Fur In The Paint

And now for some good news.
I got an email from Omaha Summer Arts Festival about some help for those who lost so much this year, either at this event or some other. I thought I would pass it along.

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.

Actually, I seriously pondered not writing about this at all. But then I thought my plan for this blog was to be as honest as possible. Only in honesty, can it really help anyone else. That being said, it is just such a drag to keep talking about how brutal these past several shows have been. I have talked with many artists who do events all over the country and their story is much the same. Many missed opportunities because of the weather.

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.

I am back from another artfair. This time we were in Omaha Nebraska doing the Omaha Summer Arts Festival. (OSAF) The photos are from Sunday afternoon when the crowds had thinned a bit. This event is always the epitome of everything to do with artfairs.

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.

At Least The Cat Looks Dignified
So here is a photo of me and Budda crashed out on the couch in the front room of the gallery, resting after a hard day of packing. Apparently Budda thinks my gut is more squishy soft than the couch.

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.

This is a photo of the Beaux Arts Festival on Saturday. It was taken closer to end of day so the crowd had thinned a bit.

The keen observers among you probably noticed that I have returned a day early. This was not by choice mind you. But we got rained out. We did manage to put in a full day Saturday, but the weather forecast was grim for Sunday. Using my “artfair spidey senses” (as Mike calls them,) I made the executive decision to pack up completely on Saturday night. I had a gut feeling it was gonna get ugly even though as we packed the sun came out and showed lovely blue skies.

By the following morning it was driving rain and windy. We went to the artists breakfast hosted by the Beaux Arts Committee at the Radisson. (Yummy BTW) and briefly glaced at the destruction.

The skeletal remains in this photo are our neighbors across the street from us. The 99 (or viewed upside down in our photo is 66) is where my booth would have sat. It turned out about only 1 in 20 completely packed up on Saturday. Many tents survived just fine. Many were not so lucky. Not all the mangled tents were EZ Ups either. There was a heavy duty craft hut type, half a block up that was half collapsed and blown out into the middle of the street.

It had rained so hard over night that water was coming out of manhole covers. In one area it was like a 1 foot fountain gurgling out of the middle of the road.

SO for those of you thinking about doing artfairs to sell your artwork, take a long hard look. This mode is not for the faint of heart. There are risks to be sure, but for me the rewards outweigh them by far. I plan to blog all about artfairs over the summer. Also I think I will include more general business information and marketing, as well as my usual artsy fartsy stuff. If anyone has anything in particular that you want to hear about, just leave a comment.

It was a 7 hour drive to get back home today. I think it is time for a hot bath, a cold diet coke and a long, long nap.

So this past weekend was the last time to pack up and take my dog and pony show on the road. In typical Iowa fashion,the weather was uncooperative. It rained and sleeted with intermittent bouts of snow thrown in. Needless to say sales were not as good as I was hoping for, but it still topped our last event. The last one really sucked! (or maybe it blew?) Anyway, hope springs eternal and I just move on for the next event.

5 things I don’t like about artfairs.

1. Inclement weather
2. All that hauling and toting
3. Emotionally crushing low sales
4. Sales tax collection
5. Obnoxious or rude people

5 things that I like about artfairs.

1. Being out in beautiful weather
2. The hauling and toting keeps me in shape (sort of)
3. The positive feedback and high sales (Okay maybe money should have been 1.)
4. Travel
5. People. Meeting animal people and hearing their stories as well as making friends with other artists whom I would not have otherwise met.

So the big day is over and yes I probably gained a pound or two. The pies are all gone (thankfully) as is most everything, but the turkey. The barn cats weren’t nearly as traumatic an experience as they could have been. But then I just fed them outside the house instead of walking all the way to the barn with it. They bounced around like a bunch of circus poodles, squabbled heatedly when I first put down the pot. Then they snatched up a mouthful of that turkey goodness and all settled down peaceably.

The gallery is beginning to get busier. Usually at this stage I am at a fervor. This year has been slow to take off.

I will also be preparing for a holiday art fair for this coming weekend. It is the last art fair of the season for us. It is a relief to be done with them and yet I miss it when its over. The older I get the less I like all that hauling and toting. Art fairs kinda make me feel like a glorified carny. We all move in for a weekend and set up our little stores. Because we are in it together, come what may, wind, rain or lousy sales, we can become like a family. A strangely dysfunctional but creative family. Not so different from my own, really.