How much of your art do you generally end up selling through a gallery or at a show?
Most of the time I sell more than half. It’s nice for someone to come to one of my shows and feel like they can walk out with something and not be scared – everything on the wall is not like two grand. It’s nice for my friends to go in there and feel comfortable. If I walk out of a show with way less artwork, that’s good for me so that I can move onto the next show.
Well, it depends on the month and the place. December is the best time to show artwork, followed by summertime. If it’s a show in December, I would say that I sell usually between 30 to 50% of what’s on the walls, which to me is really good. That’s a really great art show. And if it’s during the summer, I would say closer to 30%.
But doing art shows isn’t necessarily all about the sales that come with it, it’s also about putting my artwork out there and getting exposure. Because it leads to other opportunities — maybe it opens up a wholesale account, maybe it starts a consignment with an art gallery, maybe it turns into a commissioned piece.
So it’s not necessarily just about how many pieces are coming off the walls. It’s also exposure in the sense that people see it up on the walls and then they’re like, Oh, I really like that but I don’t want to spend $150 on a 16×20 canvas piece, but I could spend $35 on an 8×10 print of it. And so then the next time they see me, wherever I’m at, if I have the smaller things they’ll get really excited and say, I saw it at this place but I wasn’t ready to buy it then, so now I can buy it here.
[In the beginning] I would always have these art shows and hope my art would sell because I didn’t want to go home with 40 framed drawings that I wouldn’t even know what to do with. And my shows would sell out opening night because I would price the art dirt cheap, like 150 bucks. That was also before I had kids so a lot of things were different.
I haven’t had a sellout night in a while but it will usually be at least half the pieces or sometimes down to just a few pieces left. I can’t say I’ve had an art show that didn’t do well.
I’ve only had maybe eight pieces come back at the most. Usually they’re given away as gifts or I have a space in Dos Manos Art Gallery so a lot of times pieces will go there and I’ll see if they sell.