August 4, 1999
Artists take their shows on the road
Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It's a nomadic life, not for everyone.
But for artists on the art fair circuit, life on the road traveling from town to town every week can be a satisfying one full of camaraderie and new scenery every weekend.
As another 118 artists spread out their tents and wares Saturday on the grounds of Northwestern Michigan College for the Traverse Bay Outdoor Art Show, they renewed old acquaintances, checked out what each other was doing and swapped stories about life on the road.
"It is like one big club after a while," said painter Ken Graning of Auburn Hills, who likes to paint between talking with customers or other artists. "Artists are all very interested and friendly. I like these shows because I get to take my art directly to the people. Not that galleries are bad, but you don't get the feedback directly from people like you can here."
Graning is a painter experimenting with some new mixed-media techniques using computers and adding texture to his work. An illustrator by trade, the lifelong artist has been going to art fairs for the past five to sell his paintings. This summer he will go to 15 fairs in all throughout the Midwest, including ones in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Though his travels and talking with people who stop by his booth, he has modified his technique of traditional landscape painting to include three dimensions.
"I found that people relate to texture," said Graning, who paints from photographs he takes of scenery, usually out west. "My traditional gouache painting is flat so I wanted to evolve a technique that had texture."
This is the 39th year the Northerwestern Michigan Artists and Craftsmen have sponsored an outdoor art show on the NMC grounds. A juried show including artists from eight states, organizers work to balance artists amount the 17 categories, which include fiber, wood, sculpture, jewelry - both metal and non-metal - photography and water color. Artists apply by sending in slides of their work and their booth for evaluation. Volunteer artists from the council sift through hundreds of applications before selecting who will be in the show.
"We want to have an idea of what they have and what their medium is," said Don Shepard, chairman of the show. "They can jury in on one or two categories and two-thirds of the booth has to be what they juried in on."
Artists pay a $10 jury fee and, if accepted, $90 to be in the show. The show organizers provide the artists with a ten-foot by ten-foot space and the artists provides the tent, shelves, and, of course, the art. With just two hours to set up before a show opens, the artists are experts at unpacking and arranging their work. After years on the road, they have designed their tents for both best display and ease of set up and break down.
Laura Amendt of Farmington Hills displays her contemporary stained glass pieces in her booth on shelves she built herself. During her first year of art shows, she checked out what other artists used to display their wares and designed her own using ideas from what she saw. In the seven years since starting, she has slowly decreased her shelf space to make room for more hanging pieces, which have proven to be very popular.
Amendt also discovered how important it is to be in the right kind of show. Starting out, she at first attended mainly shows that had a country craft theme with lots of chintz and animals where her bold geometric shapes and colors were out of place. She now focuses on fine art and fine craft shows, such as the Traverse Bay Outdoor Art Show and the Suttons Bay Art Show next weekend.
"You have to learn which shows are good for your specific kind of art," said Amendt, who studied fine art at Kalamazoo College. "I do shows from end of March through December. You go back home between shows to build back up your inventory during the week."