Saturday, March 21, 2009

Yet another delima....

Okay, so as you may or may not know, I have an art show coming up. It's not for a while so I have some time to prepare, but first I must decide what to prepare.
I'm taking the smallest section of the place (front wall) and I'm tempted to do strictly photography this time around.
Photography looks really nice in the front section, but, is it worth it? The price of prints of a larger than standard size is pretty high, and framing cost for said prints are even higher. 8x10 prints and frames are more reasonable but how high a price point is reasonable for an 8x10 print? In the first show I charged $50 (included a frame and mat) and I sold a reasonable amount of them, but, didn't make a huge profit.
I could do strictly 8x10 prints at a higher price point, say $75, and that would make it more worth while, as I could display a lot of them. (although it could be I only sold so many at the first show because of the great price point) I could do less quantity of a large size, hoping that they will sell and potentially lose the cost of printing and framing (not to mention then being stuck with large photos that will make me angry whenever I see them because they cost so much to produce and didn't sell). Or, I could do a mix of the two, say maybe three large ones and the rest small. And still hope the large ones sell at that price point (undecided as of yet) while having the small ones there that are more likely to sell (because they are cheaper and it's close to Christmas) But then how could I decide which ones to make big? Also can I really justify the initial investment? I'm very confused and conflicted.
There's also the other choice, displaying painting, but the truth is I have only done one painting since the last show, it's not finished yet, and it's not really thrilling. All the good stuff from my last show has been put up around the house and by this point I don't really want to part with it.
So What to do? What to do?
Any thoughts or advice anyone has would be appreciated.....

2 comments:

Rosemary Cottage said...

Go with your heart: display your photographs in a way that shows them off to the fullest extent and gives them the space they need. Art is beyond financial gain, and all that.

OR

Go with your wallet. You've got a holiday in Niagara falls to make up for!

Jenn Waugh's Blog said...

hey, there is a sale on assortment of frames where you don't need a mat at craft plave desours (i've spelt it wrong but it's in the yonge & eglinton area you get 5 frames for 19.95 + tax they are a compliment of different sizes may help with the costs. I have 3 boxes here so when you come tomorrow you can check them out..