December is challenging for me. I have to buy birthday presents and Christmas presents for my wife. That’s hard.
It’s not that Leslie is particularly demanding. She’s not. But I’d like to get her something she really likes and I have a hard time deciding what that might be. I could ask her but that seems like cheating to me. It doesn’t really feel like a gift to me if I just buy what I’m told to. Where’s the fun in that?
So I try to guess. And, though I’ve had a couple of winners over our 30 years together, I completely miss the boat often enough.
See, I can’t read minds.
You may think you need to read the minds of our jury to choose the images to submit with your application. And I bet you’re not any better at it than I am. What do those crazy people on the jury really look for, anyway?
Here’s what I think.
We want our festival to reflect high quality and be diverse in offerings. It’s the job of the jury to help us make the choices necessary do that. No surprise there.
But we also want to make sure that your work fits the tastes of our patrons. We know you won’t come back if you don’t sell your work. We know our visitors won’t come back if they don’t see the kind of work they like.
So we need to be partners in this deal. We want to keep going. We want to be known as a festival worth attending, both for artists and patrons. You want to make money. We both get what we want when you get what you want.
So here’s how I’d suggest you make the choice of images to submit.
Don’t try to guess what the jury wants. Just pick the best representative samples of your work. You don’t have to read anyone’s mind. Think about the kind of work your customers praise (and buy). Better yet, ask your best customers what they love about your work. Send that.
If you do that, we’ll know how you’re good: your loyal followers wouldn’t buy bad art. And we’ll be able to do a fair assessment of whether our patrons match your work.
No mind reading required.
Applications close April 10, 2012. Get yours in early. Go to zapplication.org now.
