July 7, 2023 - Spring and Summer Shows, Travel, Guitar Shows
Here we are once again, having taken too long to do another Blog post.
This year has been interesting so far - some success, and some not so much. April (Speing Auto Fair at Charlotte Motor Speedway was pretty good - sold enough prints to call it a win, and met with some potential clients about illustration work that may come my way.
May got under way with a couple of guitar shows - I have been doing a series of guitar paintings over the last 2-3 years. Guitars are a subject close to my heart, as I played for a living back in ancient times. So as I had accumulated an inventory of a dozen or so paintings, with prints thereof, it was time to get serious about selling them somewhere. What better place to try a guitar show than Nashville, right? Met a lot of interesting people, saw hundreds of really nice instruments, and even got a private tour (upstairs) at the world famous Gruhn Guitars. Sales were modest - we sold enough prints to pay for gas and food, but the show fee and hotel bills made it an overall revenue loss. Some really positive feedback from other vendors and music folk was encouraging. Although several people that talked a big game about possible commissions seem to have vanished… Some of the other vendors suggested that we try the Dallas International Guitar Festival, the largest event of its kind in the country, that was coming up a couple of weeks after Nashville. Two days out, 4 days at the show, two more days back to Charlotte, with all the gas, food, and hotel bills that added up to a small fortune, and total revenue of $150.00. Anybody want to buy some guitar paintings???
Early June had us at the Cincinnati Concours at Ault Park. Always a nice turnout of cool cars, time spent with friends - all in all a pleasant outing. However, sales were at zero, zilch, nada, zip. Oh, well, I do still love what I do… I always have a commission or two to help with the cash flow, so hope abides… You have to be a cockeyed optimist to do this stuff!
On another front, Lynn and I celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary on July 1. We talked about how to celebrate - maybe an extravagant trip to Italy or someplace exotic? We settled on getting ourselves a very cool mutual anniversary present - a 1982 Alfa-Romeo Spider Veloce! All original, paint and interior are good, engine, gearbox, etc. all working well. Needs the usual belts, hoses, bushings etc. that you might expect an old car would need. Putting it into the hands of our local Alfa guru pretty soon to address all that. Even scored a used set of Panasport wheels to go with the new tires we have coming. We are much looking forward to enjoying this car - we drove Alfas exclusively all through the seventies, eighties and nineties, then we were Alfa-less for much too long. Thought we should do this before we gwt too old to enjoy it!
Okay, I’ll sign off for now - check out the site and buy art from a living artist- the dead ones don’t need the money…