I felt nostalgic this week as I prepared for my return to the East Lansing Art Festival next month (Aug. 7th and 8th).
When Everything Changed
Technically, this year is the fourth time ELAF accepted me, but it will only be my third time appearing. Because, PANDEMIC.
Anyway, it got me thinking about my first time at ELAF. 2018, baby! It feels like a million years ago, I’ll be honest. A lot happened over the past three years.
Taking a Chance
At Steph’s urging, I applied for the Emerging Artists tent at the 2018 East Lansing Art Festival. To be an “emerging artist” you must not have appeared at another fine art fair before. Those chosen are awarded a free booth spot in the Emerging Artists tent.
Steph applied too, and the festival accepted both of us. I had only appeared at comic cons and such prior to ELAF. This would be my first time showing my work at a “fine art” festival.
Appearing at the 2018 East Lansing Art Festival sparked the creation of my Monster Portraits series–I had to have something new to show, after all.
Eye Opening
This wasn’t my first time selling original art, however. I had done so at the comic cons and art markets over the previous years. I never broke any kind of sales records with my original art at these shows.
But, at East Lansing Art Festival I found my “audience.” I saw firsthand there people looking for the cartoony whimsy I offered.
Short version: I ended up grossing around 10 times as much as I usually did at comic cons and similar events. And this was just my first art festival, with very little experience (there is some overlap with comic cons and craft shows, though).
A Pivot
After the 2018 East Lansing Art Festival, I saw what I had do more art festivals. 2019 saw me return to ELAF, and attend other festivals in Flint and Ludington, to name a few. I went into 2020 ready to crush the art festival season: I bought a new van to haul everything, and a new, professional festival tent.
Then, the Pandemic. Everything came to a screeching halt. One of the few upsides to the cancelled events was I finally added a shop to my website.
A Fresh Start
2021 is kind of a soft reboot, as they say in Hollywood. Let’s do it.
