Selling & Submitting Your Photography At Art Shows

Starting OutEveryones most common question – where do I start? Let’s just say that you’ve been taking pictures for a while now and you’ve received regular feed back from your friends and relations as to how well you take pictures. You may have done a couple of jobs here and there and you customers have commented a number of times about the quality of the shots. Maybe you’ve even thought about establishing a booth at some of the fairs as well. Art shows can provide a viable way to earn a living doing what you like to do, taking shots.Lets Look At Some Important PointsSome people make the first few attempts at shows by only going to those close to home but this should be short lived and should only be a stepping stone to a bigger and more frequent attendance. You see there are bigger and better art shows out there that will reward you handsomely if only you can find it in your soul to dismiss the habit of eating a sandwich and reading a book at the standard small fair while people look at your pictures.I’m talking about the better art shows, I’m talking about the sale of photography as a business, and in approaching it, see that people do art shows on a very professional level for a living to support their families and enjoy some wealth creation while they’re at it. The competition can produce some of the best photography you’ve ever seen. But of course you think that you have something of value to contribute. Real photography art which people are waiting in line to purchase.You need to get these two points right if you’re planning on applying to some of the better art shows. You must understand what other photographers are selling and how they go about displaying their work. Walk through a major show and observe the competition.Fact#1 – On a business level it’s competition for the moneyFact#2 – on a photographic level it’s the competition for the space in the show.
Why It’s Important To Have A Unified Body Of WorkThere are TWO reasons;Fact#1 – Customers hate being confused and will walk rather than ask for clarity due to embarrassment. When you have people standing in your booth thinking about making a purchase, there is a point in time where if they haven’t made up their mind, they walk away.Fact#2 – The other is the “your booth”. Most application requirements at art shows require that you submit individual slides of your work (about 4 or 5) plus a picture of your display. Now listen carefully – the display slide will look more professional looking if the body of work is unified.Something to consider carefully is how you will attract someone to your booth, given that they will be walking past many. I suggest that your whole booth become a show stopper. By this I mena that the them and composition should be interrelated and have exceptional impact.Image PreparationThere’s no avoiding it, especially when you’re starting up. Printing, mounting, matting and framing all have to be done professionally.Your materials and labor will become a factor in your selling price, as will competition from your peers. As a generalization, you can’t spend $50 to print, mat and frame a 16×20 if you plan on selling it for $100. But you can if you’re going to sell it for $300. But you can’t sell it for $300 if the other photographers are selling that size for $200.You will need a source for framing supplies. There are multitudes of companies that sell frames. You can find some in the advertisements in Décor Magazine.It’s best to use non-glare glass with photography. That way customers can be distracted to the photograph from where evre they’re standing at my booth and other reflections don’t deter purchase. It’s a personal choice and doesn’t work for everyone. Non glare glass costs twice what regular framing glass costs. Fome cor is an acid free backing and mounting board that is widely used in the framing industry. Some photographers base their sizes on the available materials. Because mat board and fore cor are available in 32×40 inch sheets, that 32×40 sheet can be cut to produce four 16×20′s with no waste.You can also sell unframed picture for sale. This places the framed pictures in a more up-market category and helps justify a higher price. This serves three purposes. It gives you a less expensive item to prepare and sell. It generates money, and it lets you display different images that might not have the same theme as the ones hanging on the display.The unframed photos can be matted and mounted, just like the framed photographs, and are displayed in clear plastic bags to protect them while people handle them.Art Show ApplicationsHow to find an art show to start with;Believe it or not most exhibitors hear about shows from other exhibitors. However her’s a short list to start with -Art Fair Sourcebook, The book is published annually and is an expensive but necessary resource if you’re considering art shows as a profession. It lists the top 300 art shows in the country.Another is Sunshine Artist Magazine, which is the closest thing there is to a trade magazine in the art show business.Which are the good Art Shows?Here’s a guide for the best art shows. The first being Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Winter Park Art Show(Orlando), Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts, Old Town Art Show (Chicago), 57th Street (Chicago), Boston MillsArt Show (Peninsula Ohio), Cherry Creek Art Show (Denver), Madison On the Square (Wisconsin), CentralPennsylvania Festival of the Arts (State College PA), Ann Arbor (four shows to choose from), Uptown(Minneapolis) Art Show, Longs Park Art Show (Lancaster PA), The Plaza (Kansas City), Saint Louis Art Festival(Clayton MO), Des Moines Art Festival. there are similar shows in England, Canada, Australia, Scandanavia, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand.One last tip;Web Site Promotion – Use your web site URL as your business name on your booth sign. It has been found from experience that web site clients get a substantial increase in traffic after art shows if they promote their web sites properly. Your art show visitors will usually be your biggest online customers.

The Importance of Women’s Spirituality

A friend recently asked me why I felt it was so important to focus specifically on spirituality for women. Isn’t the point of spirituality, she asked, to move to an understanding that transcends distinctions like gender? Does it really serve the process, she wondered, to imply there is a separate spirituality for men and for women?As part of my response, I referred her to a recently published book called Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality. The author, Leora Tanenbaum, explores the role of women within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The author interweaves religious history with interviews of contemporary women who care deeply about their religions, and derive great knowledge and sustenance from them, but are unhappy with the restricted roles of women within them. Many of these interviews are very moving, because these women have really struggled with this issue.One of the biggest problems for these women is the restrictions placed on their access to teachings and official roles. Many of their religions restrict women’s rights or abilities to read certain scriptures, or to teach or preach. Since scriptures are often considered the word of God, or a conduit to enlightenment (in the East), this sends the message that women are ‘further’ from God or enlightenment, and that they don’t have the right to communicate directly, or to learn, teach, or preach on their own. They have to get everything secondhand. Contemporary American women don’t accept this in the office, and are increasingly uncomfortable with it in their houses of worship.While Taking Back God focuses on the official role of women in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, things aren’t altogether different in the New Age or self-help communities, or in many Buddhist or Yoga centers. Although there are more women spiritual teachers, authors, and religious leaders in America than elsewhere in the world, they are still vastly outnumbered by men (just check out the Amazon bestsellers list). This despite the fact that according to book marketing surveys, women outnumber men as the purchasers of spiritual and religious books by as much as 4 to 1. In other words, women would appear to be more interested in spirituality in general, but the majority of books, teachers, organizations and resources out there are male-dominated. What is the message sent by this?So, my answer to my friend, the reason focusing on women’s spirituality is important to me, even though I am wary of over-identifying with gender issues, is that I think it really matters how many women religious leaders and spiritual teachers there are out there. And I think full access to scriptures, and leadership roles, and teaching positions – within every tradition – is imperative. Women’s access to spirituality, their relationship with God/Tao/Nirvana/Brahma (or whatever you believe in), can’t be secondhand. In a way, changing this is the most essential form of change that can occur, because our spiritual and religious beliefs define our organizational view of the world. If we see women as ‘lower down’ the totem pole, even subconsciously, we are denying ourselves our full power.

Religion, Spirituality, Health and Women

Today’s woman plays many roles in her daily life. She is a mother, a wife, a caretaker, a business runner, a first aid giver and lots more. She is the one who organizes parties; she attends PTAs that most fathers miss, she runs a tight ship in the office. With her hands full 24×7 she manages to do exactly what she is supposed to do and what she wants to do. She multi tasks better than most billionaire CEOs. Amidst all this, where she is a superhero, she often tends to ignore her own health and personal well-being. Now a superhero can’t do much good when unhealthy.Women’s Health comprises of all health issues and problems that needs attention. From reproductive health to mental health to emotional health to giving you an insight on how to keep your bones healthy and your heart happy, to knowing your body better, you need to take care of all. Being total solutions machines, you need to care about each and every running part of that machine.One of the things that dramatically change women’s attitude towards their own health-care is the factor of religion and spirituality. Interestingly, most women seem to be following some sort of health regime -gluten-free, low crab, low sugar, high protein, vegan, or something else. In our endless march toward physical fitness, we try exercise, supplements, vitamin shakes, and nutritionist-endorsed meal plans. We pay too much attention to what we should eat and what we shouldn’t, little do we bother about what’s good or bad for our soul. There is a difference between managing your outward manners and managing your inward sentiments, and both affect one’s soul in ways more diverse and complex than one tends to understand.Recently, I began to understand more clearly how the said combination of health, religion and spirituality worked for women. I have found out that religion helps followers engage in healthier lifestyle practices on a general basis. All religions teach not to drink, smoke or engage in other unhealthy habits. People tend to drink less alcohol, smoke less, and have healthier habits overall. Spirituality gives a mirror for the soul. Spirituality helps followers examine their emotions and mindfully witness their own fleeting feelings. Ultimately it helps us have a calmer outlook, lower blood pressure, and a more even-hands on approach to dealing with life’s challenges.Religion and Spirituality offer a number of diverse paths for accessing the life’s concealed and unparalleled parts and redemption. Religion and spirituality work together to create individuals of healthier mind, body, and spirit. Indian culture contains a number of ancient texts of Vedas, Upanishads and others which give a detailed measure for women’s physical health, social conduct and family duties. The Atharva-Veda also contains a collection of spells and incantations for the practice of magic, contained references to disease, injuries, fertility, sanity, and health. Methods of diagnosis included few indirect rather mystified as well as rational approaches. Omens of various kinds such as the flight of birds, the sounds of nature, and many other observations were interpreted by the physician as clues to the severity of the illness. It could have had something to do with the changes in environment which brings about a great impact on the human behavior. Religious faith gave psychological stability. This ability to believe can be used by health psychologists in medical settings to help those who struggle with a disease or to promote a healthier lifestyle. In our much modern and tech savvy lifestyle what we ultimately need is a touch of religion and spirituality. One that not only provides us the how tos on life but also create a drive inside of us for a more enlightened and prosperous environment.