Let me backtrack a tiny bit…

I’m participating in an art fair that since its inception has grown and grown and grown. This growth is despite the fact that there aren’t very many optimal places to put artists. Instead of being more selective about their choices of artists or not allowing gigantic oversized double booths (which I think is tacky), they’ve crammed booths into every nook and cranny of this upscale intersection and add more every year. Aside from that, this art fair has also taken on more sponsors and overall has just become rather “shiny”. It’s not about the art and artists, it’s about how much business the event brings into the neighborhood and how awesome their advertising looks.

LOOK AT HOW POPULAR WE ARE!!

Sure, it looks great for a show to say “WE HAVE 350 ARTISTS!” but when 275 of them are jewelers, potters and photographers who do A LOT of the same work, people get bored. (I don’t know how many of those artists there actually is, but there is usually a lot.) And walking several city blocks is not exactly everyone’s idea of a picnic. So they wander through the highly concentrated booth clusters and completely ignore the outskirts because they’re tired, they’ve seen enough, it’s probably more of the same stuff, etc. etc.

So this is how this relates to me. The “before” is where my booth was located since I started doing the art fair about 5 or 6 years ago. The “after” is where my booth is now after being called up from the waiting list.

Kinda goes without saying why the artist that originally got that space bowed out, eh?

This art fair charges $400 for a booth space. Not $400 for a prime location, $300 for a further location or any sort of bracketed pricing. $400 and you can be in an awesome spot or in the next county. And it’s obvious that they’re not laid out in any sort of grid because they can’t be, so it’s not exactly easy for Joe Customer to go up and down all the aisles and wander through making sure they hit every one. The only shining spot in all of this? See those yellow squares? Those are port-a-potties. At least I’ll be near a bathroom, right?

So what’s your point?

My point is, these art fairs are screwing the artists for their own glory of looking awesome to art fair organizations and ranking systems and collecting more money for the local business associations. It’s become akin to people offering HUGE EXPOSURE if you give them something for free or very little. There is no huge exposure. It’s a parlor trick. See how we used your money for all this advertising? You mean you didn’t have any customers because we don’t care about your booth placement? Oh well! Poof! Your money is gone! Thanks for being part of our event!

There are plenty of art fairs that do it right. The number of booths at these fairs has never changed but their reputation has increased over the years. By bringing in quality art that isn’t repetitive and building upon a neighborhood feel, these shows continue to attract customers who are there to buy and not just to look at the giant shiny spectacle sponsored by Pepsi and Starbucks. The only problem is, the big shiny spectacle shows CAN bring in huge sales simply because they attract gigantic crowds, but you have to be lucky enough to get a booth in a location that people go to. Or you have to get into a show that still organizes its booths well.

I was one of those lucky people with an awesome booth spot for a number of years. I’m considering dropping out and writing a strongly worded letter to the organization on how their growth is detrimental. Problem is, what do they care? They’ll find another artist willing to drop $400 on a space in a minute. I’m probably just being negative about the whole thing because what was once a good thing for me has gone sour, but I’m not just thinking about myself. I’m thinking about all artists out there who have chosen art fairs as a means of showing their art and how the system is negatively impacting them as well. We don’t make a gajillion dollars. Booth fees continue to go through the roof but the attention to the artist has gone down.

Some shows offer fantastic artist hospitality areas with food and drinks and indoor bathrooms. At this art fair you’ll be lucky if you get a cup of coffee since the local Starbucks only provides 2 thermoses for OVER 350 ARTISTS in ONE LOCATION. See that star on the map? That’s where artist hospitality is. See my booth in the “before”? I used to walk to artist hospitality to get my free coffee because they advertised that you could between 7-9 am. Do you think there was any left when I’d get there at 8:30? HELL NO.

:::sigh::: Sorry. Side tracked.

Despite the acceptance, I still feel rejected. Will this year’s sales be as good as last year’s? I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m really hoping I’m wrong.

I’ve been doing art fairs for 8 years. I’ve been in business for 8 years. And in that 8 years, I think I’ve learned a lot. I’m hesitant to say I’m a pro at anything because we all make mistakes and I’ve made some doozies. But…what I’m coming to find is that I really like helping people not make those same mistakes. If I can pass on my knowledge of what I’ve learned in these 8 years, I think that’s pretty cool.

So.

On the horizon is a project where I will be passing on to all you crafters, stampers, artists, scrapbookers and everyone who has every thought of starting a business in art, what I’ve learned. Where I get my displays from, how I find out what the good shows are, how not to strangle the customer that insists that her grandma could make something just like what you make. Ya know, the important stuff.

I’m currently just in the designing phases but I’ve given myself 90 days to get this thing underway. I’m gonna go 90 days from May 1st since that’s a nice round timeline. And I can remember that. Anyhoo, mix that in with the custom work, the art fairs and the retailers that I have to keep up with and well…you’ve got one busy artist. But nose + grindstone (hopefully) = negative 1 part-time job.

So yeah. Gotta get to work.

If you’re interested in finding out more about my new project as it comes along, drop me a comment! I’ll keep you posted!

So yeah, eight years.

Three years ago I moved into my fantastically awesome apartment with the hopes that I could serve the needs of my customers by having a place that they could come to. And I hung up my art on the wall and cleaned obsessively and opened the door for the Saint Paul Art Crawl and had cheese and wine and was excited. And…inevitably, the art had to come down for art fairs. And papers piled up on the desk. And I couldn’t keep the place customer worthy because I lived there and I can be really cluttered and messy sometimes. (Yes, Mom, I know. Quit laughing.)

Art fair after art fair went by and numerous customers took my business card and when they saw my address asked me, “oh is that your store?”

Nope. It’s my “studio”. Which is my apartment.

Which is where my kind of a pain-in-the-butt dog lives and my dishes sometimes sit in the sink. Ugh. No, you can’t come by. I have to super clean first. And I’m tired. And all my artwork is in boxes for art fairs. I really really appreciate you wanting to buy something, but can’t you just do it online so you don’t have to see that I have organizational issues?

The initial intent for my awesome apartment fell flat. (It’s still an awesome apartment, though.) I couldn’t have open hours because it’s a secure entry building and I can’t prop any doors open. I could have open weekends, but it requires me to put a deposit on a community space and putting displays up and taking displays down. Everything was just inconvenient and not working right.

I thought I could do live/work. And I can. I just can’t do live/work/sell.

Enter my epiphany this year.

I need a store.

I can’t afford a store.

But I need a store.

Driving past all of the “for lease” signs around town made me A) feel really bad that so many businesses were failing and B) excited that maybe I could get a store that I could afford. After looking and looking and looking and realizing most of them were very much out of my price range or not in the neighborhood I want, I found it.

A listing buried in the nooks and crannies of the interwebs for the Northwestern Building in Lowertown Saint Paul. It made my heart sing.

Saint Paul is my love. Lowertown is an artists’ haven.
I could be amongst the awesomeness.
THE AWESOMENESS!

My boyfriend (who will eventually be sharing the studio) and I went to look at spaces. They were great, but not amazing, until I saw this one. There was old architectural detail (which I ADORE) and it was really big. Perfect for us to split the space.

The angels sang, the heavens aligned…..it. was. perfect.

And now it’s mine.

Come along with me as I document my journey of making this space a place I adore even more than I already do (except the paint….ew….)! And soon, a place for you to shop!

If you’re not a fan on Facebook, you should be! I’ll be posting a lot of the pictures/video there. If you don’t have Facebook, no worries. I’ll be posting updates here as well!

To all my customers, past, present and future…..THANK YOU!!

Meh.

I’m from Saint Paul and I’m really proud of it.

Now, I’m certainly not a Saint Paulite that refuses to go to the other side of the river. I enjoy both sides and adore the beauty and history of each, but being born and raised in Saint Paul, I have a special place in my heart for my side of the river. So I created an “I heart STP” design that I am putting on 1″ buttons so those of us who enjoy our side can show it off with pride.

Unfortunately since I’m still waiting on the buttons to arrive I don’t have a photo of what the button will look like, but I do have the illustration that will be on the button (shown at the top of the post).

Pre-order your button now and receive it with FREE SHIPPING when I get the buttons in stock or head on down to my studio for the Saint Paul Art Crawl and pick yours up. Only $1!

My goal this year is to sell at least 5000 buttons and give 5% to Historic Saint Paul, a wonderful organization dedicated to the preservation of Saint Paul’s neighborhoods. Help me reach my goal!

If you’re a Saint Paul retailer that’s interested in carrying these buttons at your location, please contact me at info@inkblotsart.com for details.

When I sell more than 500 buttons, I will release my “I heart W. 7th” button design as well as my “I heart E. St. P” button design. I know these Saint Paul neighborhoods have a lot of history and pride as well and I want to give them an opportunity to shout it from the rooftops!

Show your pride! Buy a button!

I overheard a couple of people discussing it today. “It’s truly revolutionary”, the one said. “It will completely change media consumption”, the other said.

I looked up from my good ol’ black and white printed paper book (Linchpin by Seth Godin, which is completely awesome) and stared into space for a minute.

Media CONSUMPTION.

It was one of those twinge moments….you know, when your brain hears or sees something that it just can’t ignore and it makes you twinge. Like oooh….what was THAT??

It might have had a lot to do with the book that I was reading, which talks about making an art of what you do, and the loss of giving for the sake of giving and instead giving to hopefully receive. It also could’ve been that I was reading an actual book and not a digitized one. I’m just guessing. But it made me twinge and reach for my iPhone (slight irony) and jot down some notes.

I’m as guilty as anyone of being addicted to Twitter and Facebook and always having my phone with me. I like to know what’s going on, what’s interesting, what’s new. But I don’t think I CONSUME it. Consuming to me just sounds like you are taking in more information than you could possibly know what to do with for the sake of taking in information. It’s not important, it doesn’t really affect you much, it’s just constant information coming at you at blazing speeds.

Now, knowledge is definitely important.

But how much do we need to “consume”? What’s really important?

Slight side step, but related.

I toured a studio space this week that is on the Saint Paul Historic Registry. I fell in love with a space that had a closet that at one time had probably been used as a women’s bathroom (it had a door that said womens on it) and a huge walk-in safe. It was the only space that I had been shown that had these unique details. The possible stories of the place made me instantly interested. What was the office used for? What happened here? Why was there only a women’s bathroom? It was SO interesting! I wanted to hear the story. Every story. And subsequently, I wanted the space.

Back to media consumption.

If we’re spending so much time consuming media, how much time are we truly interacting? How many stories do we hear that are told by a person speaking to us and not writing to us through a blog? Do those blog stories capture that same passion that you can hear in someone’s voice when they’re talking about something that they truly love?

Personally I’ve read some really good writing that completely conveys the passion for which they write. There is some incredible talent in the blogosphere. But I can say that nothing compares to someone saying “YOU KNOW WHAT’S REALLY COOL??” and watching their eyes light up or hearing their voice waver. I guarantee I would get all wavy and excited describing the space I mentioned before. Why?

Because I love the story.

I also love technology and cool shiny things, but you just can’t beat a real life story and connection. Consume all the media you want, but don’t tell me you can get as a great story from a backlit news page on an iPad as you can in real life.

My mom is a fiber artist and did art fairs for about 15 years previous to me. After she stopped I was able to use her tent so I didn’t have to buy the setup myself. I was extremely lucky in that respect since good quality tents are quite an investment. I still had to spend the money on the display, and spend it again and again as I changed my mind about my display as my work evolved. I don’t regret that in the least. I jumped in head first because I wanted to get my work out there and have as many people see it as possible. Art fairs have been good to me.

And now for the “but”.

Over the last 2 years, I’ve started to notice something. There are a lot of “regulars” at art fairs. They do show after show after show and complain about the heat and the rain and the economy. It’s kind of energy sucking. I mean, I understand all of that seeing as I’m part of it, but I’ve never thought it’s worthy to complain about it. That’s not to say that I don’t complain. But I don’t seek out other artists in their booths to tell them how sucky everything is. Sure, having slow business because people decided to do something else than go to the art fair or sitting in your booth while you get hailed on sucks. But I paid the fee, I’m taking the chance. Doing anything outside is unpredictable. Always. It comes with the territory.

After this last art fair (indoors), I overheard the same complaints:

And the kicker that was the light bulb for me…

I fell into that trap. I became overly dependent on something that is far from predictable and it took hearing it come out of someone else’s mouth that made me realize I’m in desperate need of a change.

I realized that I’ve been blindly following instead of trying to take the lead. Like the complainers, I keep doing the same thing over and over and over thinking that it’ll change or something miraculous will happen and I haven’t stepped outside my bubble to explore what other possibilities are out there. I made the mistake of thinking the reason that people keep doing the same shows over and over and a LOT of shows is because it does well for them. And I know that’s true for some artists. But for some the artists that I’ve gotten to know, I’ve realized it’s more likely they keep doing it because it’s all they know. It’s comfortable and why shake it up when it’s comfortable?

When an artist came in my booth this weekend to complain about sales, I bit my tongue & nodded along when really I wanted to remark:

So why do you still do it? Or better yet, what else are you doing to change your situation?

You can only blame the jury and the weather and the people and the economy so often before you embody the definition of insanity. You keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. And the twist with art fairs is, you actually might get a different result. So you keep doing it over and over hoping that this year it’ll be 75 and sunny and all of the customers will be the right customers and you have all this new art that you’ve made and everyone will want it!!

But if all you’re doing is throwing your money into one thing and hoping for the best, isn’t that like playing the lottery?

So, while I’m kicking myself that I didn’t realize this until now, I see that there is more to selling art than just art fairs. Yes, you get to show your art to a lot of people within a short span of time, but when the art fair is over, then what? Unfortunately I’ve been ignoring that and my customers. For years people have been asking if I have a store. The requests have gotten more and more frequent in the past year or so. So…why don’t I have a store? Why should I make my customers who want to be regular customers go from art fair to art fair to find me when they want to shop?

Because it’s risky and scary and might fail.

But I’m quickly learning that the risky and scary things are what help you grow. And if you fail, you fail. You start over. You try something else. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It’s better to be the leader than to follow.

You know what’s a problem? Pretending problems don’t exist.

Yesterday I fell head first into a hole that had been waiting for me to fall into that I kept jumping over pretending it wasn’t there. The problem was I went from skipping over it to needing a pole vault bar to get over it.

When I started my business I paid for everything I needed. I lived with my parents and when my parents divorced, I lived with my mom. Income went straight from working my part-time job into the business. And sales went back into the business. As it should. Then I decided that if customers kept insisting to come by to pick things up or meet with me to do custom work, it was just plain embarrassing to have them come to my mom’s. It didn’t matter if they didn’t care or even knew it was my mom’s. *I* cared. So I got an apartment. But not a reasonably priced apartment, an artist’s loft. I rationalized it saying that I could have my studio open for sales and I would get more business this way. And it was fine.

Until money coming in from the business went to living expenses and supplies needed for the business went on credit cards. I rationalized it saying business would take off and all would be fine. I had a Google ad that was bringing in business from across the country and they would tell their friends, and their friends would have collages made, and they would tell their friends and business would be like a freaking Faberge commercial and life would be grand.

And THEN I decided the rest of the country needed to see my art and it was time to branch out and do an art fair outside of Minnesota. But my art is mostly local, so I would have to expand my “fine art” inventory to fill a booth. And what if I sold a lot? Well I’d need inventory to sell, right? Right. But people in Vail have TONS of money and I’m going to do so well!! Never mind that digital art is still not widely seen as actually being an art by most people, they’ll see what people in MN that have ignored my work haven’t seen and I’ll sell a TON!

Take out the credit card.

$2000 and several thousand miles later, I made it to Vail to sit in the rain most of the weekend and to make $80 in sales. And what did I sell? 2 prints. One of UW-Madison and one retro print. I now have hundreds of dollars worth of artwork (thousands if you figure what the selling price is) sitting in my apartment that I’m not selling to pay those credit cards. And my apartment has now become more of a storage facility rather than a living space.

Oh and I’m in quite a few consignment shops. And they need inventory, right? And you need inventory for art fairs because you don’t want to sell out of anything! But you end up matting too many of one collage and not enough of another and this store wants more of the collage that you’re now out of so now you have to buy more supplies and you STILL have inventory on hand that may or may not sell. And people want posters! Who cares if it costs $500 for 100 of them and it’ll take you 2 years or more to go through 100?? CREDIT CARD! And people want this, and people want that and it’ll TOTALLY SELL so I should do it!!

And I need to expand my collages outside of Minnesota! I’ve already done Vegas and Chicago, now I need to do more! So…I’ll hold a fundraiser to go to New Orleans. Except people aren’t helping. So, I’ll quit the fundraiser and pay for it on my own! I want to build my business and no one is going to stop me!!

And….crash.

The hole that was waiting for me was my credit score tanking as I charged and charged and charged and could only afford to pay the minimums. I was paying, for sure, but not enough. And so they lowered my limit on the card that I use only for business which is going to put the halt on my spending that I couldn’t do myself. Which means things that I was going to be putting on there to stay in business this year….art fair booth fees and more supplies…can’t happen. Which means I can’t continue to do what I do every year to make income, art fairs. And that’s scary. Like guy with a hatchet knocking down your front door scary.

Last year I stopped using all of my credit cards for personal use and have been paying them down slowly. It was the one smart decision I made, but in the meantime, I was making stupid decisions with my business because I wasn’t going to admit to myself that it was tanking. People wanted discounts and I gave it to them, despite that I couldn’t afford to, but I didn’t want to turn away business. I photographed my friend’s wedding for a very small amount and didn’t bother asking my other friend for payment when they forgot to pay me to shoot their wedding. They were struggling, had just bought a house and were going to have a baby and I wasn’t about to pop in and say, yeah…remember when you said you’d pay me for the 14 hours I spent with you on your wedding day photographing everything? Yeah…I’d kinda like that money now…

And so, I’m stuck. And it hurts. I’m looking failure dead on and refusing to accept it. I’m not quitting and I’m not giving up, but I’m going to have to give in. That part-time job that I’m OH SO fond of? I’ll have to put in more hours. Another side job? That’s very possible. I can’t afford a consultant or an assistant to help me restructure my business and my finances. They deserve every dollar they charge, but I’m out of dollars, as people that have been buying my work are now out of dollars, too.

What’s the next step? I wish I knew. I think finishing this post and starting some searching is the best I can do today.

There seems to be a ridiculous amount of bios that work just like that math problem in the cartoon above. Note: these are NOT quotes. These are things I’ve made up from stories I’ve heard/read to explain “the magic factor”.

“I was selling my prints out the back of my car and then I moved to selling them out of my house and now I have a team of people that work with me out of a warehouse I own selling them internationally to retailers and individuals.”

“I just started painting for fun and started making t-shirts and cards and other items with my paintings. It just grew and grew and grew and now when I announce my new items on Facebook within about 5 minutes I have around 30 orders.”

WHAT?!

What happened in between? You just set out to do it and *poof* it worked, and now you’re a success. Umm….back up there, Cinderella.

What’s the harm in saying “I busted my butt and sent press releases to every person I knew and a few articles later I saw business really pick up.” Or, “it took me about 15 years, but finally after a lot of hard work sending samples to stores and doing shows and building my website did the work finally pay off.” Why create an illusion that it was effortless? That all of a sudden things just fell into place and there was no bumps or potholes or gargantuan fire-breathing dragons in the way.

Slaying a dragon is way more cool than magic. Would you rather hear the story of David and Goliath or the story of Creation? “Let there be light” and it just appeared or the little guy totally owned the big dude and got what he wanted. (PLEASE don’t comment on my bible references…I’m not even close to being a theologian and I’m not mentioning it for any other purpose than to make my point. I’m not even writing in good English, for pete’s sake.) Personally, I’d rather hear how you got a $10,000 business loan to throw caution to the wind and do what you wanted and that for a minute you were wondering how much ramen you could possibly eat. I want to know that you’ve been blessed with a rich uncle who has promised you unlimited funding so you can build your biz. I want to hear that your store tanked and you took a few years to regroup and start over because you couldn’t imagine quitting.

Long story short, I WANT TO HEAR THE ACTUAL STORY. I’m not Tom Cruise, I can handle the truth. No magic, no fairy dust, no blowing smoke. If magic really did happen, well, good for you. I’m not saying I don’t believe in magic, I’m sure it still happens, but for the most part it’s rare. Leaving out the details helps no one and especially doesn’t do much for yourself. Do you really want to watch someone you could’ve helped beat their head against a wall trying to figure out what they’re missing? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather pass on what I’ve learned and watch people succeed than keep it to myself and watch them be frustrated. And even worse, more likely than not they’re going to blame me for some of their frustration because I just told them a story instead of telling them the truth.

When you’re asked “how do you (or did you) do it?”, don’t morph into the Brothers Grimm. Be honest, be forthcoming, tell it like it is. You’ll be helping the business world immensely.

Last year after using a “knucklebuster” (those manual credit card machines that use carbon paper) and handwritten receipts for about 6 years, I went to an all digital system. I got a USB card swiper and purchased software that allowed me to upload card transactions directly to my PayPal account whenever I had a wifi connection. It categorized all my sales into an Excel account. It made keeping up with inventory a snap and adding everything into QuickBooks a million times easier. It was the coolest thing in the world. I didn’t even consider purchasing a printer because I could send a personalized email thanking them for their purchase with a PDF receipt attached. Super. Sweet.

Until I started putting it into practice. People wanted to know why I didn’t want their signature (despite that I ask for I.D.). Why I didn’t have paper. They couldn’t remember their email address or would give me the wrong one because they hardly check their email. Or they didn’t have an email account. Or they would get into a lengthy stern commentary about how they don’t want spam and they don’t give out their email to anyone (despite me telling them that it’s strictly for receipt purposes unless they want my newsletter). All of a sudden I realized that just because I and the people I associate with are technologically savvy, that doesn’t mean my customers are. I get asked if I have a brick and mortar store more often than if I have a website. My website sales are downright abysmal while my art fair sales are fantastic. For pete’s sake, half of Minnesota still writes checks for a great deal of their retail transactions. It’s frustrating.

As I prepare for my art hunt in a little over a week, I wonder how many people will really participate. I wanted to make clues available via Twitter and Facebook, but then I realized a good chunk of my customers probably don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account. So, I offered clues via email to my email newsletter folks. I have had zero signups to that list. If you live in MN and would like to sign up for email notifications, you can do so here.

I am pretty much at the end of my idea rope of how to reach out and connect with people who would be interested in my work. While technology is free, it’s doing very little for me right now. I am seriously considering a storefront but am pretty sure I would have to sell everything I own to do it. The only thing that seems to be working is being in the public at art fairs where people can see and meet me, and that might be a sinking ship as I have been put on the wait list for 2 of my regular art fairs. I’m kind of in a sink or swim place, which while uncomfortable, is necessary for me to grow. The problem is I have to grow backwards into the 20th century as well as forwards into the 21st century so I can accommodate my customers.

I am open to any and all ideas as my brain has completely turned to mush and I still need to be making artwork to sell….even if it’s not selling.

Pixelated rock and real world hard place, meet me.