Getting gigs and selling your art on the road

[Anton]

We are starting to travel this year as performers from Texas to Wisconsin. We just bought a 96 Jayco class c with 80,000 miles on it and have never RV before so we have a lot to learn.

We have 3 small stage shows for schools, libraries, park districts, and etc. My wife is a ballet teacher and I'm an artist.

As a performer and artist how do you like it? Where do you find work/gigs/art sales?

[vjkahler]

Welcome!

You might want to check out the Xscapers group, part of the Escapees. They are younger, full-time rvers who work on the road in many different types of businesses.

https://www.escapees.com/community/xscapers/

I think the majority of us here are retired, or almost retired. There are not too many threads here about finding work on the road, I don't think.

Good luck in your endeavors!

[Anton]

Originally Posted by vjkahler

Welcome!

You might want to check out the Xscapers group, part of the Escapees. They are younger, full-time rvers who work on the road in many different types of businesses.

https://www.escapees.com/community/xscapers/

I think the majority of us here are retired, or almost retired. There are not too many threads here about finding work on the road, I don't think.

Good luck in your endeavors!

Thank you!

I will check this out.

[Whirrlly]

Also exploring festivals and carnivals would be a decent outlet for art show sales and possible work for your performance shows. At a local carnival, they had a pirate doing magic shows for everyone. His trailer was in the back ball field and he travelled around doing gigs. He looked like he so enjoyed his life. At that same small town carnival were craft sale booths, homemade jewelry, wood art, and other art vendors. Might be a possibility for you. Easy to google 'the state you want plus festivals'....like we would google NC Festivals and all are listed with locations and vendor contacts and more. When we travel I hit it to see what is in the area I am travelling, like TN Festivals, or VA Festivals. Gives great info on possible venues for you guys.

Not sure if this helps but throwing it out for you

[Anton]

Thank you!

That does help and we appreciate you taking the time to respond.

We are going to do also Etsy and promote to the schools we will traveling to.

There are so many fairs that you almost like you said travel to the area and what's happening. It will take us a couple of years before we build a route.

Thank you!

[Hit_the_Rhod]

We've been using RV's for the past 7 years and traveling in conjunction with our business. My wife and I create metal sculptures, some small, some large, all different types.

We aren't knowledgeable in the performing arts at all as I livelihood however.

On picking shows, a lot of it is word of mouth from fellow artists. It's amazing how much help we have received from other artist on recommendations for shows, ideas on booth setup etc. Some people might think that it would be competition, taking from away from their bottom line if they help someone else to be successful, but that's not the typical artist we have run into.

On developing a "circuit" for traveling, a lot depends on your artwork.

• Is your art something that you can create/replenish while on the road?
• Does your artwork require a fixed base because of equipment/processes?
• Can you carry a sufficient amount of work to do multiple shows if they are successful?
• Can you also carry your booth, panels, display items, lighting, etc as well as your artwork? (for you, you can likely utilize components of your stages in your art booth setup, unless you would be utilizing both at the same time.
• Does your artwork show better with artificial lighting than natural? (might need a small generator to use when allowed)

There are websites available that rate shows in different areas of the country. Just because a show wins the "beauty contest" in the application, and makes money for the organizers, doesn't mean it will be successful for the artists. Ratings by FELLOW ARTISTS are worth more than ratings by show promoters, etc. Show promoter will advertise things like "last years traffic was between 55,000 and 60,000!" with absolutely NO basis for that figure except that the show one town over stated that THEY had foot traffic of 40,000! Lots of false information out there as well. Much of it perpetuated by show organizers and promoters.



Anyway, if you give us a little more information about your artwork, ideas, we may be able to help you out more. Good luck!

Attached is a shameless plug for one of our most recent, although large pieces!

[cwk]

Originally Posted by Hit_the_Rhod

• Does your artwork show better with artificial lighting than natural? (might need a small generator to use when allowed)

Depending on how much light you need, it may be do-able with a 12VDC battery and some 12VDC LED lighting. There are different color temperature LED's (warm, daylight, etc.) as well as different brightness levels (measured in lumens). They also come in different shapes (strips, bulbs, etc.) So, a bit of research and trial-and-error may find the best. This would eliminate the noisy generator.

For recharging the battery, you may be able to use a small battery charger plugged into your RV, or maybe more directly to 12VDC. (Personally, I do not know how to do the latter. Maybe someone else can help there if you decide to go that route.) You could charge the battery after show hours, or while driving, etc.

Or, if your RV is parked adjacent to your display area, you might be able to simply use the RV batteries directly.

If you think about it, many of us RV'rs are changing the bulbs in our RV's to LED to save power when we are only using the batteries. Lighting your artwork would be another possible application for a battery and LED's.

One source for LED lighting that I have been using is: superbrightleds.com

There are other good ones as well.

[twogypsies]

Very nice art, Hit The Rhod! What do you use for transporting your studio?

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

Very nice art, Hit The Rhod! What do you use for transporting your studio?

We normally don't take large pieces on the road with us. We tow a GMC Canyon which will carry our display tent, pro panels, pedestals, lighting, chairs, desk and artwork to set up an outside booth.

We have LOTS of room under the coach to store items to restock (hopefully).

Attached are a few other pieces we've done.

[Anton]

Wow! Thank you for all of the information.

I paint, sculpt, draw, and carve. My wife creates anything Fairy related and bubble wands.

Currently I'm working with vegetable Ivory that are about 1 in to 2 in. Take a long time to create the pieces.

So I'm looking to go the drawing and painting route. As I can do this rather quickly and love drawing nature from my photography. I will be able to reproduce these and hand watercolor them.

My large clay sculpture I do is very heavy and we will not have the rig to carry it. So I'm looking for a more portable at form.

Love you work! Is it hard to create such heavy pieces on the road.

Anton

[Anton]

What do you think? https://pin.it/fapjk4w7mbocd3

[Anton]

Originally Posted by Hit_the_Rhod

We've been using RV's for the past 7 years and traveling in conjunction with our business. My wife and I create metal sculptures, some small, some large, all different types.

We aren't knowledgeable in the performing arts at all as I livelihood however.

On picking shows, a lot of it is word of mouth from fellow artists. It's amazing how much help we have received from other artist on recommendations for shows, ideas on booth setup etc. Some people might think that it would be competition, taking from away from their bottom line if they help someone else to be successful, but that's not the typical artist we have run into.

On developing a "circuit" for traveling, a lot depends on your artwork.

• Is your art something that you can create/replenish while on the road?
• Does your artwork require a fixed base because of equipment/processes?
• Can you carry a sufficient amount of work to do multiple shows if they are successful?
• Can you also carry your booth, panels, display items, lighting, etc as well as your artwork? (for you, you can likely utilize components of your stages in your art booth setup, unless you would be utilizing both at the same time.
• Does your artwork show better with artificial lighting than natural? (might need a small generator to use when allowed)

There are websites available that rate shows in different areas of the country. Just because a show wins the "beauty contest" in the application, and makes money for the organizers, doesn't mean it will be successful for the artists. Ratings by FELLOW ARTISTS are worth more than ratings by show promoters, etc. Show promoter will advertise things like "last years traffic was between 55,000 and 60,000!" with absolutely NO basis for that figure except that the show one town over stated that THEY had foot traffic of 40,000! Lots of false information out there as well. Much of it perpetuated by show organizers and promoters.



Anyway, if you give us a little more information about your artwork, ideas, we may be able to help you out more. Good luck!

Attached is a shameless plug for one of our most recent, although large pieces!

https://pin.it/fapjk4w7mbocd3

[Anton]

Originally Posted by Hit_the_Rhod

We normally don't take large pieces on the road with us. We tow a GMC Canyon which will carry our display tent, pro panels, pedestals, lighting, chairs, desk and artwork to set up an outside booth.

We have LOTS of room under the coach to store items to restock (hopefully).

Attached are a few other pieces we've done.

I work in different mediums.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Anton, Absolutely AWESOME work! Looks like you have the same problem that we do though.

People have often told us we need to pick a specific type of work (for example horses) and concentrate pretty much solely on that . . . . but that would make it seem more like work, and production stuff, and we really don't have any interest in making stuff for the SOLE purpose of making the most money possible. At this point in our lives we want to what WE want to do, as varied and different as the roads we drive!

Now the bad news. For many shows, especially high end shows, the jury process rewards entries that show a "cohesive body of work" (read BORING) IMHO. The show organizers want variety by going from booth to booth, NOT from what is present in ONE booth. Possibly a better marketing approach, but did I mention that we would get BORED?!?

You've got to figure out what works best for you. Sometimes that will mean making lots of different pieces, but just showing a specific selection of similar items at different shows. I will agree that when we have "rusty yard art" in the same display as an expensive very involved pieces, the "right kind of shoes" may be inclined to walk past the booth instead of come in and look at the really expensive piece. It's all marketing. If I knew all the answers, I'd stop creating artwork, write a book and go full time RV'ing!