Wow, this year I decided to expand my shows and get into a few more new ones farther away and did I have an enlightening moment. Shows have changed since I used to try to do 6 or 8 a year.
For one thing a lot of the good shows are outside and you provide your own 10 x 10 white tent, complete with sides and weights to hold it down in the wind.
Secondly, most good shows are managed by sites such as Zapplication, which require pictures of your work and tent set up in a defined pixel size. If you are not fortunate to have Photo
Shop you have to either hire someone to change your pictures and to also realize not all shows are requiring the same size some are 1000 pixels some are 1920 pixels etc.
Thirdly, I was shocked when I realized almost all of the shows I chose had a very early deadline date in either January, February, or March 1st.
So this year being late because of all the needed requirements I failed to get into all I wanted but I will get back into the game. I will continue to be in the Loveland Sculpture Invitational (my 6th year) and also the 17th Street Art Festival (my 2nd) in Cheyenne (which has entertainment daily). Thirdly I added a new show, Estes Park, which will be in September (my favorite time of the year in the mountains anyway). It is always exciting to see new shows open up therefore giving you another venue.
As usual after walking on my bottom lip I realized there are always future years and shows are a delight because of your ability to talk to patrons and I have met so many really sweet and interesting people. Some come back year after year and some even feel like extended family.
So if you are interested in getting into outdoor or even indoor shows this next year, start applying early and make sure you have all your ducks in a row... Jafe Parsons gave me quite a management tool for entering multiple shows with multiple requirements...his cd of pictures gives me multiple sizes to meet all demands.
