Well, as far as my first blog went, it’s apparent that there are no boxing fans and screenwriters out there. So, onward I go into the blogging world.
It’s Saturday morning, February 25th and I’m sitting in front of my booth at the Naples National Art Festival in Cambria Park waiting for the show to start.
I drove down here from Saint Petersburg yesterday morning, dollied all of my booth supplies ( a Showoff tent, weights, pedestals, stands and rolling containers of all my glass artwork) into the park and set up my booth for the weekend art show.
I’ve been doing juried ( the only type) art shows since July 19th, 2008 when I did my first…The Cool Art Show at the Saint Petersburg Coliseum. One week later, I did a huge wholesale show at the Convention Center in Philadelphia called the Buyers Market of American Craft where only gallery owners are permitted to enter.
It was a wonderful way to kick off the life of a working artist, not only retailing, but also wholesaling. Since then I’ve done approximately 250 juried art festivals, traveling up and down the East coast, where I retail my artwork to the public and have wholesaled my glass artwork to approximately 80 galleries around the country.
Being a working artist and selling artwork to the public is a fun and rewarding “job”, but for the aspiring artists in the world, who want to do this type of work, it is quite an endeavor.
Please keep in mind, what it really takes is being an artist five days a week…and being a salesman two days a week.
Unless you have some mega-corporation of some sort out there selling your artwork for you ( and after all these years, I know lots and lots of artists, and I don’t know a single one who doesn’t have to sell their own “stuff”)
There is a certain skill in learning how to get out there and sell your artwork (which I may touch on sometime in another blog)
Anyway, got to go…someone just walked into my booth and I have to go try to get my booth fee, application fee, gas, Airbnb, and food paid for. I gotta go sell some art.
