The good, the bad and the terrible

My latest trip to the two shows I did in California was well, interesting. Sales at Half Moon Bay's Pumpkin festival were on par with last years which made m feel good because many artists I talked to were glad their sales were only down by 30-40%. I can assure you that if you ever read or hear from me that my sales were ONLY down 30-40% that will be the last season I go out on the circuit.

My experiences in Danville were much more mixed. Through out Saturday I complained (silently to myself) that this market just wasn't for me. Although Danville is one of the richest ZIP codes in the country, they got that way my not spending their money. This festival is a place for the public to "be seen" not to attend to see and buy art at. I called my wife after closing Saturday night and begged her to not send me back, but being the ever so optimistic person she is, reminded me that I still had Sunday to make up for the slow sales on Saturday.

On Sunday with only a few hours left in the show, I had a couple of decent sales and low and behold after counting up what I did, I was actually up a few hundred dollars over last year. I'm sticking with my "this is the wrong market for my art" theory and most likely will give this show a rest for a few years.

The one thing that a traveling artist fears the most, even over crappy sales is having a mechanical breakdown while on the road and on this trip, I had two. On my way down to the shows I had my THIRD set of axle bearings fail on my trailer in the last 4 months. Turns out that the backyard tow truck driving, want to be mechanic that repaired them the last time I broke down on the road, over tighten the axle nut thus causing the grease to heat up, melt and burn up the bearings. So much for my good deal from this good ol' boy.

I stopped at a rest area just outside of Weed California and noticed the awkward angle my wheel was leaning and after a few choice words, went into "let's get this thing fixed" mode and called for a tow. When the driver unloaded my trailer from his flatbed truck at the repair shop he informed me that I owed him $360.00 for a THIRTEEN MILE tow. When I question him about the price he informed me that "your in California and we charge $180.00 and hour". When I pointed out that from start to finish it was only about an hour and a half he said there was a 2 hour minimum to tow from the area I broke down. Please remind me never to move back to California OK?

The axle repair went smooth and quick and I was back on my way in a few hours. Oh yeah, when I presented my insurance card for the tow bill the driver said the company rejected the charge because it only covered the tow vehicle and NOT the trailer. This is after I specifically asked my agent if my trailer was covered. Presently, my agent is still hiding from me. I also bought a membership to AAA RV Plus services.

My return trip home went smooth for the entire time until I got to about 50 miles from home. I had to accelerate through a yellow light (I know I should have done the opposite) and noticed the RPMs on my tach rev up which is not what's suppose to happen. This was the first sign that my transmission was going out so I limped it back to Sandpoint where my transmission service center informed me that I needed to have it rebuilt which, was only going to cost $1500.00 and not the $3000.00 plus a repair out of town would have been. Just part of being a traveling artist I told myself and 2 days later picked up my truck with a newly rebuilt tranny. At least I don't have to worry about that happening again for awhile, I hope.

Should have been posted on 3-15-09

I just logged a little bit under 500 miles of driving today. I pulled into where I will be spending my first night of this road trip. I stopped in Ontario OR, which although I’ve stay here before, it was always on my return trip from Art in the Park in Boise. This is a fairly quiet rest area along High Way 84 heading east towards Utah.

The reason I’m here and not in Idaho Falls which is the route I normally take is because after monitoring the weather for the past few days on NOAA I decided that getting ahead of the storm was futile and pulling a trailer over two mountain passes on an expected snow floor heading east on I 90 towards Butte MT. where I would then turn south was not a good idea. It also might have a little to do with the last time I was on this road I hit a mule deer and nearly totaled my truck (that’s another story read the post a few entries back) so a change of plans was a good choice.

I decided to drive west into Washington, then south down 395 into Pasco WA. then through into Oregon towards Boise. That adds about 100 miles to this leg of the trip but well worth not having to stress over the weather. As it was I drove a few hours through snow but shortly before noon it turned to rain.

I don’t have WiFi access tonight so this will be a post dated post once I get a connection. So, time for a beer and some catching up on a few podcasts I haven’t got around to listening on my Ipod Touch.

My final leg of the trip home

As I climbed the grade driving out of Las Vegas headed toward Mesquite, NV. I kept thinking about why I chose this route to drive home instead of my more familiar way through Flagstaff AZ. Sure I got lulled into thinking that I wouldn’t have to take the chance of getting stranded in a snow storm but at least if I chose to drive that way, I would have been mentally prepared for snow. This way I wasn’t.

After I calculated how far I would have to drive until I got to Mesquite, I started to feel better about my chances of making it safely. The non-damaged taillights would at least make me visible to vehicles coming on me from the rear so I should be OK that way. I decided to stay as close to a big rig directly in front of me allowing him to be my lights and in no time at all I was pulling into the town where I was going to stay for the evening.

The cool thing about Nevada towns, especially ones close to the border of neighboring states, is they survive mainly by offering “games of chance” to its visitors. Legalized gambling in the state of Nevada drives it’s economy and by placing these little “boom towns” along the border of neighboring states that DON’T allow gambling, Nevada assures itself of a steady stream of customers.

The different casinos try various means to attract gamblers to loose their money (I mean try and win a fortune) in their establishments. Free booze, inexpensive meals and of course, cheap motel rooms. I was able to secure a very comfortable room for under $30.00, which if it weren’t affiliated with a casino would have cost at least $90.00 for the night. The casinos underwrite what they loose in lodging by what they gain in they money the house normally makes off its gamblers. In my case, I was exhausted from the day so they didn’t get any additional money off of me. A few cold beers, some dinner and ESPN on TV were all I wanted for the rest of my evening.

After a good nights sleep I awoke to find that the previous days snow storm not only left more snow than this region has most likely seen in a while but was leaving more and more even then. My driving goal for the day was to make it to just outside Salt Lake City where my son and his family live. This is only a 250-mile drive, which in dry normal conditions should only take 4 ½ to 5 hours to drive. Unfortunately, I was sure that the snow floor on I-15 would slow my drive time considerably. I grabbed a cup of coffee at a local drive thru across the street from my hotel and headed out.

Even though the road conditions were less than perfect, I was able to make fairly good time, FOR THE FIRST 10 MINUTES. As I headed towards the summit of the pass I needed to cross, the blizzard grew worse and traffic slowed to a crawl. As I took my place in line, I noticed a highway patrol officer a short distance away starting to direct those rigs without tire chains installed to pull to the right where they could either put them on or if they didn’t have them, to stay parked until the road became safe for them to drive. That caused a major backup. I would guess that maybe 10% of the cars had chains. The big rigs by and large have chains but it takes a fair amount of time to install them. Those of us who drive 4 wheel drive vehicles were able to pass through the road block but the traffic was backed up for over 10 miles so I spent more time at a stand still than driving. When I was able to move, it was only a car length or slightly more at a time. For the next 3 hours I inched my way towards St. George Utah and somewhat better driving conditions.

Once past St. George my speeds crept up towards the speed limit and although I was still driving on a snow floor, traffic dispersed enough to allow those who are used to driving in snow more room to pass slower vehicles. From there up to my son’s house near Salt Lake City it was clear sailing. After spending the night with the family I headed out to my next destination, a good friends house south of Missoula MT. 550 miles away. This stop has become an annual stopover allowing us to catch up on old times as well as bring each other up to speed on current happening. I always cherish this time spent with Mort & Kathy.

The next morning I left for my final days drive before I reached home. The weather was OK in Missoula but as soon as I approached 4th of July pass on I-90 the snow floor worsened and sideways blowing snow started to obscure my vision. On this stretch of highway, especially in the winter, traffic is always light. Even though it is the main east-west artery this far north, I’ve never run into too many vehicles when driving over the pass. This morning was a different story.

The Idaho Highway Patrol was monitoring weather and road condition very closely because of the storm and just as I was to make my climb to the summit I encountered the 3rd road-closing blockade of my return trip. As I came to a stop in one of the chain-up pullout areas, a polite officer explained to me that there was a mandatory road closure and I would have to turn around and wait out the storm. He said they expected the highway to be closed at least 24 hours and that I should try again tomorrow. Totally bummed and dearly wanting to get home I tried pleading my case but I was told no way and seeing that this gentleman was armed, I slowly started to make my way to the exist to turn around.

Just then, I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed a big rig sliding to a stop about a quarter of a mile behind me. The officers all took off to aid this jack knifed rig and I sat there looking in my mirror of the two them running away from where I was parked. For the moment I continued to turn around but my desire to get home out weighed my fear of these fleeing patrolmen so with complete disregard for the law that I hadn’t felt since my teenage years, I took off and drove past the road block.

With adrenalin pumping and the fear of what it would be like to experience sitting in the back of a police car handcuffed vividly in my head, I kept up as fast a speed as I felt safe and continued on. I passed dozens of parked trucks and trailers for the next 10 miles or so. These drivers knew how bad the road was and chose to sit it out. I on the other hand, slowly picked my way through chunks of broken ice that the large trucks created by driving on the 8-10” thick snow floor with their chains. Heavy semi’s + chains + ice = small boulder sized obstacles I had to maneuver around. Right about then I was starting to think that running the roadblock was not one of my brightest ideas but I was too far into it to turn back now so I just kept going. Because there were no other “moving” vehicles on the road, I at least didn’t have to worry about them, just the chunks of ice.

After about eight hours into what would have normally taken me about 3 hours to drive, I pulled into my home town of Sandpoint with just slightly elevated blood pressure and a few more grey hairs for my trouble. With my 2008 show schedule behind me and no more road trips for a few months, it was truly time to relax.

Snowy Las Vegas

There are a few things that really get me excited. Computers, digital gadgets, my ever expanding horse/dog/cat & goat family, my lovely wife Linda and of course my 4 kids. But every once in awhile I come upon something that really blows me away. Such was the case when I rounded the last curve in the road and saw the Hoover Dam for the first time. The dam itself is awe inspiring but couple that site with the enormous bridge they’re building next to it and you have the recipe for some very cool visual eye candy. Because the daylight was already fading fast and the hard rain was turning to snow, that’s right snow in the desert, who would have thunk it, I decided to forgo taking any more photos and keep on driving into Las Vegas.

I was able book a room in a Motel 6 right near the off ramp leading to I-15 north which should have been less than a hours drive from the dam so I wasn’t too worried about the fading daylight. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention that the paranoia over driving at night is not some deep seated issue I’ve had since childhood but rather the lack of head lights due to the collision I had with a large mule deer on the very first night of this trip almost 4 weeks ago. Truck/deer run in’s have happened to me in the past. It’s never pleasant to take another creature’s life. It’s always messy and many times debilitating to the vehicle. In this case I was lucky (much more than I can say for the deer) because even though the front of my truck was smashed in, including the lights, I was able to pry the bumper away from the tire enough to enable me to drive to where I was staying that evening. That was a good thing because it was getting dark and 8 degrees outside. I always carry clear duct tape in my truck so with its help, I was able to literally tape my fender, grill and what was left of my lights back together allowing me to continue on.

After giving up condolences to the spirit of the deer my thoughts turned to the monetary loss I might be facing if I couldn’t continue on to these two shows. When you entire income is based on what you sell at art festivals, missing a show, for any reason is a huge bummer. Lucky for me the antlers of the deer didn’t puncture my radiator so as long as I didn’t mind driving around a smashed in truck and planed my driving not to happen at night, I should be OK. Which of course it was or I wouldn’t be writing about my trip AFTER that night here on this blog.

So, back to Vegas. Did I mention snow? To me, living in Sandpoint, Idaho, driving in snow is just part of life. But to desert dwellers, driving in the white stuff is life altering. You could tell whom the snowbirds where even by not looking at their license plates. They I’m sure were put off by the snow but were able to cope with it. Those drivers spending the winter in the desert instead of back home in Michigan or Minnesota were able to keep up a steady but safe high way speed but for someone who hasn’t had the pleasure of driving on ice before it was darn near frightening. Based on the amount of people thinking 5-7 MPH was the top speed one should drive when rain turns to frozen falling water from the sky, I knew I might not make it to the motel before darkness fell and I, driving without adequate headlights would be up the proverbial creek I didn’t.

There were stretches when I was able to move over into the fast lane and drive at a respectable speed so when I saw the sign noting that my exit towards I-15 north where I was staying that night was only 2 ½ miles ahead I was stoked. That feeling lasted all but about one minute because the very next freeway sign warned that due to construction on the off ramp, the road leading to I-15 north was closed and I should take the next exist and follow the detour signs. Normally that wouldn’t bother me but it was snowing in Vegas, I had little to no headlights, traffic had come to an almost paralyzing halt and I didn’t know how to get back to the motel where my reservations for the evening were. By the time I called their front desk to see if they could guide be back, I was so far out of my way I decided to continue on and look for other accommodations.

The other problem with this detour route was it was taking me through a very Hispanic part of the city and because I don’t speak or read Spanish, trying to locate a new room for the night looked rather slim. That said, I ventured on until I found the re-connection back onto I-15 north about a half an hour later. This was a good 15 miles from the motel were I was to stay so turning back once on the highway didn’t seem like a good idea. Now it was well into dusk so it was getting critical about finding somewhere to stop for the night. Crossing my fingers I headed out into the snowy Las Vegas night, trying to make it to the next place on the road where I could get a room, Mesquite, NV.

To be continued….

I'm back

Let me start this New Year’s blog entry by recapping the last road trip of my 2008 season. I historically end my art festival season with an extended road trip to AZ. for shows in Tempe and then Tucson. Even though many of my fellow traveling artists are staying closer to home because of their fears of a down economy, I always make money on this trip and this last one was no exception.

I was actually up about 5% in Tempe over the same show in 2007 but off 10% in Tucson. What I did notice from both shows though was the even though my customer count was higher (more actual individual sales written) the higher prices pieces sat un-sold by and large. That was one thing I noticed about the AZ. economy. People still came out and purchased art but they spread their Christmas shopping dollars out more. Instead of buying 2 $75.00 pieces they bought 5 or 6 $20.00 items or 4 to 5 $35.00 gifts. Basically the same dollars spent just spread over more gifts. Either way, I felt fortunate they spent with me because many of my friends reported sales down 40-50%.

Traveling is always an issue for artists that do the circuit. Add to that the fact that on this trip I have to drive 1800 miles home through some of the worst weather states imaginable, and one can see why making a living like I do is NOT for everyone. There was a winter storm warning in and around Flagstaff on the Monday I was to be traveling through on my way to my first stop in Salt Lake City. Reports of highway closures with up to 2 feet of snow made me decide to seek an alternate route. I Googled mapped a new and safer way (I thought) around this storm though Las Vegas, which then was to reconnect me back on I-15 north then up to Salt Lake City. This was going to add about a hundred miles to my trip but I gambled that this detour was worth not getting stranded in the snow in Flag.

My first surprise was that Highway 93 out of Phoenix towards Vegas looks like a main road on the map but in reality isn’t much more than a 2-lane desert highway. By the time I got to Wickenburg I was already calculating how much time I wasted on this new route. Because I had never been through Las Vegas before I kept telling myself to just think of this as a site seeing trip and to chill out because my season was over and other than wanting to be home in the worst way, an extra day driving in this area of the country I’ve never been in before was better that the hazards of the storm in northern AZ.

I knew that this route took be near Hoover Dam and had a vague recollection that I might even get close enough to see it. In fact, not only do you see it, you drive right over it, cool! As I neared the dam itself, you can’t help but notice the signs warning you of travel delays. I thought, it’s Monday, they are probably working on the road. What the road delay signs really meaning is that some higher up in our government still feels that this historic dam would make a great terrorist target so official looking guard types stop and randomly search vehicles going over the dam in both directions. By now it was raining rather hard and these guards standing out in the rain looked as if they rather be any where else than where they were so as I approached my turn in line to go through the checkpoint I decided to curb my almost always kidding nature and revert to using words like yes sir and no sir. I was happy to see that they weren’t requiring every vehicle to be searched but only seemed to be diverting 1970’s models VW buses and old converted hippie type school buses to pull over and show their contents. That really made me want to ask the guard about they’re use of stereotypical profiling but alas, I kept my mouth shut.

He did however ask what was in the canopy of my truck and when I told him I was an artist traveling home from my last show of the season he actually did want to make sure I wasn’t fabricating the whole story so he made me pull over and open up the back. Once he saw that I was carrying dozens of boxes filled with my art as well as my entire canopy and print bin set up, he gave me a break from not empting it’s contents and doing a more thorough search. It might have had something to do with me saying I had over $20,000.00 worth of art that absolutely could not get wet or he was just being cool but either way, I was back on the road and just a few minutes away from getting my first site of the famous Hoover Dam.

To be continued….

Boise, ID Art in the Park

One of the highlights of my art festival year is Art in the Park held at Julia Davis Park in Boise ID. Not only is it in my home state of Idaho, albeit 550 miles south of where I live in the northern panhandle, but it’s also one of more professionally run festivals on the circuit.

For those of you researching shows to do and are adverse to paying out a 20% commission based on your total gross sales for your booth fee, stop reading now because that is the case with this show. However if this steep booth fee isn’t a roadblock for you, I think you’ll find Boise’s Art in the Park both a financially as well as fun show to do.

One gripe many traveling artist have about particular shows is how hard set-up and teardown are. Even though close proximity parking to your booth is nearly non-existent, this festival has arranged with the Boise City Parks Department to donate their employees as well as dozens of small ATV/tractors to actually move all of you equipment and art right to your booth location. In the 30 shows I do every year this is the only arrangement of its kind I ever found. This is a huge plus in my book if you ask me.

Weather as always can make or break a show but for the second week in a row (knock on wood), we were presented with perfect temps and gentle breezes. I could get used to this ☺

Another amenity found at Boise is the wonderful artist reception dinner held after the show is closed to the public Friday evening. Free adult beverages as well as a meat eaters AND vegetarian buffet made for a great reward for the long hours of sales. Speaking of hours they were (for this year anyway) 10-8 Friday & Saturday and 10- 5 on Sunday. Ample time to conduct the volume of sales this show always seems to have. During this dinner booth awards are announced. As always, there seems to be those who complain about how these awards are judged and this show was no different. Both awards were given to Boise locals, which brought up murmurs of prejudicial treatment but in my opinion these artists were deserving.

The director offers special overnight parking permits for those who plan on staying in their RV but be sure to ask for it.

The estimated crowd of 250,000 people over this 3-day event offers the 265 artists plenty of potential customers to work with. Although a few of the artists I spoke with said their sales were down from last year, many, including myself had record sales for this show. So I think those with off sales were more a reflection on what they were showing more than a poor economy.

I love this show and as long as I’m invited to attend I always keep it on my schedule.


Booth fee – 20% of gross sales
Cost of sales ratio – B
Hours of operation – B+ (10AM to 8 PM)
Location – A
Event staff A
Overall grade A-

Art in the Park

I'm trying

OK, I admit it. Keeping a current blog journal is way more work for me than I ever expected. When I started this blog in January of this year I was on my winter break and I had an abundant amount of time on my hands.

Traveling to art festivals every weekend has limited the amount of free time I have to blog and for that, I’m sorry. Between getting ready for the show, driving to far away places, setting up my booth, maintaining the always hectic pace of meeting and greeting prospective clients, closing sales, tearing down my both, driving back home and starting all over again for the next weekend has become maddening, but I love it.

So I’m trying to figure out a way to squeeze in regular posts. Suggestions are gladly accepted.

On the road again

Well, I'll be leaving for a 3 week, 2 show swing through Arizona early Saturday morning so posts for the next short while might be a little sporadic. As long as I can find reliable WiFi access from the show or where I'll be staying, I'll give you updates as they happen. If access is non-reliable, these posts will occur when I can hook up to the Net.

I really hope connectivity is OK because one of the main reasons for starting this blog was to give aspiring artists a detailed look at what it's like to do shows from the artist point of view. There isn't better way to do that than reporting right from the show.

Next update- somewhere south of Sandpoint, Idaho.