Reflecting on my First Booth Experience

The Oro Valley Fall Foodie, Art & Wine Festival was a ton of fun and a learned so much from the experience. I connected with several other artists near me and got to experience customers vibing with my style in real-time.

The location gives artists two parking spaces to work with around their required 10x10 booth. It was neat to see how I could use that extra space to my advantage. I had a southern-facing space, which limited me a bit in how I wanted to present myself in the booth. I struggled with the heat and sun a bit the first day but then figured out how to adjust my set up for the second day so I could get more shade, more breeze, and free up room to get some art done as well. It meant I was a little further back from the flow of traffic than I would have liked, but I still found engagement this way.

While I didn't make a lot of sales, I did truly enjoy the folks who stopped by to absorb the pieces and comment on them. My paint smooshing technique on Fish Refraction got a lot of attention. And the Pride Kintsugi series drew in quite a few folks as well.

One moment really crystallized something for me, though.

A somewhat harried older couple was all but speed-running the lane in front of me, clearly on some kind of shopping mission. The wife looked at Cartwheel Progression and said, "What about that one?" She stopped, giving it a closer look (and giving me the sense that they were looking for larger art pieces for some reason). Then she asked her husband, already a booth beyond us, "Too much color?" At this, the husband stopped and took a look at the piece. (It should be noted that I was pretty much right in front of it, you can see it right behind my shoulder in the picture above.) He said, "Yeah, too much color." And the couple moved on.

I didn't really feel too flustered by the experience, though there's always a sting in any kind of rejection, and it was a little odd to be fully ignored in this fairly public process involving my art. Instead, I remember looking around my booth after that comment. "Too much color." Indeed, I like bright colors, bold colors. I don't have an issue with negative space, but I don't tend to lean very hard on it. I like my art to have a sense of vibrant movement to it. That off-hand dismissal of a piece that wasn't right for that particular need made me focus in on aspects of my style that I hadn't really considered.

One of the things I've learned as I grow my business is that you should develop a real sense of who your ideal customer is. A lot of this business-speak is often rooted in things like understanding their average income or typical hobbies, etc., to find ways to connect your product to a various need they might have. However, I hadn't really thought of my "ideal customer" in terms of the sort of art style they might prefer.

So thanks, random festival couple, for helping me realize that my ideal customer is someone who wants bold, vibrant abstract art.