, I rarely take myself too seriously.

These lambs are from our first year crop of lambs. A few years after we moved to Iowa we decided we needed to raise some livestock and we thought sheep were the critters for us.

We bought about a dozen ewe lambs of mixed heritage and let them mature fully. We like to think of our critters health in terms of the long haul, and waiting a little longer to breed them was they way to go. So when the time finally came, we went shopping for a ram. Since we had so few ewes, and since we intended to keep the ewe lambs, we picked out an older (cheaper) ram, which we would replace the following season.

He was a handsome stately gentleman, whom we named Chester. (why? Mike liked the sound of it. And of course “He just looks like a Chester.”) Chester was gentle, and there was nothing bully-like in his behavior at all. (You know, what you actually picture a ram’s personality to be.)

Well the girls loved him. He was always surrounded by two or three ewes, nuzzling his nose and ears, leaning against him and just in general following him around like a bunch of groupies. They never gave him a moments rest.

A few short weeks later we found him dead in the paddock. No coyotes or anything noticeable as to why he died. So we just surmised it was old age. Chester had done his job though. Every ewe had at least one lamb.

The following season we got a new younger ram. The girls wanted no part of him. He was course where Chester was gentle. He harassed them while Chester just let them come to him. It was then that it dawned on us that perhaps the girls had just sexed Chester to death. I mean he was older, but they really just kept after him the whole time. Nothing rough, just always gently touching him and surrounding him, grinning and winking.

Not sure if there is a moral here. Maybe, guys be kind to the ladies and you’ll get all the nookie you can handle? Hmm. Probably not appropriate comment for my g-rated blog huh? All I know is we never got another ram who the ewes like half as well as Chester. And oddly enough in the many years that followed, we never liked any other ram half as well either.

In my gallery, I am often dealing with young (as in new to the artworld, age here has no relavance.) aspiring artists who cling to the fantasy that once they have their first print made, get into their first gallery or get their website created, they will get discovered or their path to success will be secure. I am sorry to say this is probably not going to be the reality.

All of these things (getting into the print market, galleries and getting online) are really good steps in the right direction. They have the potential to make you successful. But you must still do the work. They must be marketed as vigorously as if you were marketing the actual artwork. Planning is critical to making your new endeavor meet your expectations.

Here’s a few things to think about:

• What markets are you trying to reach?
• How much are you wanting to sell your work for?
• How much money do you want to earn? (gross/net)
• What is the time frame to reach your goals?
• Does this sound like fun?

Something To Try
If you are planning on launching a new website, try Googling a description that you think someone might use as a search term for finding you. So for instance, I would try horse art, equine art, wildlife art, oil pastel artist or any combination there of. The search results for Horse Art is 4,840,000. Wow. The search results for Draft Horse Art has 255,000. At one time my website was 3rd down on that list. Yup, Wild Faces Gallery was listed 3 of 255,000. This took a great deal of work to get that kind of ranking and unless we continued to work it like a part-time job, (which we didn’t) it was lost. I have no idea where we are at now, but it is nowhere near the first 3 pages which is the golden spot for Google searches. Most people won’t look past 3 pages for anything.

My point here is not to make you feel hopeless. My point (as always) is to make you think about what you expect to achieve, plan how to make it happen. And to give you the right amount of nudging and confidence, so you take the first step.

Unless you know what your up against, you are more likely to be disappointed with your results which may leave you feeling disappointed in your work. Success in most areas of the art business have very little to do with the quality of your work. Quality is up to you, business is business, whether it be selling cars or selling paintings. In order for you to achieve any measure of success you need to set yourself up to win it.

I don’t know if there is any one magic bullet. If the possibility of being “discovered” without marketing yourself is even possible. Most (if not all) of the big dog artists had to pay their dues. (Bev Doolittle for instance, worked in graphic design and sold small watercolors in Yellowstone for $10-15 before she was “discovered.”) That being said, you may not necessarily have to work like a dog every moment of every day (it is just how I do it.)

The path to “making it” begins by starting with easily attainable goals, (baby steps) then continue to set yourself up to for bigger and bigger challenges that allow you to feel successful, as well as build your confidence. There is no “one” answer or way to success. Try several different things. Experiment, don’t take failure personally and most importantly have fun!

I will post the two most common art myths. The Exposure myth and the Build It and They Will Come myth. These myths tend to have their basis in fact which is why the remain.

Artist Myth #1
Exposing my work to as many people as possible will help me to “make” it.

I can hear some of you already ”But Mona . . . How can exposure be a myth. I can’t sell my work unless it gets seen.”

Yes, artwork must be seen by someone to be sold. But what you need to think about is who are you exposing your work to. I think of this as Qualifying. A subway station (airport, bus station, etc,) may get thousands of people through in a day, but are they going to buy artwork? Probably not. Most are in a hurry to get where their going on time. You are getting your work exposed, but not to the right crowd.

I would think that you will need to find out what works best for you through trial and error. Some non-traditional venues are great and some art shows are . . . not so much. Personally what has worked best for me, is to place my art where people are going to “buy” art. Art fairs (for me in my area) are where that happens. I’ve done all sorts of non-traditional venues, like trendy cafes, Barnes & Noble bookstore, horse expos & zoo conferences, libraries. Most of them were beneficial in one way or the other, but not always financially.

If you have limited time and resources and want to get a monetary return for time and effort invested, you need to qualify whatever event you are thinking about. Heres a few thing to think about:

• Are the people in this location going to be interested in what you do?
• Is it a financially upscale area, where people have disposable income?
• Does the event (store, organization etc.) have a vested interest in your success?
• Are they promoting the event or your artwork, or are sales dependent on passive selling. (someone just happens to see it and want it, though they are there for unrelated reasons)
• What are the risks? Do they have insurance against damage or theft? If your outdoors, will weather be a factor?
• Exactly how many people are we talking about? If the event is promising exposure find out how many. I’ve been approached by events that think 2,500 is a great number. In general I rarely consider anything less than 30,000 people (for a weekend) and thats at an event where they are coming to “buy” art. That being said, I am at a place where my time is at a premium and I do so many events, that unless there is an almost guaranteed payoff, I’ll pass.

In general if some events, cafes, bookstores (insert your non-traditional venue here) use exposure as the major reason why you should participate in their gig, you should perhaps give it more thought. It doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. But you should be clear in your expectations for it and have a firm grasp on what you want to achieve by participating.

On a Personal Note: I apologize for not being my usual perky, (umm. . . no) bubbly, (huh-uh) spunky, charming, chipper? . . .Oh heck lets just say my usual snarkiness. I am feeling a bit over-worked, over-stressed and just in general a malaise. I’m sure I’ll be back to my usual self in a day or two. So please bear (bare?) oh geez . . . have patience.