bsbkmacgowan
<font color="red">Brian's driving while Sandy's po
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2003
- Messages
- 303
... that this past Monday, I was asked to take part in a by-invitation-only 3-month-long "Showcase of Artists" at The Bag Factory here in Goshen, Indiana. 
The Bag Factory is a local retail shopping area that is a refurbished late-1800s bag factory (duh, huh?) and they will be having the artwork from various local artists on display from November through January. The highlight weekend, however, will be Nov. 12 - 14, when they are holding their 7th Annual Renaissance Faire (I'm told they've had between 5000 and 7000 people attending the faire in the past!) 
It was a sort of spur-of-the-moment thing... Brian and I drove over to Goshen to check on prices for printing some of my work out (larger scale than I can here at home) and the printer loved my work. Even though he can't currently help me out, he said "why don't you go over to the Bag Factory and see if there are any stores there that could sell your current work." So we did... and there's a gallery over there that I didn't know existed!
Originally, I was just going to "case the joint" and get an idea about what they carry (it's a framing store and gallery combined) and so I was just paging through a Bruce McGaw prints book (they're the printer that makes all the Disney posters/prints you find in most of the stores and parks, etc. - Gee, guess what section of the book I was browsing through!) when the owner came up and said "oh, are you a Disney collector?" 
That started the conversation rolling, and before I knew it, I was telling her that two years ago, I had one of my pieces accepted by Disney to sell... long long story short (right, Donna?
) I had signed the contract, but never got a purchase order from marketing prior to the contract expiring (and never got paid, so I was not legally obliged to produce the work for them, and I still retain ownership of the print... etc.) which really peaked her interest. Before I knew it, Brian was back with my portfolio, she loved the pieces I had in it, and she had asked me to take part in the showcase! Phew! 
The great thing about this showcase is that all the work will be for sale, and the Bag Factory is only charging the artists a 15% commission... most places take much more, and there's no additional charges to the artists participating! Yea! It's all starting to fall into place! 
And I have you guys to thank... especially Donna, for believing in me, and Lauri, whose kind words this past week here on the boards made me realize that I really can do this sort of thing for a living! Thank you, all!!!!
Anyway, gotta go run out and take lots of pictures today! (I just had to share this with all of my fantastic friends here at the Dis!)
Sandy (and Brian, Bonnie & Kellie, too!)
The Bag Factory is a local retail shopping area that is a refurbished late-1800s bag factory (duh, huh?) and they will be having the artwork from various local artists on display from November through January. The highlight weekend, however, will be Nov. 12 - 14, when they are holding their 7th Annual Renaissance Faire (I'm told they've had between 5000 and 7000 people attending the faire in the past!) It was a sort of spur-of-the-moment thing... Brian and I drove over to Goshen to check on prices for printing some of my work out (larger scale than I can here at home) and the printer loved my work. Even though he can't currently help me out, he said "why don't you go over to the Bag Factory and see if there are any stores there that could sell your current work." So we did... and there's a gallery over there that I didn't know existed!
Originally, I was just going to "case the joint" and get an idea about what they carry (it's a framing store and gallery combined) and so I was just paging through a Bruce McGaw prints book (they're the printer that makes all the Disney posters/prints you find in most of the stores and parks, etc. - Gee, guess what section of the book I was browsing through!) when the owner came up and said "oh, are you a Disney collector?" That started the conversation rolling, and before I knew it, I was telling her that two years ago, I had one of my pieces accepted by Disney to sell... long long story short (right, Donna?
) I had signed the contract, but never got a purchase order from marketing prior to the contract expiring (and never got paid, so I was not legally obliged to produce the work for them, and I still retain ownership of the print... etc.) which really peaked her interest. Before I knew it, Brian was back with my portfolio, she loved the pieces I had in it, and she had asked me to take part in the showcase! Phew! The great thing about this showcase is that all the work will be for sale, and the Bag Factory is only charging the artists a 15% commission... most places take much more, and there's no additional charges to the artists participating! Yea! It's all starting to fall into place!
And I have you guys to thank... especially Donna, for believing in me, and Lauri, whose kind words this past week here on the boards made me realize that I really can do this sort of thing for a living! Thank you, all!!!!
Anyway, gotta go run out and take lots of pictures today! (I just had to share this with all of my fantastic friends here at the Dis!)
Sandy (and Brian, Bonnie & Kellie, too!)
