Getting ready for another year

2007 ended up being a pretty decent year for art shows. After getting off to a bad start, things turned around and I had several of my best shows yet. However, in the process of all of that, with the preparations and improvements being made, I didn't have a lot of time for much else. After finishing my last show in September, I decided to take the winter off, and I haven't done much photography since then. Now that time for shows is approaching again, its time to get started back in the swing of things.


So far, I'm scheduled for 4 shows I did last year, and have applied to a 5th. A 6th hasn't put out the app yet. The other 2 I decided to drop. One show (Saint Clair) I actually lost money after travel expenses. The other (Wyandotte) was actually pretty profitable last year, but it was a very long show. It was four days, 11 hours each, plus another 2+ hours for driving each way, setup, and teardown. In the end, it didn't end up being all that profitable for the amount of time I put in, so I decided to cut that one too.

I haven't applied to any more than that, and I'm not sure whether or not I want to. The economy has been pretty bad, especially here in Michigan, and I'm a little concerned about how thats going to impact sales. Traveling to shows out of state isn't feasible for me at this moment. Plus, I was so busy doing shows last summer, I missed out on doing a lot of other stuff. I'm thinking of a more relaxed schedule for the year.

I've got a lot of things to get into place for this new year. I need to get new ink, and paper. I'm planning to get new panels for this year to go with my new 9ft tall canopy. I was planning to build a new print bin. I planned on switching out a lot of my framed prints for canvas wraps instead, since they are lighter and easier to manage. A lot of stuff to get done in the next 6 weeks.

I just picked up a new camera, since my old one broke twice on me last year (the mirror, which I repaired, and the lens, which I couldn't do anything about). I'm learning how to use some of the new features of it.

I'll have more details on some of the stuff I'm doing soon.