I just wanted to let everyone know that I've been accepted to display my artwork at the Sawgrass Village Spring Art Festival. Some of the images which will be on display include large, framed version of my "Tabby" artwork and some of my train and sci-fi images. These will be available for sale in various sizes and as both framed and unframed prints.
 
The Sawgrass Village Spring Art Festival is being held from May 17-18, 2008 and is located in Ponte Vedra, FL, which is just south of Jacksonville Beach.
  
So, if you're in the area, come to the show... and stop by my booth to say hello. (I'll be in booth #34, right in the middle of things.)
 
My artwork can be viewed on my image gallery website.
 
--John

Hi John,

Congratulations !!!  I looked through your art and really enjoyed the Political stuff.

I hope you make a bundle at the $how ... I'd help but my budget is real tight. ... ;=[

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

Congratulations!  I'd never thought of entering my art but now I believe I'll consider it.

Congratulations!

A slight change in plans: I've been moved to booth #93 (instead of #34): when the organizers looked at the location, they found a manhole right in the middle of booth #34!

Booth #93 is a few booths down from the main information booth (which is booth #100), so this should be a much better spot.

Here's the story from Saturday...
Like the San Marco Art Festival, I forgot to bring my card reader, so there are no photos for now. I'll post some when I get home Sunday night.

The art festival was a little busier than the one at San Marco, but I still thought the crowds were low, especially compared to some shows (where I went as a visitor) which had mobs of people.
However, people seemed to be buying at this show: I saw a lot of people walking around carrying artwork... at least, I assumed they were buyers and not artists carrying their own stuff around. ;)

In fact, I had THREE sales today! At the previous two shows (Jacksonville Beach and San Marco), I didn't sell anything until Sunday afternoon... so this is definitely a good sign.

Like at the San Marco Art Festival, my most popular pieces were "Tabby Portrait Ladybug" and the artwork I made with the "Project Soldier" (by lygher_xero and mrsparky). In fact, an image made with the soldier was the first piece to sell today!

On the other hand, some of the other artists didn't think the show was as good as they expected. One artist who lived in the area, said that the organizers didn't advertise on the radio or TV, which may have caused the low attendance. I sort-of agree: while there were more people here than at San Marco, the number of people could have been better.
When I talked to the show organizers about what they thought, they said they had reached the right demographic and that there were enough buyers for their taste... and that they'd rather have a few buyers than a lot of lookers.

On the other, other hand, another artist I talked to seemed to think that the show was getting "junky", especially since this show had booths from a teeth-cleaning company, Bank of America, and too many "crafts" booths (such as sea shells and "build-your-own-necklaces"). He does have a point: what does a teeth-cleaning company have to do with an art festival?

At least the weather turned out nice: last night (Friday), it poured down rain. This is actually a little ironic: Florida hasn't seen rain for about a month... and now it decided to start pouring??
Luckily, the weather today was a little overcast and cool, instead of raining or super-hot.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. :)

It is a known fact that you eccentric artist types don't take care of your teeth, because you are far too busy creating works of art to be concerned with such lowly earthly persuits as brushing of teeth. I think that is why the teeth cleaning company was there...

Good luck with Sunday!

Anyway, today's results weren't nearly as good as yesterday:
-There seemed to be a lot less people walking around the show today than there was yesterday. When I walked over to get some lunch, I noticed the main parking area was only about 60% full... and this was around 1:30pm, when the art show should be the most crowded.
I only had one sale today, compared with yesterday's three sales.

-I had a major problem with wind gusts. Every so often, the wind would pick up and blow through my tent, sometimes literally moving it a few inches! I placed some tent weights on it, but that didn't help much since the tent just slid on the concrete.
A few times, my artwork almost got knocked down! I used plastic ties to tie the artwork to the tent legs (and tripods), but the wind gusted so hard that the tripod itself almost fell over.

Near the end of the day, I had to take down the back "wall" so the wind could pass through the tent... and so the wall wouldn't act like a sail. But this also meant that I had to take down all the artwork which was hanging at the back of the tent.
That seemed to work, though, since the tent didn't move as much after that.

The wind and low attendance caused a number of artists to start closing down early. It started to rain a little and I think people wanted to get out before any downpours came through (which has been predicted for "late afternoon".

Here's a photo of my booth as it looked Saturday morning. The weather was a little overcast when I took the shot.