Consider me schooled! I was so excited about getting into some of those Florida art shows again this year and learned the hard way that you really need to enter a whole lot more than you think. Quite often, as artists, regardless of our ability and awards, we get the dreaded, REJECTION letter/email for a show we have tried to enter. This happened a couple of times to me this year and sadly, I did not submit to multiple shows in advance. Advance means like six to eight months before the show, cash up front required! Now here I sit in front of my computer screen scrambling to get in late to some of the even smaller shows, which at this point may be rather futile.
For all you art show festival wannabe's out there, know this, every show has a promoter and they all have different rules about images sizes, application requirements, deadlines, submission rules and so forth. If your images are just slightly out of their requirements, they won't even hesitate to reject you on that basis alone, regardless of the quality of your work so read between the lines and do your homework! READ THE RULES!!!!
I am posting this because there just is no rule book out there for doing the outdoor shows and the web sites that offer input are just too complicated to get through unless you have like a bazillion man hours of extra time to put into it. Frankly, I would much rather paint, because that's what I do best, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to succeed in this business.
So here I sit, on the waiting list to nowhere searching for that game time in the Florida sunshine. Hoping for somewhere nice near the manatees like Holmes Beach, FL where I can sketch and research these majestic beauties in person. If I don't get in because I am too late then I think Kris and I are going to take a badly needed vacation to see the manatees ourselves and leave the art back home. I think we will bring the dogs on this adventure. They deserve it after all they've been through with my parading around at these art shows. I've sent the festival folks in that area some emails inquiring about entries so I'll keep you up to date on what happens with that. I'm sort of hoping for another series of rejections so Kris, Rusty, Raven and I can just go on our own little adventure and then come home to paint about it. God bless and good luck out there ya'll!