Mrs. Mocha saves my show at Bellevue Art Festival
Every art festival has its own rules. And they say that they will enforce them by booting out any artist who breaks them. Some shows pride themselves in stating only original art (no reproductions allowed) may be displayed. This is very elitist since 95% of the population cannot afford original art over $250. What about the rest of us? No consideration?
Some shows allow a combination of original works and some reproductions. (of course all photographic prints are copies off the negative or digital file) But God forbid if you show up with lots of prints in a show that forbids them.
So for the prestigious 3 day Bellevue Museum show, where we were told NO REPRODUCTIONS (at all), I showed up and hung my original works.
It didn’t take but one morning for me to realize I was not going to sell anything at all. My forte was prints under $100. And I had all mine in the van. I bemoaned my fate to my wife Elaine and next morning she flew to Bellevue and texted me saying, “Mrs. Mocha (Elaine) is here to help Mr. Latte (me). Together we re-arranged the booth so my reproductions were out there and sales started to pick up. Even sold one original too.
My photographer neighbor, now an old friend, was selling his photographic prints: "Buy 4 and get the 5th one free". He was selling like it was water. So, it gave me the idea to do Buy 3 & Get one Free which has helped my sales all these years. Americans cannot resist anything that’s FREE.And what about the rules? No one from the show production even bothered to come around to check.
So much for rules.
