I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging my way through my midlife reinvention. In Saturday Sales, I learn about and plan for selling products and services.
Last weekend, I attended an online workshop sponsored by WCACO and led by wildlife and landscape artist Monica Hokeilen. The topic was getting organized and exhibiting, and it was both informative and inspiring.
Monica mentioned that she has had good luck selling at fine art festivals. In 2025 I considered applying to participate in one, but didn’t get around to it and now the season’s over. I focused on showing in juried (and non-juried) shows. I won one award and sold one piece, and I participated in nine shows so far, with one more starting next week.
In 2026, I’d like to participate in at least one festival and maybe more. I know this is going to be a lot of work. But I think my art+writing project Things Men Gave Me could make for a really interesting festival offering. I will sell my art, but I also plan to have chapbooks available for sale. I’ll create some shorter brochures with art and maybe one memoir story too, so people can take them to go, and later subscribe to the serialized memoir or purchase art.
One reason I didn’t apply to festivals in 2025 was that I dreaded the idea of getting myself, my art, and a tent (with walls to hang art on) to a festival site and set up. But now my life has changed: I have Ray to help me with that.
Ray is not only strong and handy, he also owns a pickup truck (well, actually he owns two! So manly). He has even been thinking of buying a trailer which could come in handy for hauling all the stuff I’d need to sell art at a festival.
Besides that, having two people to (wo-)man the booth will make it much more manageable.
I’m going to need to prepare a booth shot to apply to most festivals, though a few don’t require one. A booth shot shows your tent setup with actual art displayed. It doesn’t have to be the exact art you’ll have available, but as it’s used for jurying artists, the art should show the kind of art you’ll sell and what your booth setup will look like.
I’m going to see about renting or borrowing a tent to do my booth shot. Fortunately I have pretty good photography skills (and an awesome Nikon Z8 camera) so at least I’m equipped in that way.
Monica mentioned she built her own carpet-covered walls for her tent, so I’m going to look into that. I know that Ray is capable of building anything I spec out, another boyfriend bonus.
Based on my research last year, I’m pretty sure that art festival deadlines start coming up in February. I’ll need to get my booth shot done by then.
Other than that, this gives me lots of time to work on producing memoir stories, paintings, and any printed materials I’ll want to sell or give away. I’ll also need to set up an online store so that people who see my art at a festival and want to buy later have an easy way to do it.
Each year of my reinvention sees my life as an artist progress. In 2024, I developed my authentic style for the first time as I moved beyond simply copying what other artists were doing. This culminated in the creation of my Snow Bound conceptual art project, which paired paintings with digitally edited photos inspired by the paintings.
In 2025, as I mentioned, I’ve shown my art at nine shows, sold one piece, and won an award for another. I joined two local art groups, Heritage Fine Arts Guild and Women’s Caucus for Art Colorado. I’m currently serving as publicity director for Heritage and I moderate the WCACO Facebook page. And I’m going to do a short paid demo of how to photograph and catalog your artwork for Heritage Guild in October, paving the way for possibly doing future workshops or offering photography and cataloging services for other artists.
Monica said she has been working on her art practice and art business for ten years now. That was helpful, to hear how long it took her to reach the level of success she has (which seems like a high level of success to me!)
I’m excited for what the future holds, and excited about my goal to sell my art and market my memoir project at at least one fine art festival in 2026.