Elmhurst Art in Wilder Park

Elmhurst Art in Wilder Park, on May 6, 7 was my first outdoor show of the season for 2017! This is the third year I am doing the show & it is always an exciting one as we get to see so many of our artist friends after the winter break. This year we had the added bonus of having Miranda (http://www.mirandameyer.com/) & Stephen stay with us for the show. 

Our plan was to do the set-up for the show on Friday evening, we got to the venue around 5.30pm. Finding parking was not an issue, but my booth location had moved from the previous years due to rain & the ground being soggy in some places. We had to move the van again to get to a closer parking and dolly everything to our booth.

It's amazing how rusty we had gotten over the winter & it took forever, with a slew of amateur mistakes before we could set up the booth. Luckily we hadn't forgotten any part for the set-up like last year. It was also super-cold. Weather is always iffy at this show, given it is very early in the season. This year I had to pack all my winter gear including hand warmers for the show. We only managed to put the booth up & decided to hang the paintings the next morning. Just the tent & walls took more than 2.5 hours to get done!

We got there early around 8.30 on Saturday morning to finish the booth. I love having a corner booth at this show and it allows me to have more of my work out. Saturday was painfully slow and I had only 7 sales, not even making what I paid for the booth fee in sales. I had even run a facebook ad for the past 4 days promoting the show & my works. Shankar had taken back the front wall to close the booth home by mistake, so, I had to make an extra trip home before we could close up for the day. The highlight of the day was going to a nice Indian restaurant for dinner with friends & family!

Sales on Sunday was even worse than Saturday. The sun started coming out later in the day, though the temperature did not rise. Highlight of the day was quite a few friends stopping by & it was also nice to see a few of my collectors from the years before.

I didn't sell any original paintings & the sales of prints hardly made up for my expenses. A few other artist friends did not even make what I did. This show is the closest in distance & time to where we live. The location is great & so is the promoter. Unfortunately this is the second year I am not making any money doing this show & we have to seriously think about it for next year. I had such a great show the first year I was here and the weather is the biggest factor in determining the crowd & sales. Hoping the upcoming shows make up for this one!

Show Review: Spring Showcase of Arts & Crafts

My first formal show of the year was NSSEO foundation's Annual Spring Showcase of Arts and Crafts in Palatine, IL. The show is being put on by a non-profit aiding developmentally challenged kids and I was glad to be at the show starting this year's line up in March. 

Spring Showcase of Arts & Crafts, Booth #73

The show is in its 45th year and it seems to be losing its audience. It was very slow for both the days, in the afternoons especially. My booth was located on the stage in the gym and the four steps up to the stage was a big barrier. Most people did not want to climb up and hence all the stuff I had on the table, print bins and note card rack was mostly ignored. The advantage was that the paintings were visible from all over the room. I did manage to see a few trivets, a set of coasters and some cards. Definitely made up the booth fee over two days and may be recovered my cost of supplies. But there was no profit in the end. I was not ready with price tags to put by the paintings and hardly anyone even asked for the prices. There was one lady who loved my Chicago skyline painting and that was about it. The best part was one of my previous collectors stopped by with a friend and as always, its lovely to see my collectors and hearing how much they enjoy having one of my paintings at their home!

I am thankful to the organizers for trying to make the best of this event. There was a separate parking for the artists and shuttle buses to transport us. Free coffee was available throughout the day for artists and kids was bringing around food for sale. The organizers did listen to our concerns and are not going to put any one up on the stage next year. I know a few jewelers did pretty good in the show and some other crafters, but the photographer next to me did not and another painter also did not (though I have no clue on what is good - for them). It's questionable if I will come back next year!