Artist's Review of the 25th Annual Firefly Art Fair - Wauwatosa, WI

25th Annual Firefly Art Fair

This past weekend, August 6 & 7th I exhibited at one of my all time favorite art shows, the 25th Annual Firefly Art Fair sponsored by the Wauwatosa Historical Society in Wauwatosa, WI.

This was the first art show I've done this season and was looking forward to seeing how the economy would have its effect on this particular show.  I've done this show for 14 years and it has always been a top selling show for me.

Below you will see photos, which I took on Saturday during the show.  They are a sad commentary on how art shows have declined over the past several years.  Saturday, at the Firefly, which was always crowded with art goers and "buyers", was down to almost no people attending, which made for hardly any "buyers".

This is a shot from my booth down the isle!!  This was about an hour after the show opened at 10 a.m.!!



Tables set up in the Victorian garden where people can sit and eat their food.  This area is normally crowded with "eating" customers.  Not this weekend!!

The Silient Auction area at one point on Saturday.  There were a lot of great art to bid on, donated from the artists.  Where are all the people!

Other years, people are normally lined up to get into this show.  This is a view of one of the entrances near my booth.  The entrance fee was raised to $4.00 this year from $3.00 in previous years.

This group was part of the entertainment at the show.  They were having a good time singing old time songs!

This is a fun couple we met at various art shows and they always have a great sense of humor!  Beautiful carvings on gourds is their medium!  This is what makes doing shows fun......when you reconnect with other artists which you have met over the years.

OK, here I am....still smiling, even though my sales were down from previous years over $1,300!  Iconsider myself very fortunate in not having to depend on art sales to live!  There were other artists at the show that didn't sell anything or next to nothing.  My sister and I always have a good time and "laughs" no matter what the show is like.  It is always fun to meet and talk to new people and visit with previous customers and artists.

My sister, Dianne!  Can't imagine doing a show without her!  She is so good at displaying my art.  In the past I usually always had at least 80 - to 100 creations to sell, but this year I only started with 22 figures and my fiber jewelry.  Since my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer last May and passed away in October, 2010, I didn't have the time to spend all the hours I used to in creating.  I truly believe that everything works out the way it is supposed to and that there is a purpose to everything that happens in life. If there were a lot more buyers at the show this year, I could have run out of inventory!!  

The key is to keep on smiling and laugh a lot!!

The FIRELY is still my favorite show, so we shall see what next year brings!  My next show will be the Waukesha Art Fest on September 10, 2011, in historic downtown Waukesha.  If you live in the area.....stop by for a visit!

24th ANNUAL FIREFLY ART FAIR - Wauwatosa, WI

Victorian Garden setting  makes for an enchanting site for the 24th Annual Firefly Ar Fair!

The Wauwatosa Historical Society is the sponsor of one of my favorite shows....the 24th Annual Firefly Art Fair which is held on the beautiful grounds of the Kneeland-Walker House at 7406 Hillcrest Drive, Wauwatosa, WI!  If you live anywhere near the area, be sure to stop by for a visit.

The fair has a wide variety of talented artists, which include painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, jewelry, fiber, printmaking, glass and more.

In addition to wandering the grounds looking at "fine art", you will find a variety of food on the menu...baked potatoes, hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, homemade pies, root beer floats, beer, lemonade, bottled water, popcorn and fruit bars!  Come early and spend the day.  You may also want to take a tour of the historic Kneeland-Walker home.

Hours for the show are:  August 7 and 8th - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. both days.

My booth # is No. 89, so be sure to stop by for a visit.  I have added my new line of "fiber fantasy jewelry", and I will also be donating item/s to the Silient Auction.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

ARE THERE ANY GOOD ART SHOWS LEFT??

This photo is from an art show I exhibited in last Sunday - June 20th, 2010

46th Annual Art Festival - Watertown, WI

Where are all the people you might ask?  That is exactly the question that was going through most of us artists' thoughts who were in this show!  

This is the third art show I've done this season, and I have to say it was the worst attended show I've been in, in a long while!  It makes one wonder how much the show was advertised.

It is a beautiful setting in a park.  The show is held on an island, and this was the 46th year for this show.  I had done this show about 5 years ago, and the attendance was good.   We were truly amazed at the small amount of people who attended it this year.

While sales have been down to almost nothing for the 3 shows I've done so far this season, I couldn't believe the lack of people at this show.  The other shows had people, but nobody was spending any money.  This show had no people hardly and nobody buying.  Very disappointing, and I know a lot of the artists (46 approximately), probably didn't even make the booth fees.  I just barely made the booth fee of $80.00.

 

This is a photo of the bridge you drive over to get to the island.

Notice...no big crowds walking over the bridge to get into the show!  This is how it looked all day long!  What is really disappointing is that it is such a beautiful setting for an art show....artists get to pick their own spots, and spacing isn't limited to the usual 10' x 10' space.  There are a lot of nice trees and even geese and ducks strolling around.

It was obvious a lot of the same artists aren't returning to the show, as when I checked the number of new artists listed in the flyer....over half were new to the show this year!

Here are me and my sister...still smiling after only 4 sales for the whole day!

(I'm on the left and my sister is on the right)

She is not only my sister, but my best friend and buddy! 

A portion of my booth at the show.  My sister is my "display artist"!

She loves to set all the creations out, which is lucky for me because I don't have the patience for it!  I do help her, but she decides where everything looks the best.  We always get a lot of compliments on our booth.

In all honesty, I really wouldn't recommend doing this show unless you want to have a nice relaxing day sitting in the park.

My next show will be one of my very best shows...the FIREFLY ART FAIR in Wauwatosa, WI.  I can hardly wait to see what the results of this show will be.  It has always been a good one through the years, and while the sale dollars have gone down, they are still really good for me.  We shall see......!

2010 Watertown Art Festival - Watertown, WI .... JUNE 20TH

I will be exhibiting at the 46th Annual Watertown Art Festival being held  in Watertown, WI on Riverside Island Park this coming Sunday, June 20th!.

I haven't done this show for several years and will be looking forward to seeing if it has changed since the last time I did it.  It is held on an island, which is a beautiful setting for the show.  Artists get to pick their own site, and there is plenty of room so one isn't packed one artist on top of each other like most shows.

There will be a variety of mediums....painting, 2D and 3D mixed media, photography, etchings, ceramics, pottery, sculpture, fineglass/metal/wood craft, jewelry and fine fiber art.

HOURS: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. rain or shine, so let's hope the sun is shining brightly!

The last show I was in, 2 weeks ago, had a tornado warning and the show closed down at 2 p.m.

LOCATION:  Waterown's Riverside Park located on Labaree ( Hwy R) & Boughton St.

Click on the link below to get to the Watertown Arts Council's web page.

WATERTOWN ART FESTIVAL

If you live in the area, be sure to stop by for a visit!

DRAGON ART FAIR....DeForest, Wisconsin

DRAGON ART FAIR - JUNE 5th - Market Street, Deforest, Wisconsin (10 miles North of Madison, on Hwy 51 or I-90/94

Show will be held "rain or shine"!  HOURS: 9 - 4

This will be a new venue for me, and am looking forward to doing a new show.  Since my first art show of the season was a total "bust", I'm thinking it can only get better!!  As usual, I will be doing a review of this show.

It appears there will be 70 exhibiting artists, great food, entertainment, and also several other events going on in Deforest on the 5th of June.

Deforest Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Historical Society, Deforest Car Show, and Windsor Garden Club Plant Sale.

The art show is put on by the DRAGON ARTS GROUP.  To visit their web page, CLICK on the link:   DRAGON ARTS GROUP

COME JOIN THE FUN......HOPEFULLY ON A BRIGHT, SUNNY SATURDAY!

REVIEW OF MONUMENT SQUARE ART FAIR - RACINE, WISCONSIN

My jungle display!

Butterfly Display Panel

at
Monument Square Art Fair

in Racine, WI this weekend

This past weekend June 13th and 14th I was an exhibitor in the Monument Square Art Fair in Racine, Wisconsin.

Of course, after two "beautiful" days of sunshine, Saturday, the first day of the fair, started out with clouds and showers! Luckily, my booth space was under the fair's new huge tent so that helped. My space was on the outer edge of the tent, so that when the weather finally turned sunny and nice in the afternoon, we could sit outside and catch some sun. Yippee! Sunday's weather was gorgeous, so my sister and I sat in the sun and enjoyed the weather!

I've done this show for several years now, and I'd have to say that this year's show was very disappointing as far as sales went. Many artists, including myself, hadn't even made their booth fee of $130.00 by the end of the day on Saturday. Sales were definitely way down for the majority of artists!! You can see by several of the photos I took that there weren't a whole lot of people there. A bit more on Sunday with the nice weather, but overall not a very active showing of people. Those people that were there, weren't buying....mostly strolling around and looking. The shows food vendors, however, seemed to be doing a brisk business of selling kettle corn, ice cream and other food.

Inside of the new tent

While walking around talking to many of the artists, the general thoughts were that trying to make some money doing art shows is definitely a challenge in this SLOW economy. Some artists said they were doing a lot more shows to make up for the low to lower sales at the shows they normally did, while others, like myself, were doing less shows since sales have taken such drastic cuts.

My "fairy face" pins on display

The "mermaids" on display!

(I did sell the 3 green mermaids on the left side)

My next show will be on July 11th, the 34th Annual Lake Country Art Festival, Delafield, WI in Naga-Waukee Park. It will be very interesting to see how that show goes.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL YOU ARTISTS AND CRAFTERS OUT THERE WHO ARE DOING SHOWS! SOME CAN BE GOOD AND SOME CAN BE BAD!! ONE JUST HAS TO GO WITH THE FLOW!

I, for one, am not giving up!! It would be fun to hear from other artists and crafters to see how things are going in other areas, so be sure to leave your comments.

MONUMENT SQUARE ART FAIR on THE LAKE -2009

THIS COMING WEEKEND OF JUNE 13th AND 14th I will be exhibiting at the 47th Annual MONUMENT SQUARE ART FAIR - BOOTH #106 in the tent, which is held on the sunny shores (hopefully sunny) of beautiful Lake Michigan, Racine Wisconsin.

If anyone lives in my area and is looking for something to do this weekend....STOP ON BY, and see my creations in person!

MONUEMNT SQUARE ART FAIR

Hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday

Festival Park, Racine, WI

Directions: I-94 to Exit 333, East to Lake Michigan, The Civic Center Festival Park is located a 5 Fifth Street and Lake Michigan.

I will be doing a "review" of the show on the Monday after the show, so let's hope it is a good one! This show always has a great selection of fantastic art for sale. Hope to see you there!

ART SHOWS, ART SALES....REVIEW OF MADISON AUDUBON SHOW...FIRST SHOW OF THE SEASON

View of the Community Center Lobby

This Saturday I exhibited in my first art show of the season, at the 33rd Annual Audubon Society Art Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. This was the first year the fair was being held in its new location at the Warner Park Community Center.

I was up at 3:30 a.m. to be sure I had time to get our lunch packed (my sister goes with me to all my shows), and the rest of the things packed in the van. My sister arrived at 5:30 a.m. and off we went! Since this was a new location for the show, we weren't quite sure where it was, but felt confident that we would have no problem finding it as my sister brought along her new GPS system. We programed in our destination address and away we went! Well, all went well until we were just about into Madison, when a bunch of construction barrels threw me off and I went "right" instead of going straight. That was when the GPS really came in handy, ( I especially liked how it talked to us) and it kept "reevaluating" our directions. After a lot of laughing and "reevaluating of directions", we finally arrived at our destination.

Before the show opened.

My booth was on the left side, with the black gridwall

Our booth ended up being in the gym, and the grey plastic they had covered the gym floor with didn't make for a very appealing atmosphere, but we could understand that they didn't want the floor scratched or ruined from all the different booth setups.

There were about 60 indoor booths and about the same amount of outdoor booths.

My sister, Dianne, my display artist!

She is really good at finding just the right spot for each creation!

Jungle Spirit in her display!

Were the sales good.....NO! This is probably the worst show for sales I've had in over 5 years! I just barely broke even with the show fees and gas. YES, the bad economy is truly affecting artist's sales at shows. It was a far cry from shows where I have sold as many as 30 creations. At yesterday's show I only sold a total of 7 pins and two fairies!!

While there are always a few exceptions, the general mood from artists at the show was that sales, if any, were way down!! There was a lot of grumbling going on behind the scenes.

A very talented artist across from us, who designed the most exquisite glass mosaic pieces sold a very expensive piece of art and several lesser priced pieces, but a jewelry artist friend of mine who always has done well at whatever show she was in, said she also just barely made the show fees and expenses.

The picture above doesn't reflect the gorgeous work of this artist. The designs of flower, birds, and more were fantastic. My sister purchased one of her smaller pieces...a beautiful robin scene ($195.00).

If you'd like to see more of the beautiful mosaic art of Laura Harris, pay a visit to her web site below:

MELONHEAD GALLERY

Both Laura and her husband, Jack, were delightful neighbors to have at this show. Both my sister and I enjoyed being able to look at such beautiful art all day! Very inspiring.

These delightful, colorful creations are the designs of Mary L. Hager, a 3-D Mixed media artist. Mary's work is some of the most colorful, whimsical, work you could ever hope to see! I will be doing a "feature" on Mary in the coming weeks, with more photos of her enchanting figures, from seahorses, to flying frogs and more. In the meantime, if you'd like to see more of Mary's art, visit her website below:

MLOUHAGER

While it was a disappointing show for "sales", we still had a fun time talking to people, meeting some of our old customers, and artist friends.

I'm still smiling, and looking forward to seeing what the next show brings! One never knows....it could be a good one!

ONE OF MY FAIRIES IN HER NEW HOME

The above photos were sent to me by a lovely customer who had purchased this "black and gold" fairy at an art show I was in last weekend. She wanted me to see her in her new home, and wrote me this lovely note below. She also told me she had named her Hadita (little fairie) in Spanish.

Donna, I just wanted to say "thank you" to you for making it possible for me to own one of your fabulous fairies. I am honored to own her, and although I had been going to place her in my whimsical room, not enough people would meet her there, so I have placed her in the powder room on the first floor! There, she will bring a smile to a lot of faces! I should not have spent the money on something that purely brings pleasure, but I am glad I did. I know it will pay for itself in delight! You and your sister were so nice to me. Thanks again, and I wish you much continued success!

That is what I love the most about doing "art shows"....the one-on-one contacts, and the opportunity to meet and talk with so many lovely people. I may be a bit crazy....but, I love to know my creations are going to good homes! I just wanted to share this lovely little moment!

A GREAT ART SHOW....GOOD SALES...GREAT WEATHER....WHAT ELSE COULD YOU WANT!

Site of the 2008 Waukesha Art Fest in Cutler Park

Waukesha, Wisconsin

This past Saturday, September 6th, I was an exhibitor in the Waukesha Art Fest, which has been held in Cutler Park for the past 19 years. I must admit I wasn't very enthusiastic about doing this show after being in a show three weeks ago, which barely covered my entry fees, etc. In fact, out of the 5 shows I have already done this season....only one went beyond my expectations as far as sales were concerned.

The Waukesha Art Fest proved to me that one should never atry to predict what show will be good, and which one will be bad!! The sales at this show turned out to be the very best in all ways...GREAT SALES, WONDERFUL WEATHER, LOTS OF FUN PEOPLE! It was a very "magical" day!

While I always try to have enough of my "fairy face" pins at shows, to have "affordable art" for people to purchase in these slow economic times, I actually had the pleasure of selling more of my other larger pieces of work. So, any of you artists or crafters out there who haven't had the good sales, at some shows, that you had hoped for....don't give up....the next show could be the very best one yet!

I've been doing the same art shows as this fine artist, Charlotte Fung Miller, for several years now. Her work is very detailed and exquisite!

Proceeds from the Silient Auction held by the Art Fest go towards art scholarships for Waukesha High School Students and Carroll University students majoring in the visual arts. I always enjoy donating a piece of my work to "silient auctions" as the proceeds are always given to worthy causes.

I'm now looking forward to my last art show of the season which will be held in Madison, Wisconsin at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on November 15 & 16th.

FUN, FANTASTIC ART SHOW - FIREFLY ART SHOW - Wauwatosa - WISCONSIN

This weekend of August 2nd & 3rd, I was exhibiting in another one of my "favorite" art shows! The weather was absolutely gorgeous! No 90 degree temperatures, as is often the case when doing this show in Wisconsin! Only beautiful breezes and sunshine. I had my usual spot located under a huge tree, which provided shade, and we were told by many of the people visiting my booth that it was the best spot in the show! Sales proved to be great! Considering how the economy has been affecting most art shows for all artists, I was pleasantly surprised at the sales I had. It pays to develop a "following", as I'd say 90% of my sales were repeat customers from previous years. The booth fee for this delightful show is $125.00 for both days, and only a $5.00 jury fee.

I've been doing this show for about 7 years now, and it is sponsored by the Wauwatosa Historical Society, and held on the beautiful grounds of an historic home surrounded by beautiful Victorian gardens. The Firefly Art Fair is the major fundraiser for the Wisconsin Historical Society , which raises funds to preserve the historic Kneeland Walker home.

This show is one of my very favorites, and provides artists with help loading and unloading by having a troop of the Boy Scouts available for any artists who need help. They also provide a complimentary continental breakfast on Sunday morning, and an artist reception after the show on Saturday. Lots of good food is on sale throughout the two day event. The homemade pie alamode was my sister's and my favorite! Yummy!!

FOOD TENTS IN THE BACKGROUND

This show has the most beautiful setting in the Victorian styles gardens that surround the historic home. Below are several photos I took before the show actually opened on Saturday. LOVE THE FLOWERS!

The artists'booths wind around, and in among the beautiful Victorian gardens.

Visitors to the "fair" can buy their food, and then go sit at one of the many tables provided for their enjoyment, while eating their food, and be surrounded by flowers!

The Firefly Art Fair has a wide variety of different mediums....paintings, photography, mixed media, jewelry, wood, and more! I snapped a few photos before the show started, of some of the various artwork, as shown below:

These blown glass pieces were absolutely exquisite!
Hand-dyed Silk Scarves and more....were for sale at this booth! Very colorful!

Very unique necklaces made from nuts by artist Gorden Decker

Here is another piece by wood artist, Gordon Decker. He said this piece was created from a "pod" from Africa. Great, unique candle holder.

I'm always a little sad when this show is over, as it means I have to wait another whole year to be back there again! It is always such fun to meet with artist friends, old customers, and to meet new ones. All in all a great weekend!