Spokane ArtFest

A little late in posting because of my insane festival schedule that should not be attempted by any artist, which is faint at heart.

For this show I had fabulous weather, relatively easy load in, great booth neighbors and way above average sales. What more could I ask for. Once again, as years past, the after hours music and adult refreshments were top notch. It’s always great to catch up with other artists in a relaxed atmosphere with no customers around to interfere. This after show time is perfect for that.

Most other artists I talked with had similar reports as mind with the exception of one painter who was asked by the show director to remove his reproductions from his booth and only show his originals. It seems that another artist with a similar style (who was most likely having a bad show) complained to the promoter who was then forced into doing something about it.

Some shows adhere to a fairly strict policy of making the artist limit their reproductions to a rather small portion of all the art in their booth. The thinking here is so not to confuse the public into thinking a repo is an original. Signage and pricing on each print takes care of this abjection but some shows use this clause as a way of maintaining a high percentage of hard to sell originals vs. affordable prints. This policy is something I completely disagree with. No one wins here. The buyer, although they admire and might want to buy an artists work may not be able to afford the original but would be more than happy owning a print. The artist misses out on the sale and the show director loses that artist from re-applying to their future shows because of lack of sales.

Because I’ve done this show for the past 4 yeas I’ve built up a rather nice collector base in the area. It’s always a pleasure to have someone walk into your booth and announce “they’re back for more.”

All and all, I give the 2008 Spokane ArtFest a B+.

Spokane ArtFest

Mandala 32

Here is the 32nd piece in my new Mandala series.

Mandala 32

Mandala 31

Here is the 31st piece in my new Mandala series.

Mandala 31

Mandala 30

Here is the 30th piece in my new Mandala series.

Mandala 30

Mandala 29

Here is the 29th piece in my new Mandala series.

Mandala 29

Mandala 28

Here is the 28th piece in my new Mandala series.

Mandala 28

U District

I’ve attended many street festivals in my career as a traveling artist. Most offer the benefits of a large crowd of interested people who are willing to be exposed to your art. As the name implies, street festivals are usually held on the main street of the hosting town.

Many of these fairs are set in urban areas and offer both the amenities as well as the drawbacks of large cities. The University District Street Fair in the Seattle is one of these shows. This festival typically is held in the middle of May each year, which brings the possibility of un-settled weather and rain that most Seattleites are accustomed to. This year however, the weather was beautiful, in fact, too beautiful. 94 degree temperatures were the norm for this years fair and most people living in the Pacific Northwest aren’t used to this high a temperature this early in the year. So complaints about the rain were replaced with complaints about how hot it was.

No amount of complaining though cold has put a damper on the festivities. From the great selection of food booths to the eclectic music offerings held on two main stages both days of the show, everyone had something to do to keep themselves smiling.

Now, a bit on the reason why I attend this fair, the art. With over 300 booths containing nearly every conceivable form of art, this show seems to have something for everyone. This was my 6th year doing the show and I’m sad to say that the amount of commercial or “buy/sell” art has appeared to have taken over the show. When I first started doing this street fair, the promoters tried to keep non-artist produced art in the southern most section of University Ave. That way, customers wanting cheap imports knew where to go and those wanting to support the attending artists knew where NOT to go.

The past few years have seen a convergence of both the “buy/sell” vendors and artists that created their own works, which gives the show a bizarre flea market, feel. I’m uncertain whether this has become a financial necessity for the promoters to sell more booths or a oversight but unless this stops, the U District Street Fair will become just another Saturday market and not an art show like it purports itself to be.

I really hope they (the directors) get the message because I for one love the fair, the city of Seattle and the diversity of the crowd and want to continue to support it as an art festival. If it continues on this track though I’ll really have to reconsider it.

All of that aside, I had a great show and made an above average amount of sales and money this year. Which would be hard not to with 50,000 plus people walking by my booth.

The University District Street Fair