In the News...

Thanks to Google Alerts (you do know that you can set an alert for your own name at Google Alerts, and it will send you an email every time your name appears on the web, don't you?), I was greeted with this post today in an unfamiliar but well-written blog by arts journalist Ted McIrvine called Arts Spectrum, reporting on the opening of The (R)evolving Arts Gallery in Hendersonville:

"...I enjoyed other artists whose work is new to me. Works by Michelle Davis Petelinz included 'Sinuous Rhythms II,' composed through applying polymer clay to an 18” bamboo bowl and then painting with acrylic and ink."

It was a thrill to be included in the post, and I appreciated the inclusion of the image of my work, too. You can read the full post here.

Thanks, Ted McIrvine!

A Sale, A Site, Two Shows, and It's the Season

Various things to report:

1. I had my first sale at (R)evolving Arts Gallery! Just a week after I'd delivered my work, Julie sold my 'Retro Round Clock, Red, Teal and Copper'. The check arrived in the mail early last week, and it was a very nice surprise. We're hoping it's just the beginning of a great relationship with the gallery, with lots more sales to come.

2. Speaking of (R)evolving Arts, the website is up! Photos from the site of the space are at left. The site is still a work in progress, not all the pages have been populated, but my page is here.

3. I'm getting work ready for my two shows in July: Festival for the Eno, in Durham, NC on July 4th weekend (our 6th consecutive year, the festival's 30th!), and Artscape, Baltimore, two weeks later (our 2nd time; 2006 was the first). I'll post photos of my new work soon, but if you can't wait, click on over to my Facebook fan page, here.

4. And, it's camp season again. Today's my first day of 'Fantastic Female Artists' camp. So, my mornings will be spent doing my own work to get ready for next month's shows, and in the afternoons, I'll be teaching camp programs. So, if I don't post again for awhile, you'll know why!

Have a great, creative week.

Exciting News: The (R)evolving Arts Gallery

Finally, here's the exciting news I promised to share.

In late March, I was approached by Julie Spalla and David Lookingbill, who had seen my work last year at Charlotte's Art and Soul of South End festival, to be one of the initial group of artists in their brand new gallery called The (R)evolving Arts Gallery in Hendersonville, NC. I was very flattered, and over the course of the following month, learned a great deal about Julie and David, their mission, and their vision of the diverse gallery they want to create.

One of my long-range goals for my work is to have it displayed and sold in a gallery, and I've talked about ways to go about making that happen, especially with my Art Salon group. I've had several less than satisfactory experiences with galleries, and have been hesitant to approach others, instead I've been selling my work at shows. But, I've had the gallery goal in the back of my mind for years. In fact, during one of our recent meetings, we made 'vision boards,' and mine included the phrase, cut out of a magazine: "Something Amazing is Coming" and a photograph of people in an art gallery. Okay, maybe it was going to happen anyway, but I'm now a vision board convert: we did the boards at our March Art Salon meeting, and at the end of the month, Julie called me! The most gratifying thing for me is that she had kept my business card for over a year, and called me based upon what she'd seen at the Charlotte show. We clicked immediately during our initial 90-minute phone conversation where she described her vision for the Gallery, the historic building she and David have renovated, and her philosophy about how art should be displayed and sold.

Three weeks ago, Stan and I made the 4-hour drive to Hendersonville. We took in 22 pieces and 18 of them were selected to be my first work in the (R)evolving Arts Gallery, including bamboo wall hangings, clocks and Ancestress shadow boxes. The snapshot at left shows two of my bamboo wall hangings hung on one of the small walls of the gallery. I should say that I was wowed by the space; it's huge, open, and airy, with reclaimed original wood floors, walls painted a lovely shade of gray which will be a wonderful backdrop for the art, and soaring ceilings. The front windows let in a great deal of light, and the location is in the heart of the downtown Hendersonville Art Walk. I have very high hopes for this venture, and we will be attending the official grand opening, which will be on August 7th (better photos to come after that!). Another great thing was to be able to recommend the work of Gaff Pearce to Julie and David. Now his beautiful pottery will be part of the initial group of Gallery artists too!

I'm excited by the prospect of being in a "real" art gallery, and to participating in another of Julie and David's missions: donating a portion of my proceeds from my sales to a non-profit organization of my choice. I chose Camfed, the organization which promotes the education of girls and the empowerment of women in Africa. I first blogged about Camfed in 2007, here.

The website for The (R)evolving Arts Gallery is not live yet, but when it is, I will post the link. I'll also post any advertising which includes my work; we sent Julie a CD for this purpose, and I hope there'll be something to show, soon!

Indie Business Breakfast

June promises to be an interesting month here in North Carolina. For the first time in Raleigh, there will be an Indie Business Breakfast, hosted by the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild (CMMAG). On Saturday, June 6th, the topic will be:

How to Use Social Media to Leverage Your Brand and Attract More Paying Customers For Your Business!

From the promotional release:

"Lisa Stewart, CREATIVEGoddess of ECStewart Designs in Raleigh will be the featured speaker. She is an award winning designer and illustrator who, along with her husband and business partner, creates an extensive line of sophisticated images that are licensed on all kinds of elegant home accessories and personal products designed to enhance the lifestyle of the sophisticated customer. Lisa is a graduate of Western Michigan University's School of Graphic Design and Fine Arts.Through the years, Lisa and her husband have become intimately familiar with the challenges artists and crafters face when seeking to make the most of the financial opportunities that flow from their gifts. Lisa and her work have been featured in dozens of magazines and news outlets. Lisa will share from her experience and answer your questions about everything from maximizing online sales to achieving favorable publicity. If you want to learn how to use free and low cost social media tools to entrench your brand in your niche market, you need to follow Lisa's lead! She can help you turn your artistic talent into a vehicle that will help you enjoy your craft while also living a lifestyle you have always dreamed of."

About Indie Business

"Indie Business is where independent business owners connect, collaborate and succeed. We share tips and how-tos, and use the latest branded new media tools to create new relationships and expand our spheres of influence. Indie Business Breakfast is hosted by Donna Maria Coles Johnson, founder and president of the Indie Beauty Network and Indie Business Media. Known as the Chief Executive Indie and the Original Lifestyle CEO, Donna Maria is passionate about empowering people to maximize their potential through small business ownership. You can follow Donna Maria’s entrepreneurial journey at http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/. You can also connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IndieBusiness and on Facebook at http://companies.to/IndieBusiness"

I'll be attending the breakfast, wearing both my CMMAG Vice President's hat as well as my Kindred Spirit Studios hat ('haven't quite figured out what to wear to set both of them off!), and will have a piece of work on display. I'll be very interested to learn how else to use social media, and whether Twitter makes any sense at all (right now, I'm in the 'why in the world would anyone want to know I'm eating a salad for lunch?' camp) for my business. But these days, every little thing which can help with marketing, promotion and sales is much appreciated!

If you'll be here in Raleigh, or can make the trip, registration for the breakfast, which will be held at the John P. "Top" Green Neighborhood Center is here.

See you there!

Show Report: Gosport Arts Festival

No, this isn't the exciting news I promised in my last post. I realized I hadn't reported on our second show of the year, in Portsmouth, VA: the Gosport Arts Festival, so here goes. This was our first time doing the show, but it came highly recommended to us by our friends Martha and Gaff Pearce of Lazy Lizard Pottery (we love Gaff's work, and have a stunning "Waterfall" vessel of his in our home gallery. That's Gaff in Florida, showing off his Award of Distinction from the Lake Wales show, with one of the waterfall vessels in the center of the top shelf).

The trip up to Virginia was fine, and our location at the show couldn't have been more convenient; it was within a half block's walk to our hotel! The show staff was helpful, setup went smoothly, the weather was fine (though there was a tremendous thunderstorm late Friday night, but our Flourish tent was tight as a drum!). Saturday was very hot and humid, but ours was a shady spot, so it wasn't too bad. Artists who'd done the show before commented about how sparse the crowd was in comparison to other years; there were lots of lookers, and very few buyers. We did sell a few pieces, but Saturday's overall results were disappointing (although I do have to point out that we've lowered our expectations in this year of such a terrible economic climate). On Saturday evening, after the show closed, the staff held an awards dinner for the artists. The Gosport Arts Festival benefits the Edmarc Hospice for Children in Portsmouth, and many of the volunteers who staffed the show were affiliated with Edmarc as well. It was a lovely evening, and though we didn't win an award, it was nice to meet our fellow artists and see how our work benefits this effort.
Sunday was a gorgeous day: bright, sunny, and much cooler; a perfect show day, and it was Mother's Day too. The crowd was noticeably larger, with many family groups with mothers carrying flowers. We sold much more on Sunday, and were able to meet all of our expenses plus have a bit more, which is great (those lowered expectations again). I sold 'Sinuous Rhythms III, Spirals' to a woman who came back twice to look at it. I've found that if people are really drawn to a piece of my work, they either buy it right on the spot, or they take time to walk away and think about it. And, if the piece truly resonates with them, they return to buy it. I love it when that happens, because it means my work has found a good home.

We enjoyed our time in Portsmouth, and would do the show again. In a better economic climate, I think this could be one of our better shows of the year...here's hoping that will be true in 2010.

More...later...

Lots happening, and no time to post, but I'll have some exciting news next week. I didn't really believe in the whole "vision board" thing, but I have to say that the biggest vision I've had for awhile now is about to come to fruition--is it because I did the board at one of our Art Salon meetings? Maybe, maybe not. If so, I'll be doing more boards in the future!

I promise to tell all, but not now....'gotta go make the vision come true....

Have a great, creative weekend.

First Show: Mixed Results

Our first show this year, as in the last two years, was Charlotte's Art & Soul of South End. It's an extremely well-run show: the staff does great pre-show communication, there's excellent volunteer assistance before, during and after the show, load-in and load-out are handled well, and the overall feeling is a positive, supportive one. The weather was great (hotter than we're used to in NC in April, but we didn't complain), and our booth looked great with the new shelves (more on that below). So why the 'mixed results' of the title? Because even with all of the above, attendance was significantly lower than in our two previous years, and sales were less than half of last year. There were also no prizes for artists as there had been in both previous years.

Despite all of this, we enjoyed the show and our returning customers. My postcard marketing program was the most successful it's ever been: 4 people either brought or mentioned their 20% discount postcard, and three of them made purchases. I now consistently have repeat business in Charlotte, which is great. My next marketing idea for these customers (who I'm going to call collectors from now on) is to have a special promotion targeted to them when I do my next show in Charlotte (stay tuned for details on that).

Here's how the booth looked with the new products and our newest addition: shelves which match our booth panel walls. We love the way they fill the space below the hanging items (an area which always bothered me before, since it was too low to hang most things and have them be easily seen), and being able to display both sizes of clock, the new 10x16 mirrors as well as mask wall hangings is just great.

So, all in all, it was an enjoyable if not particularly lucrative weekend; we were happy to have made some sales, given the state of the economy, and are hopeful about the rest of the show season. Our next show is in two weeks, in Virginia. Time to go create more product to get ready for it!