A somewhat unexpected twist and turn to our long career in the film and photography business has been the transition to landscape and nature photographers. And subsequently becoming members of the large gypsy tribe known as Art Fair Artists.
Although we consider ourselves "semi retired", we spend a lot of time and energy working at creating new images, for both our little on line store, and now showing and selling our work at the Art Fairs.
As I write this, we are in the off season. Winter. It's time to take stock of inventory, apply to shows for the new year and look for some new images here in the midwest. Most of the shows going on right now are in Florida, or Arizona, or some other warm weather region. Since our photography is all about the Rocky Mountains and The Central Plains, we just don't feel our work would have much appeal to the Florida crowd.
This Blog is an insight into our first two years of the art fair life. What it took to get started, what if anything we have learned (OK that was joke) and the bigger mystery of getting in to "shows".
Beginnings and Investments
Before I go any further, let me point out that our first year which was in 2023, was really about Chris and I just trying to figure out how it all worked. We wanted to see if we even enjoyed the process, and if anyone would actually buy our photography. You never know. We had never stood in a tent with the public wandering in to look at our "stuff".
Since we are photographers, we had to invest quite a bit of money to have our images printed to hang as our main art work. We chose Chromaluxe aluminum panels, aka metal prints. We also decided to frame our work in wood float frames. Not the cheapest decision on our part. But they looked awesome!
"Aspens in the Fall" // 15X30 Metal Print in Wood Float Frame
Besides the actual hanging art, you have to have some type of panels to hang the pieces on, hooks and wires to hang on the panels, all sorts of rigging to keep the panels locked into place in the tent. And oh yeah, then there's the tent. The FREAKING tent. Chris and I can count on one hand the tense moments in our 30 plus year marriage. After two years of art fairs, that freaking tent extended those moments to a second hand. Chris finally figured out why... She's right handed and I'm left handed. Opposites. When it came to the damn tent it actually mattered.
Anyway, throw in chairs, bins for our homemade matted prints, booth signs, new awnings for the tent, tools, lights, and storage for all of that. Let's not forget the creation of our homemade matted prints, which includes art papers, Inks and professional matte kits. It starts adding up real fast.
Oops... Forgot to mention a vehicle to fit it all of that in to. Our first show we had to rent a van from U-Haul. After that we took two vehicles to most shows. After our first year, we decided to get a camper shell for my F-150. We actually drove to Minneapolis to get a perfect, used, color matched shell. I still had to remove the rear seat in the F-150 so we would have a place to transport all of our metal prints. We were packed in that truck like sardines. Or as another photographer, who had one of those big ol beautiful Sprinter vans, which is the preferred vehicle of the gypsy tribe joked after watching us pack up after a show, "you all remind me of a game of Tetris".
The "new" topper in Minneapolis, and packed to the gills with our booth items.
On top of all of that, you have a booth fee to pay for your 10X10 space at the fairs. These range from reasonable at the smaller shows to pretty expensive for the larger shows. And then there's your travel expenses if the show is away from home base. Lodging, Gas, Food, Margaritas..
What the heck were we thinking. Nevertheless we dove in.
Lets Do This
Chris in our tent at the Lenexa Art Fair in May of 2023. Our first show.
We honestly didn't know what to expect from our first art fair as far as sales. We had absolutely nothing to gauge success by.
The show was in Lenexa, KS, and it was a one day art fair which is really rare. They provided the tent (what a treat, lol) so we just had to set up our panels and hang the art.
I also need to mention we have some pretty impressive mentors in the art fair world. My sister and her hubby, Gayle and Glen Wans are incredible fine art photographers who have traveled all over the country doing shows for a long, long time. Chris and I spent what seemed like hours on the phone talking with them about all of this stuff. They loaned us some of their older panels for the first show before we ordered brand new ones.
They also gave us the tent. That damned tent. Don't get me wrong, It was a very nice thing they did for us, and very helpful since a new one is very expensive. It's an older tent though and as we have observed out at the shows, the newer versions seem to be much easier to assemble. We love you Wansees :)
Anyway, The Wans's are the ones that recommended we do Lenexa as our first show. We applied and were invited to show. And thanks to their long standing connection with the gal who ran the show, we were able to be set up next to them.
Russ, Chris, Glen and Gayle Wans at The Lenexa Art Fair
Lessons Learned
I remember a lady walked by our tent the morning before the Lenexa show even opened and bought a homemade matted print of "East Inlet Meadow". I'm thinking WOW this is going to be awesome. Glen was standing there and just shook his head. Well, the rest of the day was not nearly as awesome. We did sell eight of our matted prints but just one of our framed metal prints. Not exactly raking it in. We made enough to pay for the booth fee and the U Haul. We also were burnt to a crisp by the afternoon sun. And so was some of our artwork
Still, our photography was really well received. We had tons of compliments, which was really nice to hear. We gave out a stack of business cards, and more than anything we felt like we belonged. But we were still rookies.
The remainder of that first year was a mixed bag. As I mentioned we were learning a ton off of every show. Chris kept an ongoing "what we learned from the XX show" document. It always had new entries. Umbrellas for the chairs was the first entry after Lenexa.
We also learned that for the most part we loved meeting the artists that were close to us at the shows. It's a very supportive group of folks. We were constantly getting an education on the finer points of Art Fairs. Not to mention the occasional trade of our respective artwork. We have made some great connections and even a few friends.
We found that most of the other photographers are very supportive. Most of them. There are a few grumps mixed in there. The grumps would wander in to our booth at some point and sort of shrug their shoulders and walk out. Nice to meet you too brother.. But the majority were awesome. We usually check in with each other during the weekends to see how sales are going. Actually it has been very helpful us to see the price points other photographers are selling at. It's nice to keep it competitive. Another learning experience.
Another thing we learned is which shows we would not go back to. These were shows that had very little traffic. We jokingly called a couple shows "dog walkers", where folks were just out for a stroll with their dogs but had zero intention of buying anything. We still loved on the dogs, because we love dogs. We understand the economy has been rough on folks, but when you travel to a show, you really need to at least make expenses. So the goal is to get into the better shows that really attract buyers. And you know.. Sell some art.
The Plaza Art Fair - Kansas City, MO - September 2024
The Art of Getting In
Chris and I just concluded our second year of traveling the region doing shows. Our first year, 2023, we were invited to five shows, our second year, 2024, we doubled that total and were invited to ten shows. Notice I used the word invited. All the Art Fairs and Festivals are by invitation only, and you go through a jury process to see if your work is accepted. It's been quite a learning experience to figure out how to get accepted.
The first year, 2023, we actually made it in to all the shows we applied to. We were put on a wait list for one show, but we were eventually invited into that show. So going in to 2024, we were feeling like it was going to be a cakewalk getting into the shows we wanted to be in. Well, as they say, not so fast.
When you apply for an art fair, you are required to submit three things that the jury sees during the selection process. 1) Three or four images of your work, 2) One image of your assembled booth with just your work hanging, and no identification of who you are. And finally a very short (usually 100 words) description of your work and materials used.
From what I have been told, the jurors see you images for less than 10 seconds, your booth shot for less, and maybe if you make it through the first round of voting, they read your 100 words.
They score you on a scale of 1 to whatever. You never really know your score, you eventually just get one of three notifications: 1) Congratulations you've been Invited!! 2) Sorry you've been rejected or 3) You have been added to the Wait List, we'll let you know if someone drops out.
For the entire 2024 Art Fair calendar we applied to 19 shows.
Congrats you are invited: Ten shows. Woo Hoo!
Sorry you've been rejected: Three shows. Damn that hurts!
Welcome to the wait list: Six shows. The ol hurry up and wait.
We have been told multiple times by multiple artists, including Gayle and Glen Wans that you can't take the rejections too hard. Lots of incredible artist get rejected all the time. Especially to the larger shows. The judges are different every year. Who really knows what goes on behind the closed doors of the selection process. All you can really do is try to present the work you think is going to get their attention in a good way. We've been invited to some really nice shows, and rejected by some really nice shows.
Russ and Chris at the Mulvane Art Fair - Topeka Kansas - 2024
Adjustments
There's a group of cynical artists we have met that believe the wait list is just a polite way of rejecting you. The art fairs collect a small fee usually $35 to $45 off everyone just to apply. Imagine the larger shows get well over 1000 applicants for a little over 200 booths. Those application fees can add up.
If you've been flat out rejected by an art fair, you seriously think twice about applying to that show again. But being on a wait list, you seriously hold out hope you eventually get invited, and for sure we've talked to artists who have. We were invited off of one in 2023 ourselves. But for us in 2024, of the six wait listed shows we were on, we were invited to none of them. Zip. Nada. Ugh!
All of our wait lists and rejections came from applications we submitted during the winter off season of 23/24. Just like our original applications back in 2022, we had submitted our favorite images. Our best selling images. That turned out to be a mistake.
So we started to do a lot of research. Going to all of the Art Fair's websites and looking at the photographers that were invited. Comparing our work. We still felt our work measured up with most everyone, but It was obvious we needed to adjust something.
We started to submit more unique images, more graphic images with very strong compositions. And all in a wider format. All of these images had a very similar look and feel which is one thing the juries look for, consistency.
"Treeline in the Fog" // Spring Hill, Kansas
We started to get accepted into more shows, and the icing on the cake was getting invited to The Plaza Art Fair in Kansas City. Well known as one of the "biggies" in the Art Fair world. By the time September rolled around we were invited into every show we applied to. We ended up in ten shows as I mentioned earlier.
As far as sales, some of the shows were great, some were good, and there were a couple absolutely horrible shows that we will not be going back to. Besides sales, you want to go to Art Fairs that look after the artists. Bringing you waters on really hot days, a hospitality tent with snacks, and even booth sitters who will "mind the store" while you go to the restroom. It really makes a difference. Before we apply to any show we now research reviews from other artists to get a feel of the event.
The Westport Art Fair - September 2024
The 2024 Season
After our second year of showing at art fairs, we discovered that our work really sells the best near home. As our image collection continues to grow, we have added more to our Rural America landscape collections, as well as our original collection of mountain landscapes. Both of those styles do really well in the midwest.
Our two best shows in 2024 were The Westport Art Fair and The Plaza Art Fair. Both in Kansas City. Followed by Lawrence Art in the Park in Lawrence, KS, and our second year in Lenexa, KS. We showed in Colorado twice and Texas twice to very mixed results.
You would think Colorado would be a great place for our Mountain Landscapes, but the competition at the Colorado shows has been crazy, and the crowds have been hit and miss. Our images held up just fine, quality wise, but there were just so many mountain landscape photographers at every show. We were at a show in the summer and talked to another landscape photographer who had not sold one piece for the weekend. Brutal.
For some reason Texas is still a bit of a mystery to us. Both getting in to shows and selling our work when and if you do get in. Texas is the mixed bag I was referring to. More times than not we have been rejected or wait listed to the Texas shows. To be fair we have applied mostly the "biggies". The odds were not in our favor to begin with. The smaller shows have not proven to be very profitable although we may have made expenses.
Still, we keep trying. I always felt that Texans would love our Mountain Landscapes considering the amount of Texans we see in Colorado every time we go there. I think we are determined to conquer Texas at some point. We may just need to re evaluate the submissions that cater better to the Texas market.
So here I sit in the winter of 2025 writing this long winded Blog and watching the Snow Melt. Chris has been busy working on books and paperwork, inventorying our existing art work. Making lists... We are always making lists. I've been creating some new images for the 2025 season. Our trusty old Epson printer finally died right after the last art fair of 2024. After much research, we purchased a new Canon Pro1100 printer. It's a 17 inch printer that will allow us to expand our handmade offerings. I'm very excited about that. Naturally I had to rearrange the office to accommodate this beast. The printer is a mandatory expense and it was not cheap. More expenses.
When it comes to the Art Fairs, we are still learning, always learning. But I find it incredibly rewarding and fun to be out in the world showing our art. Meeting new artists and building a small, yet growing following of customers. It truly makes it all worth it.
We have applied to 11 shows so far this winter. Shows that will just take us through the end of June. We will add our summer and fall show applications soon. Meanwhile we wait for the judges decisions and our Art Fair Gypsy fates.