This past weekend I was an exhibitor in ART IN THE PARK in Lake Geneva, WI. This year's show was moved to a new location from previous years. In the past year when I did the show, it was always held on the lake front by Library Park. This year it was moved to Flat Iron Park across the street from the lake. This new spot made for a lot nicer unloading and loading for the artists. Each artist was assigned a metered space for the duration of the two day show. This meant no more pushing your canopy and other setup materials up a hill and fighting the bumper to bumper traffic when trying to tear down and load up your vehicle!
This is a view of the lake, boat marina and building across from Flat Iron Park, site of the art fair.
The weather cooperated and we had two days of beautiful weather. This show is sponsored by the Geneva Lakes Art Association (GLAA). They do a great job of running this show! Coffee, fruit and bakery was provided each morning for the artists, plus a "goody bag" filled with snacks.
Lake Geneva is a tourist town where people come to enjoy the lake and its activities, as well as eating in the various restaurants and visiting the shops. There were loads of people going through the show, but considering the number of people, I don't think sales were all that great for a lot of the artists. Mine were OK, but not what you'd expect for the number of people going through the show.
You didn't see many packages go walking by with the people, but one certainly saw a huge variety of dogs!! In fact, one would almost feel as if they were at a dog show. I never saw so many different dogs walking around with their owners....big ones, little ones of all shapes and breeds. One lady came into my booth with a golden retriever and when her dog saw another dog going by, it took out after the dog and its leash got tangled up with another show goer! Luckily no one got hurt. I LOVE dogs, but I really don't think an art show is a place to walk your dogs.
A photo of some of the booths before the show was open.
We always seem to get the most delightful artists as our neighbors, and this show was no exception. Below are photos of a very talented "woodwork" artist, Wendell Ziegler. His wonderful mushroom sculptures caught both my sister's and my attention as soon as we saw them. I even purchased several of them for my fairies to sit upon.
You can see more of her, on her mushroom, in my DZFANTASY shop.
Here is a photo of some of the artist's mushrooms which first caught our attention! The smaller one are sculpted from an Australian pod called "banksia" ( I think I have it spelled right). They are so unique and magical. The wooden ones were also beautiful.
Some more of Wendell's creations!
Meet Wendell the artist behind all these wonderful wood creations!
If you are interested in learning more about Woodwork by Wendell send him an email.
His Wood Gallery is open 7 days a week by appointment
Another artist's colorful booth. Note the prospective customer has her dog along!
Artist putting the finishing touches on her booth before show opens.
My lovely sister, Dianne!
She is not only my buddy, best friend, but the best "layout" artist, and I couldn't do a show without her! She has a great talent for displaying all my artwork to the best advantage! We get compliments all the time on our booth display.
A section of my display.
This young lady had just purchased one of my Fantasy Fiber Necklaces.
It was fun to hear all the compliments and exclamations of surprise when people found out that I handknit each necklace and even the fiber focal beads in my fantasy earrings. The designs and colors appealed to all ages. A young girl of about 10 picked out a beautiful purple necklace with Swarovski crystals, and I wish I would have taken a photo of her wearing it with a big smile on her face.
To sum up the Art in the Park show of 2010....it is a well run show, the unloading and loading is great now that it has moved to its new location. While the crowds at the show didn't produce as many sales as most artists would have liked, I plan on going back next year. The art show seemed to be more of an added attraction for visitors to the Lake Geneva area, rather then people coming to a show to specifically look for art to purchase. Since there was no charge to go through the show, it provided a place for people to stroll around while enjoying the pleasant weather.
Several suggestions I would make to the sponsors of the show would be to give the artists at least a foot around each booth. It is very hard to set up your canopy when you are flush up against the next person's booth. Another suggestion would be to have a wider variety of food for purchase. Not everyone likes hot dogs and brats. Other than that, it was an enjoyable weekend, meeting and talking with new customers, and selling my art.
