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Last weekend I held the first open studio tour of my home with two other artists, Noel Sandino and Jeanette Smart. Sandino paints abstracts and Jeanette does a wide range of mediums including oil, acrylics, and watercolor. Together we had about 200 original framed works of art hanging for the show at my house.
Friday and Saturday, the first two days of the weekend open studio tour show were rather dismal. It seemed like only a dozen people came and they were spread out. Meaning 2 or 3 people for one morning then 2 or 3 people for an afternoon. Nothing was selling. The few that came were mostly friends and family. Saturday night after the show I was pondering whether I needed to take up some other activity instead of art as the cost of the art endeavor can not sustain itself.
Sunday was the last day of the show. There was a definite increase in foot traffic. The whole energy and feeling of day changed. Now it seemed like an ongoing party. People were enjoying the art, talking to each other, and seeing of all things some winter melons in my garden as entertainment. Most of the people were still family and friends but now some random people using the free map tour guide as well as a few in the neighborhood meandered in. A friend and old classmate of mine drove from SF to the show just to buy my art. This day was more like what I thought an open studio tour should be. It was like a life line thrown to me while I'm drowning. People were happy and surprised when they saw my art. It did make a difference in their lives and consequently it made it difference to me that I should continue to do art.
In the end, I recovered some of the cost for entering the show and of the materials (paint, frames, matting, etc.) to create art. Noel and Jeanette recovered their entry costs but not much beyond that. Jeanette said she will not do that show next year and Noel was on the fence. I received a message from another seasoned artist in town that did the show last year and he said foot traffic was really low this year.
So what went wrong? Best that we could surmise was that this year a holiday, Veteran's Day, fell on a Friday. Many people will leave town and take vacation trips on a three day weekend. Coupled with the fact that there was record breaking high temperatures in the Sierras (Lake Tahoe) for this time of year, was another incentive to enjoy the last views of the mountains and lakes before snow sets in. Second reason for low turn out was that my specific location had no open studio tour last year. The few that wandered in had no concept of how the open studio tour worked. They were pleasantly surprised when the free map tour guide was shown to them with an explanation. They said they will definitely do it again in next year and tell their friends.
I believe now, there will be more people next year's open studio show. There's also some things I can do to improve my art based on listening to some comments by the visitors. Meaning there were some pieces that were especially liked and I learned why they liked them. Bottom line is that I will continue with art. But I think I'll take some time off to recover and rethink my process. 2017 will be a fresh start and I hope it will even better than 2016.
