Art Show Roulette

It's a new year and as we work on new pieces we also are in the middle of our most stressful time of the year for artists who sell on the road. It's application time when we begin to determine where our fortunes will take us in 2015. Will we get to return once again to the shows that we visited for the first time last year and were successful for us? Will our favorites want us back again? We apply to shows knowing that our fate is determined by what shows we get accepted to and which ones decide to accept other artists for this year. Last year we were so fortunate to get into shows where we had applied for many years and we know our chances are slim to get to return. So now we wait to hear the news and we already know we will not be returning to some favorites.

When we visit any show and people look at our work and we hear them say, "well maybe next year"  and we know they don't understand that for us there may not be a next year. That has now happened with a show in Texas that we waited 8 years to get into. It is so hard to be accepted because every artist wants to participate and last year was our year. It was so wonderful, truly everything everyone said it would be. Then this year we received our "decline" letter and we were brought back to earth. For those artists who get to participate in consecutive years, it is a real blessing and maybe sometime it will happen for us. We did get invited back though to several fantastic shows this year and we are very excited to know that we will be returning without worrying already. Not everyone gets that reassurance.

So for today we wait to see what happens, who will say yes this year and who will decide that this is the year for work that is different than ours. If we aren't coming back to your city it is not always our call. We are looking at lots of new venues as well this year so it might just be a really exciting 2015.