The Art Show

Any artist who says they only do it for themselves is lying.
Okay, there was that one dude who spent his whole life making stuff and keeping it in his apartment, so I suppose the chosen few are out there, but for the most part, artists make stuff so that other people look at it.
A great place to strut your stuff is at the art show.
There are three major juried shows here in Hawaii.
Thankfully and luckily(I'll get to this later) I've been in all three plus some smaller ones off the radar:



Now anyone can rent gallery space and put on a show.
Not everyone gets into a juried show.
The difference being that in a juried show, your work gets chosen by some artsy folks to be in their exhibit.
The process goes like this:
There's a call to artists.
You get a prospectus.
If you meet the exhibition requirements, you select some stuff to enter.
You fill out some paper work pay your entry fee and drop off either the real thing or images.
You wait.
Then you either pick up your work or you high five someone because your stuff got in.
I prefer when my stuff gets in because then I don't have to pick it up.
Until after the show that is.
That is if it didn't sell.
The Big Show is the Artists of Hawaii exhibition which usually runs during the summer.
I've been in that one only once:



It was a great experience for me because not only did I get accepted, I didn't even have to pick up my piece after the show was over.
I was sort of sad someone bought that bottle for it literally came out of the kiln a week or so before the show. I didn't get to spend too much time with it.
So anyways, I'll be documenting the art show experience, hopefully culminating with an exhibition but probably ending with me picking up my stuff making up excuses about why it didn't get chosen.
Big deal Mr. Flat Tire! So you've been in some shows.
Well it is a big deal and it's also not a big deal.
It was a big deal the first time, then a progressively littler deal as my works continued to show and I began to understand the process.
First of all, there's a lot of luck involved.
The show is usually juried by two or three artists, preferably of different mediums. They go through the submitted works, and the works that get green lighted get in the exhibition.
Some shows like the Artists of Hawaii show have a solo jurist which makes getting in even harder.
You never know what's going to make it onto the exhibition floor.
It's mostly luck.
So in that sense, it's not really that big of a deal.
One the other hand, your work was chosen to be there, so it sort of is.
A big deal, I mean.
So anyways, Hawaii Craftsmen's exhibition is what I'm shooting for. I've been in that show twice already but the last time was like in another life around nine years ago.
More on the drought later.
So for my basic entry fee, I can enter two works.
As of today, I have one 'maybe'.
I have less than three weeks to go.