While at the February meeting, I heard more than one rumbling (my own included) about getting the lead out; the show is in two months and I don’t have a thing ready for it! Is it the fate of all artists to face these kinds of deadlines - the type that sneak up on you and bite you on the butt - when you know very well that you’ve had six months to prepare? Although it pains me to say it, I think it is. And it doesn’t seem to matter how productive you are - whether you’ve painted every day for the last six months or if you’ve barely even looked at your work table - we all seem to have some kind of freaky blinders on when it comes to deadlines.

Go get ‘em!

"Once bitten or rebitten by the love of art, I began attending classes and workshops that both intimidated and inspired me. Donna Watson encouraged me to do series paintings on a single subject, changing one thing each time. I did nine. Carla O’Connor challenged me to jump off into the abyss, paint with imagination and abandon. Michael Schlickling encouraged me to do more figure drawing. The figure drawing sessions I attended this last year at ArtNotTerminal helped me immeasurably.

In oil painting classes at the University of Oregon, Tom first learned about contrast, composition, emotional impact, balance, texture, and zooming in for the real subject. "These are the elements I look for in my photography," he says. "If one or two of them are missing when I am showing my wife Jonlee, I can see it immediately in her face."

At the La Conner Art Center Tom attended a workshop led by Craig Tanner from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. Tanner said that talent was fine, but desire and mastering the basics will take you much further.

The meeting was chaired by Amy Peacock and Mona Fairbanks.

Our February meeting began with an overview of the progress made by our hard-working Publicity Committee, chaired by Kathleen Johnson. These industrious folks put together a mock-up board with proposed designs for postcards, fliers, and a window poster to promote and advertise our Spring Show being held at ArtWorks April 29th and 30th.

They also designed a bold, eye-catching A-board which directs arts patrons to ArtWorks for ArtistsConnect events. These A-boards would be used to capture a wider audience for the Spring Show as well as all future shows/open studio events hosted at ArtWorks. However, Edmonds city law requires sign boards be posted only on private property.

ArtistsConnect needs volunteers who live in the Edmonds bowl area to "host" a sign on their property during events - please contact Kathleen Johnson if you can help direct traffic to us. Several signboards can be displayed on the corners of ArtWorks property as well. The publicity committee initially plans to have 4 signboards printed and assembled - the cost split between our active members would run about 50 cents per board - or 2-3 dollars per person. Even if you do not intend to participate in the upcoming Spring Show, please donate your share to this fund - these A-board signs will be re-used many times in the future to help promote all of our events at ArtWorks.

The publicity committee worked out a cost of roughly $745 to cover printing promotional materials specifically for the Spring Show - postcards, fliers, and window posters. As Ann Wood was vacationing last week, we are still uncertain what specific portion of this cost might be covered by the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation. Hopefully they will be sharing the expense of show promotion... Kathleen Johnson will be speaking to Ann Wood about this in the near future. If the participants alone covered the cost it would break down to about $19 per person (assuming 40-45 people showing as before). However, we expect that the Foundation will be interested in sharing the cost of publicity, and this will bring down our individual outlay for advertising.

Postcard - Kathleen Johnson’s husband operates a printing company which can run the postcards at a cost of 17 cents each. The publicity committee plans to print 1000 double-sided cards which feature the show dates (including Preview Party), location, and hours. Members participating in the Spring Show need to help distribute these to their mailing list, local businesses frequented by art buyers, bulletin boards at community centers, etc.

Leaflets/Fliers - These will be produced inexpensively to be handed out in a wide range of venues - from our neighbors to the ferry line. Full-color Window Poster - The publicity committee designed a colorful poster which includes images representing the range of work shown by ArtistsConnect members -from watercolor, ceramics, fiber arts, glass jewelry, to photography. Volunteers will be needed to take these around to local businesses willing to display them prominently. Please consider which locations would attract patrons who purchase art - not just places which attract artists. If you would like to have one of your images featured in the final poster design, please contact Kathleen Johnson.

Press Release - A draft press release was read out by Mary Ann Case, which summed up our group’s mission and diversity of talents, while providing all the information needed to direct arts patrons to our Spring Show. We were uncertain whether the press release should include an announcement of the Preview Party or not... it was determined to put this question to Ann Wood for input from the Arts Festival Foundation. Please send Mary Ann or Kathleen e-mails with any suggestions (preferably including contact information) of local publications which might write us up - don’t rule out the Kingston area just across the water.

In a general discussion of details regarding the Spring Show we touched upon the topic of generally advertising the Preview Party - or not? If we generally announce the Party, should we provide our own wine?

Bill Butler volunteered to once again coordinate the set-up of the ArtWorks space for hanging the show. We need someone to coordinate the "Artists in Action" schedule during the Spring Show - and determine where to place working stations.

A sign-up sheet for the Spring Show was passed around to start narrowing down the number of participants - to determine how much show space each artist would be allotted and how the advertising costs would be split.

Ideas for future "fun" group activities/meeting points were laid out next by Mona:
Do a group installation.
Host a sidewalk chalk day (perhaps in conjunction with the Edmonds Arts Festival).
Organize rotating shows through local businesses.
Bring a local Edmonds school a traveling "Arts Festival" experience for a day.

If you have an idea to bring together ArtistsConnect members and involve the local community in our experience... feel free to step forward at one of our meetings and propose it.

Stacy Fraker has proposed organizing a local artist’s studio tour day/weekend, based on the models used by Kirkland/Ballard... perhaps this could be associated with our fall show. Meet with her to discuss ideas on Saturday March 11th from 10am-12pm at ArtWorks.

Autumn Kegley gave a short introduction to the newest addition to ArtWorks - a large bed Takesh etching press. Ken Smith has asked her to host weekly open work sessions for experienced printmakers who provide their own tools/inks/plates/paper. Autumn will be interviewing printmakers during these sessions to establish their familiarity with the press and agreement to follow "press rules". After you have been vetted and added to the cleared list - you may contact Ken Smith at ArtWorks to reserve solo press time in 4 hour blocks for a $10 rental fee. During February, the open press sessions on Friday nights from 7pm - 11pm will be free of charge to allow people a chance to drop in and look things over. From March onward, Ken asks participants in the Friday night sessions to donate $5 to help cover the cost of purchasing the press and overhead at ArtWorks.

To finish out our February meeting, Darlene and Fran Lucas gave a short presentation on their experiences in booth artwork sales at the local Edmonds Saturday markets:

Darlene’s background includes working as a textile arts instructor and general educator at all public school grade levels. She has been working with watercolors for the past 15 years, since her allergies don’t allow her to work with toxic materials such as oil paints. Fran and Darlene work as a business team since retiring and moving from Texas to Edmonds, Washington to pursue their own creative version of "retirement". They began showing/selling art at the Edmonds Saturday Markets in 2004. The following are their suggestions from current and past experiences:

1. Keep track of people visiting your booth (or show) - try to gather names and addresses and keep them updated.

2. Keep a file of notes associated with your address list - know your customers interests, concerns, and questions. You can gather this information using a request card as an alternative to the standard mailing list/guest book.

3. Display your prices - your audience appreciates being able to see them, and it establishes your honest business practices.

4. Dress for success! Promote yourself and your booth - make everything look like quality.

5. Demonstrate! People enjoy seeing you practice your craft. It helps educate your audience and creates a greater appreciation for the value of your artwork if they can see what is involved in producing it.

6. Don’t jump on people - allow them a chance to look at your art in peace - leaping on them the moment they enter your booth is intimidating.

7. Use good presentation! Professional quality framing enhances the value of your work. Customers appreciate a full-package deal which they can take home and hang on their wall without a fuss.

8. Promote other artists and network. We can all share in the pie - what you share out always returns to you. If you don’t feel comfortable with or inspired by a customer’s request for a specific commission - send them to another artist who specializes in that style of work/subject matter.

9.Deliver what you promise on time, and follow up with thank-you notes.

10. Be approachable - don’t sulk in a corner of your booth reading a novel.

11. Small items are important to catch a larger range of clients/collectors.

12. Don’t discount greeting cards - people may purchase one and return later after consideration to purchase an original.

13. Don’t put down your audience. Remember they don’t have your art education/background. Encourage their interest and educate them.

After meeting with Ann Wood on 2/20/2006, Kathleen Johnson sends in this report:

"1. I received clarification on the reason we cannot advertise the opening night party the general public (press release, posters and flyers). The Washington State Liquor Control board specifies for a ‘Banquet Permit’, which is required to serve wine in our situation, that ‘attendance must be by invitation only and cannot be open or advertised to the general public.’ The post cards will be considered our invitation since these are going to specific individuals (either the mailing list or artists’ guests).

2. After presenting our publicity plan, Ann assured me that the foundation would pay for 100% of the publicity costs in our budget ($745.00). In addition, she (the foundation) wants to provide the wine for the opening night reception. She was impressed with how organized and prepared we were and felt that the show would definitely be better attended this time since last time the foundation only sent invitations to 80 special patrons on their list. This show we intend to send approximately 1,000.

3. Bill Butler recommended (after the February AC meeting) that the committee look into a targeted marketing approach and see what it would cost to purchase a marketing list to add to our current list. I asked my husband (and Marketing expert) to research this for us, and he determined that after narrowing the requirement to people in the Edmonds area, of a certain financial status, who were interested in art/home decorating that we could purchase a list of 315 for approximately $70.00. I talked to Ann about this and she is going to see if the festival wants to purchase this so that we could have access to it.

4. Ann indicated that the foundation is also purchasing a banner "Art Event Today" to be displayed outside ArtWorks during the show to call attention to the building.

5. Since the A-board signs are specific to ArtistsConnect usage we will fund the signs through member donations ($2.00 - 3.00 per member). Heather McGilvray is collecting this money.

6. We, ArtistsConnect, are not officially affiliated with the foundation or sponsored by the foundation. And Ann didn’t think that the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation needed to be mentioned in our press releases, unless we wanted to. The foundation pays for our show publicity, lets us use the space without paying rental fees, provides the display panels, and handles the accounting and payment of sales tax collected from our shows - in exchange for the 25% of sales from our shows.