Show Report- November

Chomp and Stomp
A chili cookoff/bluegrass festival in Atlanta.   Joe got to try a good bit of the chili, but by the time I tried to get around, most of it is gone.  It goes FAST!  And the festival is packed with people.  Most were there for the food and music, so we didn't make a ton here, but it would be a great festival to come to.  I have to say, the organizers were sticklers for details, and ran a tight ship of loading in and setting up.

The same weekend as Chomp and Stomp, we went to the opening reception of the Day of the Dead Show at Young Blood Gallery.  Joe had two coffins in the show.  We have never seen such a large reception.  The entire place was packed so we could hardly move around.  And they had a band outside, so the entire parking lot was packed as well.  It was amazing to see so many art supporters out, and it made us wish Columbia galleries could draw the same crowds. 
















Pleasant Hill Elementary craft show

This one is unusual for us, as we don't do school shows.  We generally don't fit in to the atmosphere, some of Joe's stuff is decidedly not for kids, and I really take issue with having to compete with Avon and Pampered Chef.  That being said, this is where our niece goes to school, so she enjoys having us there.  We did this show last year and did better than we thought, and we did about the same this year.  Plus we had picked up a few fans, which always makes us feel special! 










Indie Craft Experience
At this point in the year, this is our 6th show in Atlanta and I feel like we might as well just move here.  This was our first time at ICE, and we enjoyed it.  I didn't know the area well, but some said the building was in a bad part of town.  There seemed to be a crowd pretty much nonstop in the building, however.  This was another show where they gave shoppers tote bags, which is an awesome idea!
We saw a ton of our friends here and did pretty well too.

Show Report- October

October was a good month for us.  We filled every weekend with shows.

Folk-Fest St. Pete

Held in St. Petersbug, FL, this has been our best show for the last two years.  We love this show!  The atmosphere is great, the music is awesome, the other artists are fun and laid back.  This year, we were one of the three featured artists at the show. 
We met Matt Deterior, another amazing artist there, and did an art trade.  Check out his work!
 St. Petersburg really has a wonderful art community with excellent local support.

New York Comic Con/Anime Fest
Again this year we were on the Anime Fest side of the convention.  Next year we are definitely making the switch to the Comic side.  We did well and beat our 2010 sales, but it was nothing like the ComicCon side.  Several people made comments to us that we would have fit in better over there, and we have to agree.








Little 5 Points Halloween Fest
This was a one day show in Atlanta, which was fun and somewhat profitable.  We had a few drunk annoying people in our tent toward the end of the night, but that happens.


Trillum Arts Festival
We went to this little show on the recommendation of an artist we had met at a different show.  Held in Traveler's Rest, SC, we figured it was near enough to be a day trip and wasn't very expensive.  Well, it didn't much pay off.  Traveler's Rest seems to have an older, conservative population, which doesn't usually work our well for our stuff.  Good music and nice people, though.

Show Report- September

In September, we only had one craft show and one gallery show. 


Indie Craft Parade is a indie show in Greenville, SC.  We were really thrilled to be accepted this year since they are very selective.  The show is run excellently, with music, food, wine, gourmet coffee, and amazing talent.  The organizers were all very nice and helpful, and we enjoyed the show a lot.  They had a VIP ticket holder night on Friday, which we thought was a great idea to draw interest.  The rest of the weekend it was pretty busy.  We had heard that this was a big money making show the last time they ran it, so I think we had our expectations high.  We did well there, but didn't hit our goal for the weekend.
The biggest thing that bothered us at this show was that we had to apply in two categories: one for art and one for the plushies.  We got judged in each category, and they only accepted the art work, so we had to leave half our inventory at home.  I think that hurt our sales a bit.  Regardless, we hope to be back next year with ALL our stuff!

On Sept. 17, we did a one night gallery showing at Cafe Chartier/The Watershed in Lexington, SC.  The Chartiers are a wonderful couple who let us come in and take over the space with all of our artwork.  Throughout the night, they provided awesome treats like sopapilla cheesecake danish and italian sodas.  It was a fun event with a pretty good turnout and we hope to do another one soon. 

Upcoming Gallery Shows

So, if you're a fan of us on facebook, you've already heard most of this.  But here's a little more information for you guys.

September 17 is Lower Than Lowbrow, a solo show at Cafe Chartier in Lexington, SC.  We'll have tons of paintings, prints, and plushies.  There's going to be live music, and we also will be doing some Q&A about our craft.  Extra bonus: the show is part of a charity function, so if you bring a pair of gently used shoes to donate, you could walk away with an original painting.













September 24, Joe is doing a group show at Art Bar here in Columbia called Art Bar Agora.  It is a really cool place and we're excited to be part of this show. There will be something like 20 local artists there as well as local bands.  Coming to the art show is free, and going inside to see the bands has a small cover fee.




October 6 is the opening reception for Cartoon Violence/Cartoon Love, a solo show that will hang for a month at S&S Art Supply on Main St.  It's part of First Thursdays on Main, a monthly gallery crawl in town.  There will be drinks and snacks.  We've also decided to hold our book release party in conjunction with the gallery opening, so it will be an extra fun night!





Nov. 5 is the opening reception of the Day of the Dead show at Young Blood gallery in Atlanta, GA.  Each artist gets one or two coffins to paint up for the show.  It looks totally awesome. 

Hope to see some of you guys out at these shows!

Show Reports- August

Only did two shows this month, so this will be a very brief post. 




SLAM!  Saturday local art market in Greenville, SC is a market they've started doing every Saturday this year.  It's still new, and therefore not extremely busy.  We decided to try SLAM a few weekends to fill in some gaps.  I think we will be going back once or twice more.  It was very small, but these things take time to get well known.  Regardless, we got to meet some nice people and see some friends while we were in town, so it was worth it.

Grant Park Summer Shade Festival

Oh boy.  This was supposed to be a BIG show, so it was a disappointment, even though we still did decent.  The issue I had with it was the organization.  They took so long getting back to us to tell us if we were in the show, and I had to hound them for a week before they would return my phone calls or emails.  They had a lot of rules about the color and type of tent you could use, which they then didn't enforce.  There was no vendor parking, so we had to fight with everyone else to get a spot in the morning.  They came around once the entire weekend to provide small bottles of water for the venders (the water wasn't even cold, so ew.)  I guess we've been spoiled by smaller shows where the organizers go to great lengths to make the vendors happy. 
     We knew several of the other vendors at the show, and after talking to everyone, the general consensus was that this was usually a top notch show and it was just a bad year for whatever reason.  We're not sure if we'll be back next year, as it was a rather expensive show to do.