art festival — WHAT I'M UP TO

I feel so excited and honored to be accepted! The application time was extended a month, so the announcements of who was accepted was also extended a month, which was TORTURE for me! I’m grateful to finally have the answer I was looking for, and anxious to start prepping. Here is the drawing of the design I submitted for my booth:

I purchased an arts and crafts fair planning guide from Etsy, it’s been super helpful. It have inventory pages, prices, booth supplies, timelines, one month out to-do’s, one week to-do’s, etc. It’s very comprehensive, I think it’s over 100 pages long. This drawing has the displays I’m hoping to have, the feel and vibe of the booth, and the general setup of what I’ll be selling. I also created a mood board with some other artist’s booths I found online:

What draws me in to these images is the brightness of the booths, and how colorful they are. If I walked past these at a fair, I would absolutely be stopping to look at what the artists were selling! I like how each artist has natural wood elements for their displays, not so much plastic. I also love how Maylee and Sophie (both incredible artists!) have large illustrative decorations on their booth. Like Maylee’s cats, birds, and dogs, and Sophie’s flowers. I would love to incorporate elements like that into my booth!

I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to pull off the look I’m going for, but I’m going to try! My mother-in-law has a tent I can borrow, but it’s branded with her business logo and it’s a bright red. The non-profit I work with also has a tent I could borrow, but it’s a tan/orange color, and they might need it for another event the same weekend. I’m hoping I can make one of them work, though, buying a tent for myself is quite a big expense.

Negativity aside, I’m really excited for this event! I have no idea what to expect, and I don’t know if my products will sell, but I’m going to work really hard to make people want to buy my art! Wish me luck, and I can’t wait to share more of my prepping journey with you!

I have never participated in an art fair/festival, even though I’ve wanted to for ages! I’ve had tables at small craft fairs and events before, but nothing like an actual art fair that is geared towards fine artists alone. One of the craft fairs I participated in had 3 different LuLuLemon booths in the same room, lol. I think only one or two people purchased anything from me. Any other sales were from my family and friends.

With this in mind, I just submitted my application to an Fine Arts Festival happening in September 2023, and I couldn’t be more excited or nervous for it! I’ve been planning it out assuming I’ll be accepted, which is a little presumptuous of me, I know, but I’ve allowed myself to think this way because it will help me plan better. I haven’t even been accepted yet, but I have a perfectly clear image in my head of exactly what my booth will look like and what I’ll sell! I am going to focus on the traditional artwork I create, not so much of the digital (and if there is any digital, it will very comfortably fit into the rest of the art at the booth), to have a really solid sense of cohesion to my booth. I want people to walk past it and get an immediate sense of who I am as a an artist, and not be surprised by anything I’m selling or wonder if it was all created by the same artist, or if there is work by multiple artists being sold.

So, for my application, I was asked to submit 4 examples of my work. I’ve already shown the organization a couple pieces I’ve done, and have had art displayed in exhibitions they have sponsored, so I did not include those works so I could show them a better range. I submitted these 4 pieces:

I think this shows a pretty good range, it has paintings, a block print, and an illustration. I hope it’s good enough, at least!

Part of the application was to submit a photo of myself working on my craft, which made me realize I have no pictures of me making art. All I could do was take screenshots of videos I’ve posted online and use those, lol. I’m a very solitary artist, I don’t get in the zone when other people are around, so I never get pictures of me working. I also don’t know the purpose of them asking for this. Is it to prove that I am the one that created the art? Or is it for promotional purposes? I really can’t tell, but here’s what I submitted:

You can see the TikTok watermark, lol. I’m not too pressed about it.

I’ll wait to share my booth ideas until I’ve been accepted, just to save myself any potential embarrassment. I truly do believe I’ll be accepted, I know I’m good enough, and I know the organization hosting the event is impressed with me as an artist, so I’m sure I’ll be accepted. If I’m not, I’ll be upset and disappointed, but more so I’ll be surprised. I know I’m ready for this. I hope my application showed that and showed how prepared I am for this. I’ll find out in about 2 weeks what the verdict is, wish me luck ~