Dallas Show ‘Outstanding’
Despite Bad Weather

xhibitors at the fifth annual Art on the Square gave generally high marks to this event presented in April by the Southlake Women’s Club in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. “Despite two days of heavy rain [our booth got leveled for the first time in nine years], sales were outstanding!” reports BJ Guderian of the Bead Queen in Colville, Wash. Guderian and her husband, Ross, exhibit their jewelry at craft shows around the country. “We can’t say enough good things about this show: very educated crowd, extremely upscale, an incredibly accommodating promoter and well-organized.”

Retail prices for the work of artists responding to our show survey ranged as high as $8,000. Only one exhibitor reported sales down from previous years at this event. Sandy Moran of Genesis Designs in Carrollton, Texas, has been in business fulltime for 32 years and this was her third time at Art on the Square. “I had somewhat lower sales this year,” says Moran. Retail prices for Moran’s collage jackets, dresses and pillows range in price from $150 to about $600.

Chandelier by Russell Voss.

Kimberly Norris of Norris Pottery in Keller, Texas, says this show gets better for her each year. “The people that put on the Art on the Square festival have worked year after year to keep the standards high and the artists happy,” says Norris who was at the show for the third year. “They do a wonderful job on both.”

Norris, in business fulltime for seven years, sells her work at retail prices as high as $450 through five galleries in Texas, including two in Fort Worth. She also sells at Norris Pottery in North Richland Hills, Texas, and on her Web site.

Award-winning artist Guiteau Lanque of Rose-Lanque Art Studio in Houston, Texas, reported sales of the painted, handcast paper collages created with his wife, Elaine, were up from their previous three years at this show. “This was a very profitable show for us,” she says. “Our retail prices range from $65 to $3,100.”

Lanque, a native of Haiti frequently uses African geometric symbols in his work and the couple has collectors around the world as a result of participating in the International Artexpo in New York. They received the 2004 Award of Excellence at Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce show in Fairhope, Alaska, and the 2001 Mixed Media Award from the Flint [Michigan] Friends of Modern Art.

Work by Kimberly Norris

Mitch and Shannon Berg of Wired Glass in Santa Fe, N.M., were first-time exhibitors at the Texas show in 2004. “This has become one of our favorite shows,” says Mitch Berg. “I hope we get invited back!”

In fulltime business for two years, Berg sells his work through galleries and does about 12 retail shows a year. “I thought the quality of the people buying [at Art on the Square] was high,” he says. “They were very knowledgeable and appreciative.”

Another first-time exhibitor who made sales at the show was Russell Voss of R.T. Glass Works in Fayetteville, Ark. In business fulltime for five years, Voss’ hand-blown and solid form glassworks retail for as high as $280 at the approximately 20 shows he does each year with his apprentice-wife. Voss also sells his work through galleries, but is not selling online and does not have a Web site for showing his work.

Mary E. Petzak is the editor of The Crafts Report. Artists BJ and Ross Guderian of Colville, Wash., contributed to this report.

---